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I may be mistaken but I think this refers to common property within the lot and the fact that, while it must be maintained and repaired by the OC, it must not be damaged by the lot owner. If it is, the lot owner is liable for repairs to it.
In other words, I think this is the opposite of your interpretation.
The OC is usually responsible for repairs to common property except when the lot owner has done something that necessitated the repairs.
For instance, if your ceiling is common property and you drill holes in it, say, to fit downlights, then you have to repair any damage caused as a consequence of those changes.
One other exception to the OC being responsible for common property would be when an owner has been allowed to change common property and has agreed to assume responsibility for maintenance and repairs as part of the by-law allowing them to make the changes.
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I live in Bondi and am keen to find out more about the location of this block. Anyone come across any details please?
Probably best to do this by personal message as the authorities have clearly decided to keep it under wraps. Don’tt want to spark any pitchforks and flaming torches scenarios.
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… the agent previously made available to all owners a portal with all of the alleged strata records in it, but surprise surprise, I cannot find details of the above expenditures. While I will fossick through my archives, I feel that concealing or losing vital records – that fall well within the 7 year rule – is a breach(es) of the SSMA. True?
This is perilously close to multi-posting of the same topic that’s already been posted elsewhere on the Forum. True?
You are pushing your luck with this and it could lead to your being suspended from the forum (very true!)
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They will stop work on my property if I do not meet 50 Lntw with whatever flooring I wish to replace mainly the kitchen, breakfast room, foyer ,dining room.
A couple of points spring to mind. Firstly, they can’t enforce a by-law that doesn’t exist. If there is no by-law demanding a certain thickness of Regupol, then they can’t force you install that particular product. The law on renovations that affect common property says you may do them under the terms set out in by-laws.
However, the strata schemes does have some leeway in what they can demand before allowing it (although they face the prospect of being challenged at NCAT if they are unreasonable).
But, in the asence of a prescriptive by-law, they can’t predict how effective or otherwise your preferred and/or recommended level of insulation will be. The onus is on you to take the best advice you can get with the knowledge that, should it prove inadequate, you will have to replace the flooring at your own expense.
Rather than go by either what your committee says, nor indeed what is advised by the flooring installers, talk to a soundproofing expert such as Soundblock who will be able to offer independent advice and, if you wish, prepare the floor for the timber flooring. They may be able to recommend soundproofing that meets the acoustic requirements without making the floor too high.I need to know am I within my rights to keep existing floorboards in kitchen and just replace all the cupboards and white goods without the owners corporation telling me to replace the existing floorboards.
If you go ahead with the kitchen-only reno, the owners corp can’t order you to replace the existing floorboards unless they are demonstrably causing a noise nuisance. And since your downstairs neighbour refuses to allow an acoustic test, they have no basis for doing that.
Normally, I would say that the downstairs tiles were irrelevant, but they may well be contributing to the perception of noise from your flat, as experienced downstairs, as they are reflecting rather than absorbing sound.If I were in your shoes (and you should probably get expert legal advice on this) I would very politely tell the committee that they have no legal basis for blocking your renovation. However, you are prepared to negotiate and go to mediation over this if need be.
If the committee still attempts to block your renovation, and you have received reliable independent advice, tell them you will seek orders at NCAT to prevent them from doing so and you will also seek compensation for any additional costs incurred as a consequence.
I also recommend that you talk to our sponsors StrataAnswers who are very good at sitting down with conflicting parties, explaining the fact of strata life to all concerned and taking the heat out of this kind of situation.
By the way, there has been a confusing and retrograde change to the regulations in recent years – it used to be that the installation of timber flooring was regarded as a minor renovation, now it is specifically the removal of carpet to expose floorboards.
Pretty dumb, considering that the former would probably include the installation of noise reducing material and the latter involves it’s removal.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.
I’m more alarmed at the idea that there are some documents that are only available to the committee. Owners are entitled to see all records and correspondence by and with the committee, with the exception of correspondence between the committee and their lawyers regarding a case between them and an owner (and even then, I don’t think that has been tested in court).
To give an example, in my building there was a very nasty legal case between the committee and an employee, the record of which was “sealed” by the court. However, owners were allowed to view the sealed document (albeit under strictly controlled circumstances) as they were effectively party to the case since the committee had been representing them.
That said, in this case mediation might be the way to go although if the records geuinely don’t exist because they have been lost or destroyed, there’s not much anyone can do about it.
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The Owners Corp manager says nothing to do with me.
The owners corporation has a duty to maintain and repair common property. I’m guessing the floor and its covering (or lack thereof) are common property.
Also, if you look at the model rules, there are a couple of instances where it says owners can’t change common property without written permission.
So this has everything to do with the OC manager … [apparently not – see Austman’s response below].
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It would be a significant alteration.
If you’re not keen, ask the committee who would be storing the images, how secure they would be, who would have access to them and how often they would be erased.
At least that would get people thinking ag about privacy issues.
Also, under some weird quirk in WHS legislation, you may have to put up signs warning peple that they are under video surveillance.
Present all that and your committee might decide it’s all too hard.
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The standard WA by-laws (which you will find in this document) cover noise in two sections.
Section 2(b) says: An owner or occupier of a lot must … not use the lot or permit it to be used in such manner or for such purpose as causes a nuisance to an occupier of another lot (whether an owner or not) or the family of such an occupier.
Section 12 (b) says: An owner or occupier of a lot must not … make undue noise in or about the lot or common property.
So if the noise is occurring at any time during the night or day, you can issue breach notices (or whatever the equivalent is in WA) and pursue it that way.
If it’s happening at night, you can call the police on 131 444 (while it’s happening).
If it’s a persistent issue and the residents ignore by-law breach notices, you can call your local authority.
The WA EPA regulations refer to noise nuisance in five main regards (in no particular order):
- The time of day the noise occurs
- The volume or intensity of the noise
- The nature of the noise (e.g. irritating repetitive beeping rather than loud music).
- The length of time the noise lasts
- The number of times the noise nuisance occurs.
I have extracted the table below from a factsheet issued by Rockingham Council based on the EPA regulations (because it’s the most helpful I could find). It seems there are different times when different noise levels are permitted
Time of Day Assigned level (dB) LA10 LA1 LAmax 7:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday – Saturday 45 + IF 55 + IF 65 + IF 9:00 am to 7:00 pm Sunday and Public Holidays 40 + IF 50 + IF 65 + IF 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm all days 40 + IF 50 + IF 55 + IF 10:00 pm on any day to 7:00 am Monday to Saturday and 9:00 am Sunday and Public Holidays 35 + IF 45 + IF 55 + IF If these LA figures mean nothing to youu (as they did to me) LA10 is the average noise lever for 10 percent of the time, La1 is for 1 per cent of the measurement time and LAmax is, as you’d think, the maximum noise level at any given time.
And you can get a guide to what the Decibels mean in real term from this chart.
Now, I’m not an audio expert so if I’ve got this wrong please correct me (and apologies for the crappy table above).
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Naming the complainant is quite provaocative but anyone can search the strata records to see any correspondence anyway.
This feels like sloppy communication but it might saaso be the committee or secretary signalling that they don’t have a problem with it.
I would politely ask them to be a bit more discrete in future.
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Good luck trying to use the noise bylaw. I’ve had a noisy toddler above me for a year now and our Strata manager won’t pursue it further because it’s a child.
You don’t have to wait for the strata manager to do it. You can apply to Fair Trading for mediation then pursue it at NCAT if you wish.
In any case, there’s a big difference between noisy toddlers and party animals breaking by laws and EPA noise regulations.
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Can we pass a bylaw that prohibits subletting in our (small) block?
No you can’t – you can’t pass by-laws that interfere with the sale or rental of units – but there are plenty of other solutions.
It would probably be worth getting an experienced strata lawyer to review your existing by-laws to see which ones would be effective and which ones would stick.
The model by-laws (which you’d need to have been adopted for your specific block) say this:
6 Noise
An owner or occupier of a lot, or any invitee of an owner or occupier of a lot, must not create any noise on a lot or the common property likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of the owner or occupier of another lot or of any person lawfully using common property.
7 Behaviour of owners, occupiers and invitees
(2) An owner or occupier of a lot must take all reasonable steps to ensure that invitees of the owner or occupier–
(a) do not behave in a manner likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of the owner or occupier of another lot or any person lawfully using common property.
Now, if you have those by-laws already on your books, then you can start issuing Notices to Comply to each of the offending parties: the upstairs tenants, the head tenant (sub-letting landlord) and the owner.
But if you don’t have them, or the wording is different, you may have to fix things, then start issuing NTCs.
According to this post, if your by-laws say that owners (rather than residents) mustn’t make too much noise then a noise by-law wouldn’t apply to the tenants. But the headline on the post is a bit misleading … it’s not that tenants can’t be told to keep the noise down, it’s that the by-laws have to be precise.
Download this pamphlet published by the state government about how to deal with noisy neighbours.
In your position, I’d check the by-laws, issue the Notices to Comply (don’t get sidetracked with nonsense about issuing warnings – NTCs ARE warnings) and hit them with everything you can muster.
I’d offer your tenants a week of free rent to compensate but ask them to call the police whenever the noise goes past 10pm on week nights or midnight at weekends. The police will come, they will issue on-the-spot fines and they will remove stereos or whatever if they’ve told the tenants to stop the noise and they start up again.
The EPA restrictions above are not instead of your block’s noise by-laws, they are as well as, so noise during the day should be hit with Notices To Comply and noise late at night by calls to the police.
And if none of that works, you can hit both the tenants and the head tenant with noise abatement orders at your local court and if they ignore those, they are committing a crime. That’s all in the pamphlet too.
By the way, if the tenants are obstructive or try to delay action at NCAT, you can apply for all legal costs to be paid by them, so there may come a point where you want to “lawyer up”.
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I’m a bit confused. How long are they taking to turn around, for it to become an impediment to other owners? Or are they turning in preparation for exiting next time? Or are you just annoyed that they aren’t using the designated turning circle?
In any case, yes, you can pass a by-law that sets reasonable restrictions on the use of common property, including that residents not use the driveway to turn, probably citing safety reasons. Once you have that in place (assuming you have the support of other owners) then you can ping them when they breach the by-laws.
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Our Strata management let it happen. They are involved in this too and they are running scared.
A quiet word with the strata manager explaining that they shouldn’t tie themselves too closely to the fates of a doomed regime might help.
If someone tried that voting stunt at an AGM I was at I would stand up and declare the vote illegal and tell them it would be challenged at NCAT regardless of the outcome unless the followed the law.
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Until the agenda for the EGM has been issued, you can add anything to it. After that, it would have to be an amendment to the motions that are on there, which you would propose at the actual meeting.
For instance, if the motion on the agenda is to disband the committee (which would actually be an invalid motion unless it is signposted as a special resolution) you could at the meeting propose an amendment to the motion that the meeting elects new members to fill the vacancies created by the resignations of the “oligarchy” as you call them.
As long as the amendment is a variation of the original motion – and not some entirely different thing – then it should stand.
You might also do well to follow the format for strata committee elections as set out in Section 9 of the Regulations, which is to call for nominations, then decide on the number of members you want on the committee, then conduct a poll by providing voting owners with blank sheets of paper on which they should write the names of the nominees they want to vote for.
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