In answer to whale 7/5/14
I will have to type the whole thing.
Introduction:
The owners or their predecessors altered the common property by installing attic staircases without the approval of the OC or council. The objects of this by-law are to give the owners the right to retain their attic staircases on certain conditions and to give the OC the right to require the attic staircases be removed if the owners do not comply with these conditions.
In this by-law:
1 “attic staircases means the timber staircases in the lots and partly on the adjacent common property which are shown in photographs and provide means of access from the ground floor levels of the lots the attic levels of the lots, and the balustrades and the posts;
2 “attic staircase spaces” means so much of the common property as is occupied by the works including the attic staircases”
Lots mean 2, 2, 4 & 5 in sp…
“owners” mean current owners of the lots.
“posts” means the load bearing support posts which run from the floor to the ceiling on the ground floor level os some of the lots and lie adjacent to the attic staircases in those lots some of which are shown in some of the photographs and all other structural elements of the attic staircases.
“works” means the alterations and additions to the lots and adjacent common property in the installation of the attic staircases including the making of openings, or enlarged openings, in the ceilings on the ground floor levels of the lots and through the floors on the attic levels of the lots to provide access to those attic levels.
3 Special Privileges & Exclusive Use Rights
The OC:
(a) Consents to the attic staircases
(b) confers on the owners special privileges in respect of the attic staircase spaces to permit the attic staircases to remain on common property.
© grants the owner a right of exclusive use and enjoyment of their attic stairway spaces.
4 Conditions:
(a) Quality of the Works
The owners must ensure that the works were carried out in a proper and workmanlike manner utilising only first quality materials which were good and suitable for the purpose for which they were used.
(b) Building Code of Australia
The owners mud ensure that their attic staircases comply with the applicable provisions of the Building Code of Australia, and any applicable Australian Standards.
© Maintenance of the Attic Staircases
The owners must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the works and their attic staircases and, where necessary, renew or replace any fixture or fittings comprised int he works and their attic staircases.
(d) ditto
(e) Repair of Damage
The owners must make good any damage to the common property caused by or as a result of the works in accordance with any reasonable directions given by the OC. Despite the foregoing, the OC may make good any damage to the common property caused by or as a result of the works and, if it does, may recover as a debt due from the owner the costs of making good the damage and the expenses of the owners corporation incurred in recovering those costs.
(f) Engineer’s Certificate
The owners must, within one month of the date of the meeting at which this by-law is made, give the OC a certificate or report from a qualified structural engineer addressed to the OC certifying that the works and attic staircases are structurally adequate and have not affect the structural integrity of the building or any part of it.
(g) Local Council Approvals
The owners must within three months of the date of the meeting at which this by-law is made, obtain either development consent to, or a building certificate for, the works and their attic staircase under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The OC must consent to and execute any development application submitted to it by the owners for that purpose and must not unreasonably refuse to consent to the owners carrying out any works of a minor nature in order to comply with any development consent conditions or obtain a building certificate.
(h) Indemnity
The owners will indemnify and keep indemnified the OC against all actions, proceedings, claims, demands, costs, damages and expenses which may be incurred by or brought or made against the OC arising out of the works, any damage to the common property caused by or as a result of the works, the altered state, condition or use of the lots or common property arising from the works or any breach of this by-law.
(i) Compliance with all Laws
The owners must comply with all statutes, by-laws, regulations, rules and other laws for the time being in force and which are applicable to the works and their attic staircases and the requirements of the local council concerning the works or their attic staircases including notice or orders issued by the local council.
5 Several Obligations
The rights and obligations conferred and imposed on the owners by and under this by-law are conferred and imposed on each owner separately, and are not conferred an imposed on the owners jointly, to the intent that an owner will not have any rights in respect of, and will be responsible for any obligations impose on another owner concerning, an attic staircase that is located in another lot or the works for that attic staircase
6 Breach of this By-Law
(a) If an owner breaches any condition of this by-law and fails to rectify that breach within the 30 days (or such greater period specified by the OC) of service of a written notice from the OC requiring rectification of that breach, the the OC may:
(i) (A) rectify that breach
(B) enter on any part of the strata scheme including the lot, by its agents,
employees or contractors, in accordance with the Strata Scheme Management Act 1996 for the purpose of rectifying the that breach; and
© recover as a debt due from the owner the costs of the rectification and the expenses of the OC incurred in recovering those costs: and/or
(ii) (A) serve a written notice on the owner:
Terminating the owner’s rights under this by -law; and
(B) requiring the owner to remove the whole or any part of the owners’s
attic staircase and reinstate the whole or any part of the owner’s lot
and common property to the condition they were in before the works.
(b) If the OC serves on an owner a written notice referred to in clause 6 (a) (ii) above, the the owner’s rights under this by-law shall terminate on the date of service of that notice, irrespective of whether this by-law remains on the folio of the Register for the common property.
© Nothing in this clause 6 restricts the rights of or the remedies available to the OC as a consequence of a breach of this by-law.
3 Motion to Remove Attic Staircase
On the condition that the previous motion to make Special By-law No 1 – Attic Staircase is defeated, the the OC RESOLVES to write to the owners of lots 1, 2, 4 and 5 and require them for with remove the attic staircases in those lots and to reinstate the lots and the adjacent common property to the condition they were in before the attic staircases were installed and to give the strata managing agent authority to write to those owners accordingly.
Summary:
The staircases to lots 1, 2 & 5 were installed by the developer. I saw all this my file at council. Council will not verify what I saw even though I made an application for a copy of the Consent Approval on 23rd April 2014.
Discovered yesterday the ladders were intended to all lots. The ladder is on the plan for my villa that council recently gave to my engineer.
I was hoping that the Building Surveyor would confirm in writing what he saw in my file at council. I think he has backed off.
I do not have a solicitor. My past experience with a very expensive strata solicitor had no effect. No outcome. No one even replied to his emails/letters.
There are three owners who will not be signing this by-law, we all have staircases.
The other owner with the staircase is in a very dire situation as well.
My staircase does not need work. But it is too steep to pass council or whatever regulations. It is the floor above that has sagged through lack of proper support beams to hold the stairs. It does not need to go to council.
I had decided that I would pay for an engineer and builder to effect the repair. But after this incredible legal notice. There is no way I/we would sign and indemnity.
I wil have to put smily. Woe is me.
Janet