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Hi Long time member, first time question.
My situation in NSW, I own a tenanted townhouse with Private Courtyard on title & fenced, repairs to drainage pipe running through that easement were required and strata have proceeded with that. It involves removal of everything; garden, fence, retaing wall garden, grass etc. Its a demo site. When completed it will be made nice.
The situation & my initial questions are
I was advised repairs were happening but never the nature/detail of the work. No idea of the moonscape extent (year later still). Should I have been consulted, asked permission even?
I didnt advise the tenant cause I didnt know, – that lack of advice put me in danger wrt tenant laws as well, because that tenant had every right to expect the yard they rented would be the yard they get.
And most alarming as once its done its permanent. I just discovered that the landscape drawings mean a material change to my courtyard. The original retaining wall route had a zigzag route with 2 walls, each about 600mm H. Those are shown on the strata plan. The proposed landscape drawing/plan now shows 2 walls on a different alignment to what was there & shown on SP. The landscape drawings show 2 walls in a straight alignment , 1 just off the back boundary and another much closer to the townhouse back door.
The engineers did this because it was expedient/convenient to the process, the result is the area of “level” accessible back yard is much less than it was – I dont want to open a door and have terraced courtyard, with a wall 2m from the back sliding door.
What is my position here? what are my property rights? On learning this, I immediately lodged objection with the strata manager and flagged to Committee, (which I am secretary) The Engineers in charge of that work acknowledge that they could do a single wall but it means changing the drawings etc, I fear I may have to push hard to overcome the inertia of me protecting my interests
this is stressful, please help!
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Replies
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The issue with the wall is clearly a case of changing common property without the correct permissions. You could explain to your committee that you have the option to take them to the Tribunal to resolve the situation if they don’t tell the builder to fix it or compensate you for the loss.
The fact that this is extra work for the builder is not your problem.
Regarding the tenant, if they demand a rent reduction, negotiate a reasonable figure and then charge that back to the strata scheme. It might be better to involve a third party like a real estate agent or a Fair Trading mediator, if only to establish that the figure is reasonable. I have heard of landlords encouraging their tenants to take them to Fair Trading, just to establish a figure that the strata scheme can’t easily reject.
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