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[Gloucester19]

How to fast-track strata conflict resolution
27/09/2022

Regarding this topic from a 2022 post, any advice on this question of dispute resolution would be appreciated.

Simply, S218 of the SSMA says a person may apply to the (strata committee) secretary for mediation.

But S216 says of “Internal dispute resolution procedures for strata schemes” ,that  “(1) An owners corporation for a strata scheme may establish, by any means it thinks fit, a voluntary process for resolving disputes …”

The question:  does the OC need to have “a voluntary process” established already, or can the SC secretary arrange mediation off his or her own bat upon an application?

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[The Hood]

There are two secretaries in the SSM Act.
Capital S secretary and lower case s secretary.

Capital S secretary is the Commish of Fair Trading or Secretary of the Dept.
Lower case s is the secretary of the OC.

The Secretary of 218 is the capital S variety and referring to the dictionary in the SSM Act

Secretary means—

(a) the Commissioner for Fair Trading, Department of Customer Service, or

(b) if there is no person employed as Commissioner for Fair Trading—the Secretary of the Department Secretary means—

(a) the Commissioner for Fair Trading, Department of Customer Service, or

(b) if there is no person employed as Commissioner for Fair Trading—the Secretary of the Department.

Section 218 is about making application to Fair Trading
The s 216 process is not mandatory and is about an in-house thing if the OC likes.

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[kaindub]

The answer is in the legislation

As you quote S216 says “may”. That denotes that its not compulsory

To answer the second part of yur question. The secretary is just the post office correspondence goes through. They would refer a mediation request to the committee for a decision.

What I believe the legislation is aiming to promote is for owners corporation to sort out their internal differences in house. Thats never easy when there are opposing views.

I think the internal mediation is a good idea, but in the wrong place. You see these processes in larger firms who hav resources to draw up a process and then usually to engage independent arbiters.

Thats probably not going to happen in strata, so we use NCAT to solve all the internal problems.

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[Gloucester19]

Thank you both for your explanations, and I’m of clearer understanding as a result. The Committee is refusing mediation of an urgent matter on the grounds the Owners Corp has no internal mediation process, and must adopt a formal process at a general or annual meeting before the Committee has the power to arrange it, or so it’s claimed. That would take even longer than Fair Trading mediation via the FT Secretary, which can take months. I’ll contact the NCAT registrar to see if mediation is necessary in this matter, as compromise is a “half-pregnant” possibility.

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[Author]

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