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How do you know the occupier is a “tenant” and the owner is getting cash in hand? The occupier could be there under licence and not a lease or could just be a guest. At least the person is an occupier if nothing else.
Jimmy, you haven’t pointed out the alternatives to these private “negotiators” which are mediators accredited by either or both the state and federal governments and which are either encouraged or ordered to happen in all tribunals and courts either before or after litigation commences. It seems to me that you are out of touch.
I now see you are in WA but I can’t see that these basic concepts would not apply to you anyway unless your contracts between Strata Corporations and Managing Agents are different to ours in NSW. Send me your agreement with your strata manager and I will advise further.
Are we in NSW? Do these fees include Part A and Part B fees? What are they doing under Part B? What does the contract with the strata managers say about the commission they get from insurance and getting a kick back from referrals to particular lawyers to do the debt collection for late strata fees and litigation expenses suing people for damaging common property and so on? These kickbacks have to be revealed in the contract which your strata managers have signed so before you go further, you need to read it. If you object to the conditions you can ask your strata committee why they signed it.
Ray,I don’t understand your point. Please clarify.
How does a general Strata Report reveal issues about cladding if the subject does not come up in the minutes?
Jimmy, I think your advice is wrong and you have missed the point. If there is a lease which includes those parking spaces then the landlord i.e. the owner of that property, be it Strata title or not is in breach of the lease conditions by not stopping others from allowing the lessor to use those spaces for which he is paying. It has nothing to do with the Strata Committee for the building. His remedy is a claim against the landlord for breach of contract and NCAT may not have jurisdiction as it is not a strata title issue as opposed to a breach of contract of conditions of a lease on property be it strata or otherwise. I would send a threatening letter to landlord, not the strata committee, demanding it remedy this problem otherwise he will take it further be it to Fair Trading if it has the jurisdiction or elsewhere.
Were you advised of this when you signed the contract to buy the unit? I expect you were due to vendor disclosure provisions and/or a search of the strata roll. If so, you could have chosen not to buy it.
Re Dog weeing on balcony. Jimmy, of course this breaches the usual by-law about nuisance and at common law as well. I agree that the first step is to ensure the common property door is fixed by the committee (unless he is in Qld where it can be the owners’ responsibility). The next step is to get a dog wee mat and the third step is to ensure the drainpipes comply to avoid staining which again is the committee’s responsibility. Otherwise, he can wake up at 4am and take the dog out for a wee!
Despite all this, if the Strata Plan hasn’t lost any money I would let it go and move on. We have enough day to day issues to deal with.
I don’t understand your point. There are government initiatives with private capital to build apartments including low income persons to buy and or rent and they have been around for 20 years or so in NSW. Developers have been encouraged to take advantage of these initiatives and they have done.
I agree with Bunyip. There is no way that “disclosure” obviates a conflict of interest. Total crap. There has to be an investigation into the whole strata building thing, whether by royal commission or otherwise. Further, how did the NSW govt get away with reducing the defects provisions and lowering the bar ? Outrageous.
This legislation may be able to be challenged as ultra vires the government’s power. In the meantime, we should all join the owners’ corp ginger group and give it backing to bring representative (class) actions against directors and shareholders (!) of liquidated builders and developers. It can be done and the organisation could well get a litigation funder for this.
I am joining this organisation right now and will put myself up to organise an action, be the lawyer for the plaintiff, on spec if we can’t get a funder, hire Counsel to do the same, and run it in the appropriate court in NSW. We need a building in NSW to complain about and not Opal as it will get its own attention.
So which building is suitable for this proceeding? The best one would be one that has been certified and the defects period has expired but which has ongoing defects which are not covered by the useless bond. It might be too early for this to be apparent under the amended legislation so the next best thing is a building that is caught between the old legislation and the new and has suffered accordingly or an older building in the same situation as the ACT ones. Any takers?
Are there no enforcement remedies for breach of NCAT orders contained in their legislation? Sounds like you need the SC replaced with an NCAT appointed manager asap.