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[Jimmy-T]

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.

If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.

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[Strata Plan of 4 by the beach]

Whale & Struggler

 

Thanks for your posts, it can be very frustrating at times & rightly or wrongly, I have now learned to ‘play the game’ & will do so accordingly to achieve the outcomes I want however I note these desired outcomes are all being fair & equitable & not disadvantaging any other parties.

 

The people whom taught me what I can & cannot get away with were critically problematic owners & while the strata system allowed me to address their many breaches & forced them to remedy many of their wrong doings, they also got away with a lot for the flimsy of reasons & the most ridiculous rationales from hearing rulings – eg they were allowed to keep common property & include it as part of their lot (despite it being clearly depicted on the strata plan as common property & all the wiring etc supporting this & the guy who drew the plan confirming in writing he did NOT make a mistake etc, etc, etc) because – wait for it … THEY RENOVATED IT DRAMATICALLY OVER THE YEARS so they get to keep it – what!?!? … during these ‘years’ of renovation we were disputing this & contstantly liasing with the managing agent & OFT & CTTT … it took them so long to address it (tried a statutory appointment of a compulsory strata manager who mediated with the owner for years etc).

 

There are also instances of fraud (forging other owners signatures), sending tradespeople away whom have been authorised to do work at the property, unauthorised changes to the outward appearance of the building, assault & battery on common property, mail theft, harassment, abuse, attempts to change the strata plan withou the knowledge of other owners, vandalism of other owners private property, preventing other residents from washing & drying clothes, verbal abuse of propsective tenants, death threats & the list goes on & on like a bad movie.  You might be thinking “But what did YOU do to invite all this?”  All we did was ask them when we moved in, to please not park in front of our garage & to please remove their personal possessions from the common laundry so we could install our machines & that we did not want to sell them our garage.

 

Despite my disappointment & disullusion, I am somewhat ‘stuck in strata’ – by choice – as I have sunk so much time, energy & money into this property for the very reason that I am not leaving – ever – excellent location & I own 2 of the 4 units & have plans to own more in the future … I’m just noting that if I had my time again, I would not consider strata living.

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[Strata Plan of 4 by the beach]

Further to my rant below.  The reason these owners forged the signature of the other owners (that I only found out by accident when our new strata manager asked me if the solicitor’s bill was OK to pay – this was after our previous strata manager ‘sacked’ us due to the level of nonsense that went on in our plan) was to have exclusive use by-laws be drawn up giving them all of the large grassy back yard, the side yars, the rear patio, the common laundry & in exchange for this, give the other owners the small grassed area in front of their unit & these other units would have to install laundry ‘facilities’ inside their units at their own cost.

When the solicitor advised that they would need more than the 75% special resolution due to the complexity of their exclusive use plans (my 2 garages actually open out to the rear patio & the back yard via side doors) they were forced to admit that they did not have 100% support for their plans & then billed the OC.  They almost got away with it too!  The solicitors acted in good faith I suppose but their instructions from this owner was to ONLY liaise with him BUT bill the managing agent.

My horror stories are long & varied & probably boring to others.

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