jezzie – the very first thing that your Owners Corporation (O/C) needs to do, like right now, is write to the Auction Agent to formally advise that alterations to both the lot and to the common property (include known details) have been undertaken by the current Proprietor without the prior consent of the O/C, that the matter is currently before the NSW Administrative and Appeals Tribunal (NCAT), and that unless an appropriate Special By-Law is Registered prior to settlement then the O/C requires any future Proprietor to at their expense to restore the common property to its pre-renovation state.
You may want to obtain some legal assistance with the drafting of the above; perhaps have your E/C Secretary or Strata Manager contact one of FlatChat’s sponsors HERE.
If the applications for mediation and adjudication have been submitted to the NCAT (of which the former CTTT is a part), then I’d let those take their course whilst whatever it is that the renovating Proprietors have proposed in their draft Special By-Law is being given careful consideration by the Executive Committee and the Strata Manager.
Clearly I’m unaware of what Special By-Laws are already in place at your Plan or what it is that these Proprietors have drafted, but I’ll assume that no Special By-Law of relevance is in place, and that as the first thing that the “renovators” need to do is to write to the O/C formally agreeing to be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of everything that they’ve renovated and/or changed and/or added to, I’m wondering if it’s that letter that you’re referring to (?).
If it is, once that letter is received by the O/C an appropriate Special By-Law (SBL) can be drafted to incorporate that provision and anything else that the O/C determines, such as the “renovators” payment for the costs of the necessary General Meeting to consider and vote on the SBL, for the drafting and Registration of the SBL, and perhaps an annual payment to the O/C by the current and all future Proprietors of the lot to account for any increased value due to the renovations and common property changes that aren’t reflected in its current units of entitlement / levies.
It’s extremely important for the SBL to be properly drafted, as once done it can’t be undone without the written consent of the then Proprietor of the lot, and YES it needs to be worded to apply to all future Proprietors to avoid the O/C becoming responsible for everything renovated post the upcoming Auction.
That’s why in order to be legal any SBL needs to be consented to by ≥75% of Proprietors present both personally and by proxy at a General Meeting, with that percentage being determined from the units of entitlement (UOE) of those voting and the aggregate UOE for the Strata Plan, and be Registered on the Strata Title by NSW Land & Property Information (inc. the former Land Titles Office).
So as you’ll see, there are quite a few hoops for these “renovators” and the O/C to jump through – and that’s why that advice to the Auction Agent needs to be provided quickly.