[fruitzebra]

Jimmy-T wrote:

Not on your own, no. If you want to change anything you are going to have to get support from the other owners. Otherwise you are just whistling in the wind.

Another owner also wants to change it. What if his request is refused again, as I’m sure the strata manager will refuse it?

[fruitzebra]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions! Our AGM has been scheduled at 5:30pm via zoom. The time is very inconvenient for people. So I requested via email the time to be rescheduled at 7pm. We had a face-to-face AGM last year at 7pm. But the strata manager refused to change the time. Is there anything I can do here?

[fruitzebra]

I’m looking at two expenses in the AGM notice: Cleaning, $1,309.00; Cleaning & Lawns, $11,715.00.
We only have cleaners to take out rubbish bins and very basic common property cleaning. We don’t have lawns to maintain. I don’t see anything done around the building. This big cleaning & lawns cost looks very suspicious to me. We are a small scheme fewer than 15 units. Should I ask this at AGM or beforehand?

[fruitzebra]

Thanks, Jimmy-T! I just want to think of possible scenarios in the AGM, since the strata manager and the committee have a history of  misbehaviour (not sure if this is the right word) in the AGM. If there is a tie and I demand a poll vote, could they deny it?

What do you mean by unit entitlement? Is it the number of unit an owner owns in the strata or the entitlement related to the size of the unit? I know that every unit has a different entitlement in our strata because of different sizes.

[fruitzebra]

Will I be allowed to record the whole meeting, since it will be a virtual meeting, just for the sake of reviewing at a later time just in case? Last year, they did something very bad against the strata law/rules in the meeting, but I don’t have any evidence to go to NCAT later.

[fruitzebra]

Thanks for your suggestions! I’ll definitely consider.

Another question, what would happen in the AGM if a voting ends with a tie, for example voting for a member for the committee or over a strata issue?

[fruitzebra]

I’m having a hard time to get the contact details of other owners. Apparently, the committee and the strata manager don’t want me to access that, which is totally wrong. I paid ~ $40 to obtain a copy of the strata roll a while ago, but there is no email, no phone number details for all the owners. Even the addresses are a bit of “phony”. It just listed the current strata scheme address, which they don’t live in as they are investors. So I cannot even manually write a letter and post it to them!

 

[fruitzebra]

Thanks a lot for all your comments! I want to ask another question RE the AGM itself. Usually it is conducted late in the year, but this year, under such circumstances (lockdown, etc), it was scheduled way ahead of time, in less than 10 days’ time. I was a little surprised. Today the owners received an email from the strata manager asking us to update our contact details according to The Public Health (COVID-19 Self-Isolation) Order (No 3) 2021, commenced on 28/09:

https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/information/covid19-legislation/self-isolation

On the above website, there are many such orders and we were just notified to update strata rolls now, when NSW is going to reopen. This makes very suspicious of the motives of the strata manager and the strata committee.

Here I should mention an issue in the strata committee. Currently there are only 2 members in the committee. We are a small scheme, fewer than 15 owners. Most owners are investors and usually don’t attend AGM. So basically they decide everything. I tried to join the committee last year, but the committee and the strata manager used some excuse to exclude out of it, since I was new to the strata and strata rules. I want to talk to other owners, but it was nearly impossible to obtain other owners’ contact details.

According to the above Public Health (COVID-19 Self-Isolation) Order (No 3) 2021, it seems that every owner should have each other’s contact details during the pandemic. Am I right? But we haven’t been told to update contact details during the worst time of the pandemic. Now we were asked to do so, and in such a short notice to have our AGM.

So now I want to request the AGM to be scheduled at a later date, since the notice is very short as I mentioned above. I want to ask how to deal with this urgent issue. I will email to request rescheduling, but my guess is they will ignore my request and just go ahead.

[fruitzebra]

From the conversations I had with the OC, it’s very unlikely they will agree to pay for the installation of  a triple-glazed window.

[fruitzebra]

Sir Humphrey wrote:

In strata situations there is sometimes a central gas-fired hot water system. The individual units have a water volume meter on their hot water supply and then pay a ‘gas bill’ that is worked out from the volume of delivered hot water as their pro-rata share of the gas bill for the central water heater. That said, this does look more like the size of gas hot water storage heater the might be just for the one unit.

I’m pretty sure the hot water system is for the whole building (11 units only). It’s not my property. Otherwise OC would ask me to do whatever I want.

[fruitzebra]

kaindub wrote:

Now you have me confused. If this is “strata” why are you paying the gas bill? It looks like a villa? Does that heater only supply your lot? Im going to stick my neck out and say by the location, and other factors, it’s actually your property. If I am correct then you can relocate it, at your expense and with the approval of the OC.

It’s not a villa. It’s 2-story unit/apartment. Only one of my bedrooms sticks out like that. The hot water system is common property for the whole building.

[fruitzebra]

Jimmy-T wrote:

This Whirlpool Q&A would seem to suggest the heater in’t too close. But what is the source of the noise? if it’s vibration, proximity to the window won’t make as much difference as which wall it’s attached to, and how.

It’s not vibration noise. Firstly when the system heats up water, it makes a loud noise. It keeps coming and going frequently, because people are using hot water, especially late night when most people are showering presumably. Secondly when it rains, rains hit the thin metal cover and make big noises. These noises transmit to my bedroom through the window, as walls are much better sound insulator than windows.

So moving it to the other side will solve both noise issues. But OC doesn’t want to do anything about it since it only affects my unit.

[fruitzebra]

kaindub wrote:

Is it a gas heater? There are rules about how close a gas heater can be to an opening window. Ask a plumber and see if the heater is incorrectly situated. That may be your best course of action.

I’m not sure what kind of heater it is. Here I attached a photo:

 

[fruitzebra]

kaindub wrote:

Is it a gas heater? There are rules about how close a gas heater can be to an opening window. Ask a plumber and see if the heater is incorrectly situated. That may be your best course of action.

Now think of it, it is most likely gas heater, because I receive gas bills and in the unit there is only electricity usage. That would be the only source of my gas bills.

[fruitzebra]

The thickness of their carpet underlay is 7mm. It was installed in 2018. They said it’s the standard in Australia. Is that right?

[Author]

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