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Topic
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Water is leaking into my home from the unit above.
In October 2016 the SC lawyers advised “engage a consultant to investigate and to prepare a scope of works to rectify the damage to the lot”.
The SC did nothing.
An application was lodged with Fair Trading. The SC voted to not attend mediation.
It went to NCAT who made orders January 24, 2017 “….to comply with its duties under s 62 of the SSMA 1966 to effect repairs to prevent water ingress into lot xx in the strata scheme”
To this date no quotes have been called for.
Water is still coming into my home and when it does I have to move my furniture into the middle of the room and roll up the carpet. I live in a very small unit so that gives me no living space
If I go back to NCAT it could take months.
What can I do?
thanks,
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Replies
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newlsie – Was there a date on the Order whereby the [s62] repairs were required to be made? Have you contacted your Strata Manager and/or SC to remind them of their obligations? I would also be advising the SC that if this is not rectified ASAP then you will take this matter back to NCAT to enforce the Order.
Below is an extract from the NCAT site.
“If a work order (to provide goods or services) is made in your favour and the order is not complied with within the period specified by the Tribunal, you can apply to NCAT to renew proceedings. Learn more about applying for a renewal of proceedings.”
and
https://www.ncat.nsw.gov.au/Documents/ccd_factsheet_enforcing_orders.pdf
In some situations pecuniary penalties may apply if Orders are not complied with.
newlsie, the NCAT cannot ‘force’ the OC to carry out the work, technically no one can, however they can appoint a compulsory strata manager with full powers of the OC in the case of a dysfunctional strata scheme. One example of a dysfunctional scheme is one where Tribunal orders are not complied with. The compulsory managers role would be to ensure that orders made by the NCAT are complied with.
As Lady Penelope mentioned, you could try applying for a renewal of proceedings requesting that the NCAT attached a deadline for the work to be completed, assuming one hasn’t already been set by the Tribunal in the order already made.
Another option is applying for penalty order for non-compliance of an order. That may wake your OC up into doing something about this order.
It’s hard to offer different advice from what you’ve been given. And it’s hard to know what you expect anyone else to do.
The statutorily appointed strata manager would almost certainly immediately order the work to be done to fix this and, even if you just go for penalties, that might galvanise the committee into doing something.
Personally, I would do both and I would also tell the members of the committee who decided to do nothing and to ignore an NCAT order that I was seeking damages from them personally because in so doing, they were no longer acting in good faith and therefore their immunity from legal action for personal liability, as provided by Section 260, has been voided.
260 Personal liability
(1) A matter or thing done or omitted to be done by any of the following persons, or a person acting under the direction of any of those persons, does not, if the matter or thing was done or omitted to be done in good faith for the purpose of executing functions as such a person under this or any other Act, subject any of the following persons or person so acting personally to any action, liability, claim or demand:
(a) an officer of an owners corporation,
(b) a member of a strata committee.
(2) Any such liability of an officer of an owners corporation or a member of a strata committee attaches instead to the owners corporation.If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. 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. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
newlsie – going to the media won’t achieve anything but prolong the process. If your OC and SC are not willing to abide by the order made by the NCAT, the only way you are going to get that work done is by applying for a compulsory strata manager. Everything else will simply delay the process. So it all depends on how much longer you wish to delay things.
I have seen many owners in my scheme do everything but take the matter to the NCAT, and they have gotten no where. Our SC has on occasions put there foot down and refused to comply with Tribunal orders. Applying for a penalty order doesn’t ensure the work will be carried out, its merely a fine applied to the OC. Only a compulsory strata manager can take over and obtain quotes, pay for the works etc.