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I read the OP’s post a bit differently.
I was referring generally to any liability of committee members for past decisions that turn out to be wrong. In this specific case, it was hiring a certain fire safety consultant or not being overly diligent in pursuing fire safety measures.
But yes, they are asking for a “please explain” and they are entitled to that, for sure.
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I would pay committee members a set fee based on the size of their block, provided they had completed a basic course in strata law and management, and participated in refresher courses as required.
I’ve known an astonishing number of committee members who haven’t even read their own by-laws or the publications like Strata Living (NSW) made available by state authorities, let alone strata laws and regulations.
Or to put this another way, pay them if it improves the service they provide to the strata scheme, but not otherwise.
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There’s a general principle in strata that, provided previous members of the committee and owners in general have acted in good faith, they can’t be held liable for decisions that later turn out to have been an error.
In theory, all owners are responsible for the decisions made by the committee, on the grounds that they collectively, could have overturned them at a general meeting.
It might be different if there was proof of some sort of corrupt behaviour from which individuals had benefitted, but even then it would be difficult to prove and pursue.
This is just one of those occasions when you have to put it down to experience and move on, a little poorer but slightly wiser.
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Apologies for the delay – sometimes I hold off answering questions myself to give other Forum users the chance to respond. Obviously, I forgot to check and see if that had occurred.
It’s an established principle in strata that if the owners corp damages lot property while repairing common property, it has to pay for the repair to the property it damaged.
And it has to reinstate the lot property to at least the condition it was in before. There should be no quibbling about this and if they drag their feet, call Fair Trading or initiate a request for mediation prior to taking action at NCAT.
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It is my understanding that an owner (maybe a property agent but not a tenant) registers a property with Dept of Planning …
Where do you get the idea that tenants can’t do this? The “head tenant” of a property can be an Airbnb host without the owner even knowing in some cases.
Before covid, people were renting multiple properties in tourism hot spots and sub-letting them on holiday let websites.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.
But I cannot see where I can simply look up a property (by inputting its address) and check if it is registered. Or must I sign up to a NSW Planning Portal account in order to verify the status of a premises?
You can check on the website where the property is listed for short-term letting (Airbnb, Stayz, etc etc) by looking at the information on their online profile. It should have a registration number like PID-STRA-xxxxx-1.
Having said that, the first two listings I looked at were listed as “Exempt”. How does a property get an exemption? Let’s face it, with Airbnb nothing is ever clear-cut or transparent, but I will try to find out.
Otherwise, if the property doesn’t have a PRD number, or an exemption, it shouldn’t even be listed.
Is the apartment registered as a holiday let and if not, why not? The managing agent did not address this issue. Hence I infer it is not registered.
That’s quite an assumption. Maybe he or she didn’t know.
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I have not had a chance to look into your suggestions, I will later today, but meanwhile want to advise that the strata has a by-law on short term/holiday rentals which states that an “occupier” of a lot can engage in short term or holiday letting. There seems no restriction on the “occupier” regarding how many can dwell on the premises or for how long it can be let out.
How about you answer the first response before embarking on another line of inquiry? This is hardly urgent and that would be the polite thing to do.
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According to this government fact sheet, swimming pools can be complying developments, meaning they can be fast-tracked provided a certifier has signed off on the plans.
However, since your sub-division is technically a strata scheme, you may need to get a surveyor to work out if there is any common property involved. If there is, you will need to register a by-law taking responsibility for the elements of common property that are affected by the pool.
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Agree with Sir H.
On the other hand, I know of some schemes where people (usually lawyers) have locked themselves into office-bearer roles then expect professional-level fees, retrospectively, for the work they do.
Strata law in NSW says committee members can only be paid for the committee work done in the previous year but they make it clear that they expect this remuneration every year. Personally, I would call their bluff. You want power AND money? I don’t think so.
But to answer the question, in NSW there is no limit on the amount, just on how it is paid. In Queensland I believe there is a limit on how many times committee members can claim travel expenses for attending committee meetings. Not sure about Victoria.
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For reference to what you are facing go on Youtube and look up anything under “Karen behaviour’ because that’s what you are facing. A Karen’s defining characteristics are a sense of entitlement, a willingness and desire to complain, and a self-centered approach to interacting with others. Also “demands the world exist according to her standards with little regard for others. ” True that’s straight from Wikipedia, but it fits.
You almost had me convinced until “straight from Wikipedia” (a terrific resource but occasionally dangerously opinionated rather than factual).
I don’t think this is “Karen” behaviour, although it displays similar characteristics. This is one neighbour who complains about noise (to which she may be hypersensitive) to another who wants her to leave her alone.
And I don’t know if ignoring her is really an option unless Monique10 has developed Zen-like meditative powers to exclude all external stimuli.
But I agree that the simplest and most likely effective option is to deal with the problem at source. Perhaps it’s just saying to her, either to her face or in a note, “I’ve done everything possible to accommodate your wishes and address your complaints and I can’t do any more. In the interest of remaining on good terms, if you have any further problems, please don’t bring them to me, but report them to the strata committee who may be able to assist.”
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… do I conclude correctly that whether the strata’s by-laws ignore mention of short term rentals of any type or mention short term rentals by placing limitations or prohibitions on such rentals, the Act allows such landlords (a) to engage in short term rentals when and how they see fit and (b) without the need to inform or seek approval from the strata committee or Owners’ Corporation before doing so?
That is actually two questions. If your by-laws don’t prohibit short-term letting then they are allowed. The only restriction would be the number of nights (180) in Greater Sydney or Byron Shire.
If the by-laws allow holiday lets, subject to conditions, then that by-law might be invalid as it could be interpreted as attempting to restrict or limit the lease of the property, under section 139 (2) of the Act which you quoted.
I say “might” because all of this legislation hasn’t really been tested yet. The new regulations only came into force last month, there have been fewer foreign tourists and a lot of short-term holiday let properties have been absorbed back into the residential rental market.
FYI, I have only recently had confirmation regarding the second part of 137A, dealing with “hosted” accommodation where the lot owners or head tenant claims it is their principal place of residence, that this means they have to actually be there while their guests are staying.
That is nowhere in the Act but it is on Planning NSW’s fact sheets. To summarise, the whole holiday let scene is evolving now that there are regulations, and until some hard and fast rules are laid down, people will interpret the laws, rightly or wrongly, in ways that suit them best.
Also, bear in mind that since you first asked about this, new regulations have come into force in NSW and they include a compulsory register of holiday lets which goes above and beyond strata by-laws.
There is a Planning NSW factsheet that covers all of this and this extract from its FAQs is worth reading:
If you plan to use any part of your property as short term rental, you must now:
• register it on the NSW STRA Register
• make sure it meets the fire safety standards
• make sure you abide by the new Code of Conduct
• take note of any restrictions on the number of days it can be rented each year, and make
sure you do not allow it to be rented out for more days that are allowed.
There are penalties for not complying with the new rules.So that may be your starting point. Is the apartment registered as a holiday let and if not, why not?
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I’m going to (partially) pick up on Sujenna’s suggestion and ask if you can send a picture of the plan you just described.
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Result! Thanks for letting us know. More than 1000 people a day read this website so you never know …
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I just want to clarify the comments I made earlier in relation to Apprehended Personal Violence Orders (APVOs).
This is what I actually wrote:
Otherwise, if you feel her complaints amount to harassment, you could apply at your local court for an Apprehended Personal Violence Order (APVO) requiring her not to contact you except via a lawyer.
The key phrase there is “if you feel her complaints amount to harassment”. Obviously, an APVO is not a first (or second or third) response to complaints from a neighbour. But if there was a relentless campaign of complaint upon complaint, to the point where you were frightened to move around your own home, you might start looking at more extreme measures.
This evolved into a side debate about whether seeking an APVO is ever appropriate in a dispute between neighbours (and I seem to be the only person who thinks there are situations that don’t involve actual physical violence when an APVO might be).
However, what we should probably focus on is how much neighbour noise we should be prepared to tolerate, how our complaints are presented and how the neighbours respond.
Every situation is different. You don’t want to be constantly whingeing but then you shouldn’t let your frustrations build to the point where the first the noisy neighbour knows about the problem is when you are on their doorstep in a monumental rage.
Leading on from Erte’s post above, perhaps a note from your owners corporation to all owners asking residents to be mindful of the noise they could be making and tolerant of the additional noise they may be hearing from more people spending more time at home, might defuse some of the tensions.
But our strata schemes are awash with inadequately insulated timber and tile floors, so this problem will persist long after the pandemic has faded away.
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More good news. I had skimmed over the section on strata management contracts in the proposed changes to strata laws and regulations because it stated there was no need to have a prescriptive strata management contract, as there is for residential rents).
However, it has opened the door to changes making the contracts fairer. This is what it says:
Having considered the feedback, the review considers that prescribing a standard form agreement in legislation at this point may not be necessary and notes that the PSA Act does not impose standard form agency agreements on other agents regulated under that Act (real estate agents and stock and station agents).
There are other ways to improve the regulation of contractual arrangements. Moreover, based on the feedback received, it appears that the key driver for much of the support for standard agreements is a concern with what are perceived to be unfair clauses in some strata managing agency agreements.
It was suggested to the review by several stakeholders including the Law Society, ACSL, UDIA and PICA, that instead of prescribing a standard form agency agreement, terms of concern could be addressed through a prohibition on their inclusion in management contracts.
This latter approach is already in place through Schedule 14 of the PSA Regulation and ensures a baseline level of protection and consistency for contracts without being overly prescriptive. A project to remake the PSA Regulation has recently commenced and is due to be completed by 1 September 2022. The remake process will involve the broader examination of the provisions under Schedule 14 and provides an ideal opportunity for an exploration of the inclusion of any additional mandatory or prohibited terms in Rules of Conduct.
Recommendation
65. The inclusion of additional mandatory or prohibited terms for strata management agency agreements should be considered as part of the remake of the Property and Stock Agents Regulation in 2022.It will be interesting to see what those mandatory inclusions and exclusions turn out to be.
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