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Hi, I bought into a block of 12 apartments about 18 months ago, knowing the the gardens weren’t all that tidy and for the most part are simply patches of dirt.
I want to do some work to ‘lift’ the amenity/appearance of the gardens but not sure what I am allowed to do considering it is common property. Do i need to get consensus from the OC? There is no active committee as there is less then 13 units, and no one attends the AGM (I missed this years too!)
I feel that the the OC Manager wants to do the least amount of work possible, and suggests that we put it too a mail ballot too see if anyone else wants to do anything but the status quo. I think this is a diversionary tactic on his part, to get out of actually organising any work… and/or coming in with a quote that is too high that nothing gets done as a result…
Can i perform work myself and pass and incurred charges (not labour costs, just materials/plants/soil etc) back to the OC…is there a sub-limit of me simply doing the work, and sending the receipts in?
We are moving decorative gardens stones from the front yard of one of our other investment properties and want to transplant them to the common property of this block…at no charge (except trailer hire) to the OC, but want to know if this kind of work would be allowed. As i mentioned, the gardens are mostly dustbowls, these stones would at least give the impression that someone is taking care of the grounds…
And, somewhat related…if I put down these stones…am I in anyway liable should someone trip/fall/injure themselves as a result of the stones being put in the garden…
I’m in Melboure btw…
Many Thanks for any advice
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With only 12 owners, perhaps you can enlist enough of them to help do the work. Certainly, with so few owners, you should be able to talk to many of them face to face or phone them if non-resident.
Option 1 might be to do some work, buy some plants and do it at your own expense and effort. I would only do this if you have at least a few of those 12 owners on side and helping out with labour and the cost of some plants. Then you could probably not worry about the few who might be non-resident or not interested. Perhaps work on one corner initially rather than scaring people by suddenly appearing to take over everything.
Option 2 might be as above but formalised by finding enough other owners to call a general meeting and formally make a decision to spruce up the grounds and make a call on the general maintenance component that you probably have in the budget to get started. Perhaps there is a maintenance amount that is not being spent? Do you have an EC at all or was everything handed over to the agent?
Option 3 might be to wait for the next AGM and propose an increased amount in the budget for grounds maintenance and improvements.
Once again, I find myself suggesting you tell the EC they can do this the easy way, or the hard way.
The easy way is that they approve a budget for the gardening works and allow you to do the work. You will supply them with receipts for any purchases and you will sign a document indemnifying them for any OHS issues.
The hard way is that you will apply to the CTTT for an order against them to force them to maintain the common property as is their legal duty under section 62 of the Act:
62 What are the duties of an owners corporation to maintain and repair property?
(1) An owners corporation must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
(2) An owners corporation must renew or replace any fixtures or fittings comprised in the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
(3) This clause does not apply to a particular item of property if the owners corporation determines by special resolution that:
(a) it is inappropriate to maintain, renew, replace or repair the property, and
(b) its decision will not affect the safety of any building, structure or common property in the strata scheme or detract from the appearance of any property in the strata scheme.
Note section 3B which spells out that the appearance of common property is a significant issue in the obligation to maintain and repair and says that the owners Corp can’t decide not to do work if that means the appearance is negatively affected.
Realistically, I would offer lots of carrot before I reached for the stick. But I’d pull it out the moment I saw any signs that your very generous offer was heading towards the ‘too-hard” basket. A little gentle lobbying before you present your proposal – make the EC members feel important – will go a long way.
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