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According to the NSW current Public Health Orders, “visitors are not allowed in residences in Greater Sydney unless authorised under the Order for … the following purposes … To view or inspect real property for sale or lease or participate in an auction”
According to this story under current restrictions, potential purchasers are permitted to view listed properties only by private inspection. Open homes and public auctions on site are not allowed.
However, people are not allowed to travel outside the “red”zones in Sydney’s South-West and estate agents are supposed to record their names and addresses, so that should limit on-site inspections even further.
If you suspect someone is frequently playing fast and loose with the rules go to the Crimestoppers website and dob them in on the online link there.
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Nope.
I leave that to our sponsors Strata Answers and Sach Gerace Lawyers, either of whom can offer you top quality advice and advocacy.
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There is a standard clause in the Act that requires the owners corporation to incorporate responsibility for on going maintenance into by-laws allowing changes to bemade to common property.
Most if not all OCs will pass responsibility to the renovating owner. This clause is only there to make sure some party has legally binding responsibility in the future, regardless of who owns the property.
I can’t see any reason why they would allow that to expire at a future time when the warranty has run out and any sub-standard work is more likely to become evident.
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What body made the ruling/decision that only C/tee members can access invoice payments etc & why? It is the owners money & in the owners interest to know EXACTLY who is being paid for what.
In very simple terms it is the owners collectively who have made that decision in accepting the terms of the software usage supplied by the strata manager.
You can always propose at your next AGM that there may be more open access to financial information than the Hub currently provides, be the software may not allow it, the strata manager may charge more for it, and the other owners (as a majority) may not want it.
There are other platforms like our sponsors StrataBox that allow a more detailed view of invoicing and payments, but even then I think the default is to allow detailed information to only be available to committee members, and you must have OC agreement to change that setting.
You are entitled to view the details of all transactions for and by the OC, but that doesn’t mean on a day-to-day basis.
If you think there is something untoward happening, it really doesn’t cost that much to get access to all the information held by the strata managers on the owners corp behalf, and which they must by law provide (albeit under controlled circumstances).
If you find evidence of the misuse of funds, at the very least you can use that as an argument for making sure the current strata committee is not re-elected at the next AGM.
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What is the Community Hub? Is it like a website or online resource for the strata scheme?
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If your proposed roof intrudes into the common property airspace (2.44 metres above the floor) then you have to pay the owners corp compensation. The calculations for that (as established in the High Court) is the estimated or agreed difference between the value of the property before the addition and after it, minus all the costs of the work, including legals, archistects fees, DA submissions and building work.
In other words, if you increase the value of your propery by $50k and it costs you $30k to build, with all legals etc included, you should offer the owners corp $20K.
You will get the use of the improved property, plus a share of the value when you money drops into your Admin fund.
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I have on occasion had to write to SCA (and to my colleagues in the media) to stop referring to SCA as representing owners.
Yes, they have an owners group, but whenever you ask them the critical question “in a dispute between an owner and strata manager, whose side do you take?” they fall very silent.
SCA Queensland is the worst. A couple of years ago they complained to the Fin Review that I had written that they thought pre-sales of management contracts was “fine and dandy”.
Their complaint? They had never discussed it so they had no opinion. What a load of crap! They are enablers at the very least and compliant co-beneficiaries. Maybe they don’t discuss it on a “don’t mention the war” basis.
To be fair to SCA-NSW, they are trying to be an independent and responsible body but if you were a member and they took an owner’s side against you, you’d be a bit miffed, wouldn’t you?
Complain to Fair Trading about strata managers – it is the licensing body. They won’t do anything either but at least you’ve registered the complaint with someone who might care.
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And you might also want to read John’s call for a new standard strata management agreement HERE
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Can I suggest that Flatchat set up a board for posting draft by-laws, for other users to share, and to comment and review?
I’d rather do it on a case by case basis because there are eight different sets of strata laws in Australia and myriad very specific strata scheme configurations.
Happy to have people request and post specific by-laws for defined situations.
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Although it’s now over the 2 year limit do you think you think I should include my building consultant costs from 2018? To be honest I sort of left everything go during the chaos of COVID last year
One thing is guaranteed, if you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it, and I don’t think it ill weaken your case unless an NCAT member sees it as a cash grab.
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First of all, what is your definition of “LPI”? I have about three.
Also, by paying a fee to a bookshop, you can get a copy of a book. That doesn’t mean you now own the right to reproduce its contents. Just because you’re allowed to read something doesn’t mean you can copy it for your own purposes.
In the bad old days when the Strata Community Association was called the Institute of Strata Title Management (ISTM) they would refuse to let anyone change the terms of their standard contract, saying it was “copyright”.
Personally, I think they were morally wrong but they may have been copyright right. Copyright usually only applies to creative works, but if someone has spent time and money creating a form of words, it’s only polite to ask their permission before you take and use it for your own purposes.
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… perhaps s.106 (5) SSMA should be considered …
Which says:
(5) An owner of a lot in a strata scheme may recover from the owners corporation, as damages for breach of statutory duty, any reasonably foreseeable loss suffered by the owner as a result of a contravention of this section by the owners corporation.
Just apply for mediation at Fair Trading with a view to recovering all costs incurred due to a failure by the Owners Corporation to maintain and repair common property. They should have been more on the ball when chummy upstairs was ripping out walls and floors.
They can then recover the costs via their insurance. High excess payments are the most pathetic of excuses for not fulfilling their stautory duties. When it comes to insurance, you don’t get what you don’t pay for.
High excesses are only a good idea when all the other aspects of building maintance and management are properly seen to.
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There are only two reasons I can see for schemes not allowing other schemes to read and/or use their by-laws. Firstly, if they are exceptionally onerous, illogical, outated, illegal or restrictive, it might give the building a bad (and entirely deserved) reputation.
Secondly, there is a faint possibility that they may be subject to copyright restrictions but, since those usually only apply to creative works and the commercial exploitation of them, at least when it comes to penalties, the worst that might happen would be that the original scheme sent a “cease and desist”.
Slightly more likely would be if the scheme said the by-laws cost them X amount in legal fees, therefore you should pay half.
I think before you go any further in this, you should consider joining the Owners Corporation Network (OCN) where you will find a community of other owners and strata schemes happy to share their resources and experiences.
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Can we request the scaffolding be of certain type that allows us to park the car in the garage for the safety of our child?
You can try but it may not be possible even if they wanted to do it.
Can we request the works to commence and be concentrated on our side of the building to minimise the disruption period of 6 months?
It makes sense in any case for the work to be concentrated in one area for one period as scaffolding has to be hired and that’s an additional expense. Again, it may not be possible but it’s worth asking.
Can we request special permit to park our car on common area where it will not disrupt other tenants?
That is probably the easiest thing to achieve and is certainly worth exploring. Most by-laws forbidding parking on common property come with a rider of “without written permisson”. If they go for it you would want them to provide a specially designated space marked out as only for your car.
Are we entitled to reduction in our strata levies due to disruption to peaceful occupancy of our home to compensate us for renting a parking spot in an adjacent building?
It would be easier just to ask them to pay the cost of renting a car park – and this could certainly be used as leverage to get the car parking space on common property.
Make an appointntment to sit down with your strata manager and discuss the options with them.
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