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Ncat ruled that the owners corporation had to fix mould problems. Owners corporation ignore the order. Now it’s going to another directions meeting and OC are sending their lawyers. We are still living in mould. We have had engineers reports stating the problem and the fix. NCAT keep giving them more time. We can’t afford lawyers. Just want to sell and get out. But need the mould problem fixed which is caused by drainage barrier breakdown on common property. Do we need to hire expensive lawyers? It’s been 18 months at NCAT.
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First of all, it would be worth talking to an experienced strata lawyer, if only to find out where you stand.
Regarding the OC’s “plan” to bring lawyers into the issue, this is a classic Trumpian tactic to scare people off.
I can’t offer legal advice but in your situation, I would be writing to all the owners in the building telling them the following:
- There is a problem with common property that has caused mould in our apartment.
- The NCAT Tribunal ruled 18 months ago that the Owners Corproation (all of us) are legally obliged to fix it.
- In NSW Owners Corporations (all of us) have a legal duty to maintain and repair common property (SSMA Section 9(3)(c).
- Now your strata committee are planning to hire expensive lawyers to fight a clear-cut ruling against them.
- When they lose (as they almost certainly will) YOU will probaly have to pay the Owners Corporation’s legal costs as a special levy, from which we will be exempt (SSMA Section 90 (2) and (3).
- That’s right – the Tribunal can rule that everybody else has to pay for the lawyers but we won’t.
- We will all still have to pay our share of the cost of the repairs. But you may very well also have to pay all the costs of a failed legal challenge.
- If the Tribunal rules that the committee delayed proceedings unnecessarily or had a hopless case and knew it, you will probably have to pay all our costs too.
- You can stop this now if enough people call for an Extraordinary General Meeting and instruct the committee to stop delaying this, stop wasting your money on lawyers, and get on with the repairs that they can’t avoid.
- And at the next AGM election, you might consider whether you want the people who got you into this mess to continue on the committee.
As I say, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice but that is exactly what I would do in your shoes.
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