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Our Owners Corporation is dysfunctional – only 4 lots. I am at the point where my mental health is suffering with relentless breaches of strata laws and now I am being bullied by being issued with a ‘warning’ letter where I trimmed back branches of a tree, because our OC refuses to maintain the garden. We have 1 Strata Committee member – she is a seasoned property investor, has recently reduced our sinking fund levies where we have major capital works to do and the procedures of running our scheme are just not transparent – it’s awful.
Has anyone had any success with making an application to NCAT to remove a corrupt Strata Committee member – what evidence did you produce and what reasoning did NCAT come up with?
It’s been going on for far too long where we have an owner that has breached strata laws such as putting down floorboards without approval, bullied/verbally abused me on common property, and her father, a Master Builder has altered common property without OC approval, and installed a playset on our back lawn – straight out of China – it’s delapidated and no ‘exclusive use’ bylaws have been registered or presented to the OC.
It’s a mess – a rather large one, as we’ve had too many incidents where they are not being addressed by this ‘one SC member’ – she’s got the other 2 owners on side – I’m outnumbered – we only have 4 lots – a very dysfunctional small scheme … I can’t take it any longer …
What evidence works at NCAT?
Help … Thank you.
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All I can suggest is that you work on the two who are siding with the one person. One person can’t decide the sinking fund levy. If you can convince one person to your way of seeing things, you might manage to outvote the other two if you have more unit entitlements and demand a poll vote.
Another option would be to challenge decisions at NCAT which can issue orders to overturn decisions that are not in keeping with strata law.
That said, often just a convincing threat of doing that can have the desired result.
As for what works at NCAT – the answer is, the law.
Go through decisions that have been made and see how they stack up against the Strata Schemes Management Act and Regulations.
I have also been recommending a lot of people talk to our sponsors StrataAnswers who will give you good, objective advice for a modest fee.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Hi Strata Survivor you are not alone.
We tried to remove 3 committee members as two were bullies taking turns at being the chairperson and one was the non transparent secretary. It all started with abuse from a chair person, and another committee member (my husband) and at the A.G.M other owners were told to vote my husband off and used 12 proxies. The secretary never posted on the agenda the letter concerning the abuse and we were then abused by 9 committee members and 10 other owners. After near 3 years and 8 lawyers letters, $8,000. mediation, we were told by a directions hearing officer to find a lawyer as some of our claims were not on point, so we did, $3,000. At the N.C.A.T hearing we were told that because the committee did not issue the by law breach to the abusive committee member the judge could not dismiss the abuser. The N.C.A.T Judge determined that we were to be treated in the same manner as other owners of the high rise and two weeks after the determination the abusive committee member tried to issue a breach of bylaw on me and his wife set an AVO on me. The husband and wife then had to withdraw the vexatious AVO and pay for my lawyer, I still had to pay $600.
Finally the committee tried to push the owners into leasing the top of the building and the owners rejected the decision and 5 committee members resigned we now have a few good committee members and the secretary is transparent and we were told at the N.C.A.T that not all correspondence has to be noted or filed.
N.C.A.T does not deal with bullies, next time this happens to us we will be going to civil court.
The Local Court is not interested in the bullying that occurs in property and planning either.
They poo-pooed my AVO application against a bullying tenant who was doing it on behalf of the dominant owners – family with 61% UE. They said I was exaggerating.
Would NCAT be interested in bullying if the motions and minutes had evidence of it?
NCAT will only really be interested if they scheme is functioning in a way that benefits some owners financially to the detriment of others, and the scheme is not functioning as intended by the Act.
To put it another way, if the bullying takes the form of your opinions never being heard but the decision making is relatively sound and the finances and fabric of the building aren’t suffering unduly, they probably won’t do anything.
On the other hand, I hear that even when a building has become dysfunctional due to the behaviour of specific members of the committee – e.g. finances are in trouble, common property is being taken over by individuals without due compensation, maintenance is being neglected to save on levies – NCAT is more likely to appoint a statutory strata manager to take over the running of the building than they are to remove specific members of the committee.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
@strata survivor and @reddant
In my experience earlier this year at NCAT about a dysfunctional OC where SC members were dipping into the trust fund for their benefit and not attending to common property repairs, I learned that NCAT is loathe to condemn a strata scheme to a compulsory strata manager (CSM) because that takes ALL decisions out of the hands of SC members, both the good and the shifty members.That said, if you have enough evidence eg financial statements or emails that indicates very poor behaviour, then NCAT could be swayed to order a CSM.
Note: (a) you hint at including motions or minutes of meetings to bolster your allegations of bullying. I very much doubt any secretary or strata agent will include anything that shows him/her in a bad light. Furthermore, minutes are just to record what was decided, NOT what transpired ahead of a decision being made (ie the argy bargy etc) and (b) if you’re far dinkum on CSM, long before going to NCAT go and obtain a quote or two from real estate agents for this task. Usually these engagements are not cheap and often in the first instance they are limited to one year. Hopefully in a year the strata scheme is capable of operating with less dysfunction. Attaching a quote to your NCAT application will help you understand what’s involved and you’ll be able to compare it to the recommended agent NCAT may suggest to you.
@Jimmy
You’re correct. NCAT seems to care about dodgy behaviour, as in the examples you listed and not about what was said at meetings and at what volume unless serious ramifications ensure eg bleeding the trust fund rey. Even so, it is likely that NCAT will give the offenders another chance to behave as is expected of them under the Act before tossing the scheme towards CSM. If they/when the committee subsequently fails, THEN it is likley that NCAT will place the scheme in CSM. This of course requires a fresh NCAT application by those trying to hold the committee accountable, another fee and another hearing date.I talked to a Fair Trading mediator today and clarified that
1) removal of a committee member only lasts up until the next election, they can then get voted back in.
2) policy is being considered at Fair Trading to remove Committee members for longer so they can’t just walk back in. I suppose this would be a 3 year ban or something?
Over the last year NCAT appointed Compulsory Strata Managers because:
- the OC is not performing a required function, for example, maintaining common property, where this is required
- the OC is exercising its powers or making decisions for an improper purpose with negative consequences for lot owners. This could be where the OC, or strata committee, allows conduct contrary to strata legislation, or without having the necessary by-laws, particularly where this oppresses other lot owners
- the OC is failing to exercise a power or make a decision to stop lot owners from contravening their obligations under strata legislation, such as lot owners using common property without a common property by-law; or
- the OC unnecessarily raises levies or spends money where this is not in the interests of the scheme or lot owners.
Source: HOLDING REDLICH
Hi StrataSurvivor,
A lot owner or even an occupier, as an “interested person” can apply to NCAT for the removal of an individual committee member, pursuant to s 238 of the Strata Schemes Management Act, 2015, potentially in circumstances which include those you describe.
Hopefully the requisite mediation before proceeding to NCAT would provide a reality check, and resolution for all involved?
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