@Billen Ben said:
The OC could always pass a by-law to protect the EC.This is the worst by-law my SP has.
CLAUSE 22 IndemnitiesTHAT every member for the time being of the Executive Committee of the owners corporation shall be indemnified by the owners corporation out of its funds and assets against personal liability for the acts, receipts, neglects or defaults of any other member of the Executive Committee or of any managing agent or for any loss or liability occasioned to the owners corporation by any error of judgement or oversight on his part or for any loss, damage or misfortune whatever which shall happen during the course of the execution of the duties of his office or in relation thereto AND shall be further indemnified in similar manner against any liability incurred by him in defending any proceedings, whether criminal or civil, in respect of any such act, receipt, neglect, default, error or oversight to the extent that Effective office bearers indemnity insurance covers members of the executive committee of SP*****.
I think that there is a layering of laws here… Like a deck of cards, with the upper cards taking precedence. Anything written in a by-law means diddly squat if a council law overules it. Likewise, state law (the NSW strata management Act for exampe) trumps council law, federal trumps state and common trumps federal.
(I might be mixing up a couple of them)
Either way, no by-law means anything if common law says that if you knew that something was dangerous, had an obligation to address it as an EC member and did nothing… you are accountable, and can go to prison for it! Your owners should be made aware of that, or you should at least be getting your requests for axction minuted in ECM’s so that you are in the clear?
And maybe you should be showing them the exclusion clauses in your insurance policies to cement the info in their minds. Get that minuted as well, clearly explaining that they are personally accountable if they breach OH&S/SMA/Common law rulings and laws… Once that is minuted and documented, you may see a miraculous change of attitude… It happened with our EC when I pointed out that if they proceeded with their lack of action on a safety issue, and an accident ensued resulting in a $5 million law suit, that they would be both uninsured and held personally liable for the suit…