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@Kaos said:
Is the owner of a unit responsible for broken sprinklers/damage to lawn caused by other people parking on front verge which the owners are expected to maintain?Karos I do not know who is responsible, especially if the front verge is not part of Strata property.
Has the owner tried putting a notice under the wipers of the cars or a notice (that people can not trip over) on the verge?
Some local Councils (Local Government Area) fine people who part on a front verge, adjacent to the road. Cars parked on the verge could be reported and see if they are fined.
To stop the parking I would make it more obvious it was a garden.
It seems acceptable when seeding new lawn on a verge, or planting new plants, to put a string enclosure around the verge about knee high to keep people off. Why not try that once the sprinklers are replaced?
If it is an area with not much street parking and not enough parking in the Strata, the owner will need to be creative to protect their investment.
@JimmyT said:
11,000 words … but is anyone listening?Click HERE for the whole catastrophe – and comment please!
As expected, your comprehensive submission is a great piece of work. Well done and there will be many people listening and seeing.
I particularly like the idea of a building/plan Mission Statement.
If I were searching for somewhere to live, it would be great to know if the current owners are on the same ‘page’ as me.
I agree with everything else you have written as well.
Steelpaper
Sounds like the ‘broken window’ scam. A shop owner with large plate glass windows finds the windows smashed and a company that replaces windows is on their doorstep giving quotes to replace them.
I think the theft of the fire extinguishers and hose should be reported to the police as it may be happening in other buildings and businesses.
When the new ones are installed I would suggest checking for any registration or identifying number on each, and the Secretary keep that information for each extinguisher. They usually have a metal tag with the last inspection date on them but that can be removed.
If there is no registration number, maybe paint part of each extinguisher with some identifying information (without covering the safety information), and engrave the full address of your building on the metal part of the new hoses.
It might be a good time to investigate better security for your building, including CCTV?
Paul, if it were our OC I would hope that we would NOT agree to sign, as it could be the Owner is just trying to ‘tidy things up’ before selling.
If you all agree to the demands, it is possible he gets a higher price for his property after not paying his correct proportion of levies for 20 years.
I would be asking for him to pay back the outstanding additional levies plus interest, so the current OC benefits, before agreeing to anything.
I do not know if that is legal, but is certainly sounds fishy he is in such a rush to get things sorted out now.
Davebois, for the most part it is obvious you have really been trying hard to keep the noise down, but singing scales and practicing for an hour seems over the top.
You may not hear him in another room but if he is directly above someone trying to work, the irregular sounds might be going straight down.
Practicing singing is just the same as practicing any other musical instrument and could be just as annoying. You can get a practice pad for drumming but nothing I know of to mute a voice to others.
You did not say your flatmate had a ‘good’ voice but had some singing training. Even a good voice singing scales is not entertaining.
Most of us will turn off professionally made music in the first few seconds if it is not the type of music we like, but your neighbours do not have a switch to stop it.
Possibly your neighbours are keeping their own sound diary, and maybe even recording the ‘singing’.
I am really angry that some developers can cut corners and do what they want, especially if a building is high rise.
How can ordinary people fight back?
It is getting to the point that you take your life into your own hands if you are unlucky enough to buy into a place that has not been built to meet the safety, health and comfort needs of the potential residents.
Does Fair Trading keep a list of ‘shonky/dangerous’ developers and builders?
Surely there are enough of us to influence governments?
Sarahs does your local Council have a law about visibility of air con units?
When I bought my villa I was told that air con units are not able to be visible from the street because of Council laws. We are also not allowed to use air con between 10pm and 7am.
Currently most units are on top of garage roofs, but, when they need replacing they have to be hidden.
Maybe that could apply in your local government area?
Deliria, you have been given some very good advice, especially from Jimmy, Whale and Struggler.
Back to the beginning, if you have not ‘Settled’, the place is not yours, even if you paid for tiles, etc. I think you should check with one of the specialised legal firms as surely there is some sort of a time limit that a potential purchaser is able to stall Settlement. You may find you have been Gazumped and someone else is living in the place you think is yours.
That happened to my daughter who bought ‘off the plan’. The builder kept delaying the Settlement until they drove past and noticed someone else was living in the place.
I almost purchased a place that was going to charge a Special Levy of $100,000 for each of the 66 owners (on top of what they had already paid out in massive legal fees), because of arguments about building defects.
I found out when the Strata Search was done, before a building inspection. The case was before the Supreme Court because the insurance company only wanted to pay a fraction of the cost to repair the place. Two years later nothing has been done.
@Paul2000 said:
In my opinion lawyers are in the business of making threats to sue and then you need to engage a lawyer to reply and so it goes… you want to avoid going to court if possible and there is no guarantee of costs being awarded in your favour.I agree Paul2000, I have only ever received a couple of letters from solicitors and they have been from family members or friends/colleagues of the person who thinks they can intimidate with a letterhead.
I do not do anything about the letters, and so far I have not been to Court, because the person had no grounds to make threats.
Flat Chat is mostly an ‘advertisement free’ zone for posters so without mentioning names, there is a great Strata Manager in Kogarah NSW.
I think it has been suggested before but you need to have the right questions and interview each prospect as you would do for any job.
You will find the questions you need to ask by reading the Flat Chat posts.
The O.C. would have voted the E.C. a maximum spending amount at an AGM.
Our small (11 villa) O.C. votes the amount every year and last year was $1,000.
Our E.C. organises regular quarterly ‘clean=ups’ and ‘handy man’ visits. Owners are asked by email or note in the letter boxes if there is any work around the property needed.
We have a regular lawn mowing gardener.
E.C. meetings are organised to discuss Agenda Items that have arisen since the last AGM or E.C. meeting. There are only three people on our E.C. and two members work in the city so it can take a couple of weeks to organise the meeting time. (It must be very hard with larger E.C.’s).
We can approach the Strata Manager direct but have a ‘Secretary’ letter box for written requests. I discovered that ‘written’ needed to be on paper and signed, not by email, but I guess I only need one page of paper, where the Secretary would have higher expenses if he printed everything sent to him.
We have our AGM at the Strata Manager’s office at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning. My first was this year.
I guess I should not have been surprised that four out of eleven owners did not attend and gave their proxy to another Owner. We have no serious issues that I know of.
I think our Agreement with the SM is that they do two ‘free’ meetings and any others with the SM we need to pay. He is available for telephone advice and is very approachable.
Morticia, there are ‘girls’ as well as boys who contribute to Flat Chat.
Contributors to this thread have given a range of opinions and while washing on all sorts of makeshift or removable lines or airers may not ‘look’ good, I think that we can get used to anything.
Sydney has had a very cold winter and a hot summer is predicted with possible power worker strikes. Our latest electricity bill is the highest it has ever been because we needed heaters on for a longer period. Many people can not afford the latest in heating or cooling and so use more power hungry methods, and try to save electricity by not using dryers for their clothes.
Maybe Owners Corporations need to look at ways to help people dry clothes in the sun so that is not so ‘in your face’. Older blocks had clothes drying areas but allocation of lines at convenient times, and sometimes theft was a problem. Most modern blocks do not have a yard although maybe the roof area could be modified?
Instead of seeing red tiles when flying into Sydney, travellers would be welcomed by flapping washing!
Hi Daphne,
You {were} in the “Furry friends/pets” thread now. Check out “The Professionals”.