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Topic
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There’s an avocado tree overhanging our outdoor common property, coming from a neighbouring property.
Unfortunately having the tree trimmed has become a divisive matter, and reisistance is being driven by an investor who doesn’t live here.
The owner of the tree has agreed for the tree to be trimmed at the cost of our Strata.
There is no proposal to remove or destroy the tree but to have it trimmed by perhaps 30 or 40 percent, subject to Council approval. This tree has been trimmed in the past and will need to be trimmed in the future.
My feeling is that we should give this to our strata manager to handle, so they can adjudicate down the middle to ensure personalities and versted interests don’t derail sensible discussion.
What’s the advice here?
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The strata manager can (or should) only act as instructed by the strata committee, provided the action complies with strata or any other law. What you could ask them to do is to send out a straw poll sheet outlining the basic arguments for and against lopping, and asking owners to vote.
Alternatively, if an individual owner is affected to their detriment, such as by over-shading, they could commence action at Fair Trading then NCAT to force the owners corp to fix the problem. The point of this would not be to drag the OC to the tribunal, but to make the other owners aware that doing nothing can come at a cost; and if they don’t want to waste money defending a position that a majority may not support, then they should empower the strata committee take the appropriate action.
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…this is pretty straight forward… unfortunately for both sides, neither argument holds for strata. It’s the will of the majority.
But as you well know, it’s not a “straightforward” matter. The non-resident owner seems to have geed enough people up for this not to be a simple matter of voting one way or the other.
Some people in strata schemes won’t get involved because they don’t want to take sides. Often, people who are not directly affected by an issue will either vote with the people they like and support or are intimidated by, regardless of the legal rights and wrongs.
Or they will not vote at all to avoid upsetting either side.
That is the reality of democracy in strata and sometimes you have to rub people’s noses in it just to get a logical response.
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Unless there are other facts not mentioned, this is pretty straight forward.
The law allows a property owner with a neighbours tree overhanging the property line to trim the tree to the property line without reference to the owner of the tree. The trimming is at the cost of the affected owner.
Since this overhang is over common property, only a simple majority of the committee is required to authorise this action, under the requirement to maintain the property.
I know trees are an emotional issue, with some people hating them if they shed leaves, fruit and flowers, and others love them for the environmental benefits they bring.
Unfortunately for both sides, neither argument holds for strata. It’s the will of the majority.