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[kparbs]

We own a garden apartment which is currently rented out to tenants. Unfortunately it has just come to our attention, that at the last AGM the strata approved the construction of a bike rack in the garden/courtyard that faces our lounge room and bedroom windows. The courtyard previously had a lovely private garden, which no one else used, half of which they have ripped out to put down a huge concrete slab with bike rack for 4 bikes.

There are 8 units in the block and it appears that 2 committee members were at the last AGM and approved the bike rack (the treasurer and one other person). The rack was the treasurers plan and idea and we suspect that he did the work himself, paying himself $4,000 for the construction. No other quotes were obtained and the invoice submitted to the strata manager bears his last name. We are in the process of confirming whether he did the work himself.

The outlook from the apartment has been completely ruined by the destruction of the garden and the unsightly bike rack and it has reduced the value of our property. The tenants are not happy about their loss of privacy, and as our unit was the only one affected by this decision we think they should have contacted us as it is completely inequitable. Unfortunately there was a proposal sent out before the last AGM that included the plans for the rack however this was sent to an old address and we didn’t get see it until it was too late.

There is another AGM coming up in November and we would like to know what our rights are regarding:

a) removing the treasurer from the committee due to the competing interests and failing to act in the best interest of all owners. We are aware that he has been paying himself out of strata funds for various jobs on the property in non-arms length transactions

b) removing the bike rack and reinstating the garden bed and lawn

Thanks, Katrina

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