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I have been accused in the past of being unfair to the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal. Considering I have described them as clowns and their processes as ‘chocolate wheel decision-making’, their complaints may be justified.
The CTTT is where you go to resolve problems in your strata building when the obligatory mediation at Fair Trading fails.
Your initial presentation is done on paper – an adjudicator looks at all the facts in writing and then issues a ruling.
If either side is unhappy, you go to a full hearing where you may be lucky and get someone who understands how strata works.
Or you could get a time-server who decides he or she is going rewrite the law on the fly. Hence the ‘chocolate wheel’ comment.
The great hope offered by the CTTT was its intention to be a low-cost, lawyer-free common sense purveyor of simple solutions to tricky strata problems.
It’s great failing has been that it has evolved into a daunting and illogical tangle of loose legal interpretation and rigid rules, where anyone who thinks of pursuing a case without professional advice needs their head examined.
Strata residents who’ve been verbally abused and threatened with violence have been denied a hearing because they’ve left one piece of paper at home.
Meanwhile serial complainers drive strata owners insane and suck their buildings’ funds dry, because the CTTT can’t find a way of not being used as a weapon with which the permanently disgruntled can bully their neighbours.
Frustratingly, the CTTT is allowed to award costs in cases of vexatious complaints (and only then) but they almost never do.
But at last there’s a chance to do something about this. The Law And Justice Committee of the State Parliament’s Legislative Council is looking at various tribunals, including the CTTT, with a view to changing the way they work and possibly merging them.
You’ve got until November 25 to make submissions about your experiences and opinions of the CTTT. Phone Rachel Callinan on 9230 2976 or go HERE where you’ll find links to all the information you need.
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