[aqua]

and in section:

damage to common propery

1) an owner or occupier of a lot must not mark, paint, drive nails or screws or the like into or otherwise damage or deface, any structure that forms part of the common property without the approval in writing of the owners corporation.

2) an approval given by the owners corporation under subclause (1) cannot authorise any additions to the common property

[aqua]

proudsceptic thanks for your reply. the only paragraph on the current by law of the building with regards to renovations states. 

change in use of lot to be notified

an occupier of a lot must notify the OC if the occupier changes the existing use of the lot in a way that may affect the insurance premiums for the strata scheme (example, if the change of use results in hazardous activity being carried out on the lot, or results in lot being used for commercial or industrial purposes rather than residential purposes).

Appearance of lot

1) the owner or occupier of a lot must not, without written consent of the OC, maintain within the lot anything visible from outside the lot that, viewd from outside the lot, is not in keeping with the rest of the building

20 this by-law does not apply to the hanging of any washing, towel, bedding, clothing or other articleas referred to in by-law10

official date for EGM has not been given to us as strata manager has just resumed work. secretary has advised us earliest date would be 24th jan. but we would need to have confirmation in writing from strata manager. 

Secretary also advised in the most recent meeting if we dont persue any structural work he will allow all works to be done without a by law. 

we have already had a lawyer create a by law for our renovations and have it amended twice as per OC request. and after all that they are saying they wont allow the structual works anyway. 

[aqua]

has anyone been through tribunal in similar circumstance that could offer us some advice please

[aqua]

thanks very much for support. something needs to change with the government and strata managers- not to give these bullies so much control- we either take this through with a lawyer or forget the structural work. would love to hear your progress

[aqua]

thanks for responding, appreciate it.

To clarify, the one guy has all 3 titles, the chairperson, secretary and treasurer and is on the executive committee. the EC is made up of 3 ppl. the above mentioned guy, another owner who has recently completed a renovation and an owner who resides overseas. they all work together and dominate proxies, so they make descisions together how they will vote.

The recent renovations were infact done without any by laws, yet they are being so particular about our by laws and every aspect of our renovations.

We have put a formal application and requested an EGM in Oct, Nov and Dec. in October they said it would cost 230.00 to call an egm. but we have to wait until new strata managers are in place, in November they came back with a list of aprox 15 questions reqarding our renovations, some of which were we would be required to get a hydraullic engineer, an acoustic engineer, another independant structural engineer that they would choose and we have to pay for and so on. In Dec they ignored our email for just under 2 weeks until mid Dec when they said its too late before the christmas break to arrange an EGM- it cant be called until an owner on OC gets back from holiday mid jan, but he will need time to get back into things so cant be called until end of jan-

They are also saying we have to agree in writing to all costs of egm. they are ignoring our email request to be given a total cost as we they previously advised us it would cost 230.00 Now that they have changed strata, they wont give us a price, they are saying it would be 150.00 an hour for the strata manager to arrange meeting, attend meeting and her time to travel, plus the time it takes for secretary to do all the paperwork and photocopying. Therefore we have to agree in writing to all costs based on time it all takes. And they are forewarning us they will not allow any structural work. they will all vote against it with their proxies. because they dont want to set a precedent for others to do similar works and at the most recent meeting with the secretary he said he thinks we have used a friend engineer so doesnt trust it. he said where are the engineers calculations? where is the engineers certificate for the works? (we have provided a report, plans and engineers indemnity. When they expressed concern of external structural defects to building, we called our structural engineer out again to assess the external of building – we provided them with a detailed external structural engineer report with pictures and drawings) he went on to say the engineer is probably our friend how could he have done the first site visit for just half an hour?  we are shocked- hes absolutely not our friend and have never worked with him before.

He also says that he cant put anything in writing because his english is not good. he’s the secretary!

Regarding council we have spoken to council and we do require council approval before starting works. and we have lined up a private certifier to apply to council for us if the oc will approve the works at an EGM. we provided the OC this information in our application.

we feel like we are being bullied and treated unreasonably.

[Author]

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