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What is required to get permission to install bicycle parking racks on common property (for the use of all residents)?
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There are three ways to approach this. The best may be to approach the strata committee with a plan that they can adopt. Provide them with a cost estimate and a compelling argument as to why they should install the racks at Owners Corp expense.
If that doesn’t fly, do the same at your next AGM and get the owners behind the project.
And if they just don’t want to pay, ask if you can do it at your own expense, offering to take responsibility via a by-law. But start with the first idea and gather as much information as you can about how many bikes there are in the building.
The arguments against are likely to include that the OC doesn’t want to be liable for stolen bikes. The response is that they put up a sign or pass a by-law saying bikes are left at the owners’ responsibility and should be insured against theft or damage.
The other one will come from fearmongering about electric battery fires. Again, just have a notice saying eBikes must not be charged on common property.
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Upgrading the building’s common property requires a special resolution (under section 108 of the Strata Schemes Management Act) at a general meeting. So work out when the next general meeting is scheduled – which is likely to the the next Annual General Meeting (AGM) that normally is scheduled around 2 months from the end of your building’s Financial Year – or around a year after the previous one.
You need to propose a motion to go on the Agenda for the general meeting. Check out the wording of the motions in previous AGM Agendas for a template. Artificial Intelligence will probably provide an appropriately worded one, if you feed it a previous Agenda, and explain / prompt the purpose. Then send the proposed agenda motion to the strata committee secretary, and your strata manager, and request it be added to the next general meeting agenda.
Now, a special resolution requires that the majority of the owners at the general meeting support the motion, while “not more than 25%” oppose it. So you basically need 75% of the owners attending the general meeting to support it, to be successful. To improve your chances, you should get quotes and proposals – and provide this to support your motion. Ideally you should get at least 3 quotes , and 2 are mandatory if the project costs $20k or more. If you have a good idea about what you want, your motion can cover this – ie, the motion can have parts, – part one that the OC install bike racks at a specific location of a certain type (you fill in the details), and part two, that the OC accept a quotation from X to install a certain model of bike rack at a cost of $Y. Or you can put different options in the motion, and allow the owners to select whichever they want (perhaps at different price points?).
The finally, prepare for the meeting. Talk to the other owners, and encourage the ones agreeing with you to come to the meeting, or provide a voting proxy. Do your numbers, to ensure that 75% will agree to support the motion. Or sweeten the deal – as Jimmy-T suggests, you might more easily get 75% support if you pay for the upgrade yourself… And prepare to argue your case before and at the meeting.
Upgrading the building’s common property requires a special resolution (under section 108 of the Strata Schemes Management Act) at a general meeting.
Two points.
- It’s a lot easier to get approval for by-law changes if you can convince the committee to get on board with the idea before you go looking to pass by-laws. Convince them that it will enhance the value of everyone’s homes.
- Does it really require a 75 per cent vote? Under Section 5 of the Act, “Resolutions of owners corporations”, a resolution of an owners corporation is a special resolution if… the resolution is a sustainability infrastructure resolution—less than 50% are against the resolution.
Under Section 132B (2) “Financing and installation of sustainability infrastructure”, sustainability infrastructure means changes to part of the common property (which includes the installation, removal, modification or replacement of anything on or forming part of that property) for any one or more of the following purposes—(a) to reduce the consumption of energy or water or to increase the efficiency of its consumption,(b) to reduce or prevent pollution,(e) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,(f) to facilitate the use of sustainable forms of transport.
Surely all of a,b, e and f apply to a bicycle rack, which means all that should be required is a 50 per cent vote in favour at a general meeting. Worth pursuing from that point of view.
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It’s an excellent idea to install bike parking of course, good on you for trying to make this happen. On behalf of all bike riders likely to use the parking rails, can I make a plea that whatever is installed will support safe and comfortable parking of e-bikes and complies with the relevant Australian Standard? So often people install substandard bike rails with the best of intentions and then riders are left having to deal with “wheel benders” or insufficient space between the rails/wall to fit both their bikes and themselves while they are parking it.
Features of good bike parking include:
- Easy to find and access
- Close to the destination (within 25 metres if possible)
- Solid and secure rails or attachment points
- Rails secure the bike in two places
- Good spacing (minimum 1 metre) between the rails (I’d recommend minimum 1.2m for today’s e-bikes and MTBs)
- On level ground (so bikes don’t roll)
- Well observed by passersby or staff
- Well lit
- Protection from the weather
- Complies with AS2890.3