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The meeting to make the decision is next week. I’ll let you know the outcome as there must be others experiencing the same dilemma.
Please do. It’s all valuable experience and information.
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There’s an intrinsic anomaly in all of this which is that an external body (NBN) is dictating strata policy. The law says that common property costs must be charged on the basis of unit entitlements. NBN says the installation must be all or nothing. The OC is responsible (very generally speaking) for infrastructure up to but not into individual units. The OC can’t really issue a compusory charge on any basis other than UEs. And there will be some people who don’t want high-speed internet anyway.
One elegant, if slightly dubious solution would be for the OC to offer “free” installation to all owners, but pay for the installation out ot OC funds. Or find some way of categorising the upgrade as a fire safety provision.
But, to be honest, strata is full of illogical charges – like people on the ground floor having to contribute to lift maintenance or balcony repairs – so you could distibute the charges according to UEs and let the losers take you to the tribunal if they feel sufficiently aggrieved.
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Pass a motion at your next strata committee meeting that you intend to pursue the appropriate by-law with the new owner if the current owner hasn’t agreed to the by-law. In that case, the new owners will be given the choice of agreeing to the by-law or having the hot water system removed at their expense.
Write to the current owner informing them that this decision has been made, and that it is in the minutes of the strata committee and reminding them that, by law, this information must be passed on to the new owner as it might affect their decision on whether or not to purchase the unit.
That way, neither the current owner or purchaser can say they weren’t informed.
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A general meeting is “valid” if there is a quorum present, and it begins and ends. If all the agenda item decisions are unknown, then consider the decision for each one as being deferred, and take this up at the next meeting.
If the numbers aren’t there at the start of a meeting to achieve a quorum, the chair just has to wait half an hour then declare it quorate.
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Perhaps the simplest thing would be to review all the decisions supposedly made at the prvious AGM and ask owners to vote on them again – that way what was actually said and done at the meeting is irrelevant. And this time record the meeting – or maybe just the chair’s declarations of votes – and run it through a transcription service like Otter to get an instant and accurate transcript.
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“the minutes still have not been resolved in favour”
What exactly do you mean by that? That a draft has not been approved by the committee? Only a general meeting can approve, amend or reject the minutes of a previous general meeting.
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The other owners should be informed that if they committee hires lawyers and loses, then only the failed defence owners – i.e. the majority – will have to pay the legal fees. The bill will have to be covered by a special levy and the winning plaintiffs can’t be included in that.
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It’s possible the by-law would be void as the condition of the exclusive use area was changed by the OC.
Common property by-laws can only be changed with the written approval of both parties. I’d apply for mediation with a view to seeking orders at NCAT.
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I wonder if the insurance issue is a case of “loading up” as the police call it when they add multiple offences to the original charge, just to make sure they get the culprit for something. Unless the insurers or fire saftey people have issues a warning, this is a bit of a furphy, albeit an understandable one. Go back to any by-laws that state what can or can’t be stored in a parking space, and others about the appearance of lots FROM common property and that should be enough.
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The GM main two objectives are: to vote that the altered AGM minutes reflect the events of the AGM (which is false) and contradict John’s sworn document that those altered minutes were not consistent with the events of the AGM. Renew the manager’s agreement. What can John do now?
In the first instance, propose and amendment asking that anyone who was not at the meeting, who can therefore not confirm or deny the accuracy of the proposal, recuse themselves from voting.
Regarding the manager’s agreement, ask that it be deferred for three months until the veracity of the SM’s amended minutes can be determined.
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As you are responsible for repairs and maintenance, I think you are lucky the OC didn’t hit you up for the cost of re-waterproofing your portion of the space.
Responsible for repairs and maintenance of what? If the relevant by-law doesn’t state that the lot owner is responsible for the common property, then the OC should compensate them for the destruction of the tiles required when the common property roof was re-sealed. I’d be taking that one to Fair Trading and the Tribunal. I have responsibility for my bathroom tiles but if my OC wanted to dig them up for THEIR purposes, I’d be looking for a reasonable pay-out.
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I changed the heading on this post from “Storage of junk in car space” because I think the real issue here is the inability to contact the owner. Once you have contacted the owner, you can deal with the by-law breaches.
And I think the key to the solution is to agree at a strata committee meeting to issue a Notice To Comply and then pursue an action at NCAT for the impposition of fines. The fines will escalate every time your notice is ignored and eventually that will get the owner or their property manager’s attention.
Also you might look at Section 258 which allows for maximum fines of $550 for failure to notify the OC of the commencement of a new tenancy.
258 Tenancy notice to be given to owners corporation(1) If a lot is leased, the relevant person must give notice of the lease to the owners corporation not later than 14 days after the commencement of the lease.
Maximum penalty—5 penalty units.(2) If the relevant person fails to comply with subsection (1), the tenant may give notice of the lease to the owners corporation.
(3) If a lease of a lot is assigned, the assignor must give notice of the assignment to the owners corporation not later than 14 days after the execution of the assignment.
Maximum penalty—5 penalty units.(4) The notice must be in writing and specify—
(a) the name of the tenant and an address for service of the tenant, and
(b) the date of commencement or assignment of the lease, as the case requires, and
(c) the name of the real estate agent managing the lease, if applicable.
Any or all of these are intended to get the lot owner’s attention, so with that in mind I would go in hard at the start and then ease off once contact has been established.There’s a very good chance that the property is being managed by a rental agent who is simply not passing on the messages from the OC because they want the owner to think they are on top of their job and they don’t want to bother them. Sudden appearance of fines on their levy notices will bother them.Anyone else been in this situation? And how did you handle it?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.
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