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BTW your apartment is your workplace since you work from there. Do you have an evacuation plan? I mean one thats documented and then tested?
Yes we do have an evacuation plan which pops up in the lifts from time to time. And yes it is tested, as I said, with a compulsory fire drill like the one we are having next week. But it’s not because I or anyone else works from home … I believe it’s because the strata scheme employs people who work in the building.
There’s a big difference between a garbage collector who visits once a week and a building manager or concierge who work here in the building and are employed by the strata scheme.
According to this Safework fact sheet, people who work from home are exempt but buildings that have people employed to work in them and common property areas where tradies are working aren’t.
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BCA impact noise standards are worthless. That’s nothing new for this forum, but why has nothing been done about it?
Because the building industry says it would cost too much and inhibit the construction of new homes.
The developer’s advertising material was false – you cannot trust even the most reputable developer.
Reputable developers have reputations they need to protect. Get a newspaper or TV consumer show to run a story and to do that you may have to launch a legal challenge.
The ceiling installer provided a false declaration.
Again, take them to court
The s0-called independent certifier is paid by the builder, so he has a conflict of interest and his integrity is compromised. Certifiers appear to be nothing more than rubber-stampers. I now understand how new buildings like the ones in Sydney can be built and condemned with massive defects! No-one is checking anything. The government system of regulations and enforcement of those regulations is flawed if it can allow this sort of thing to happen.
That’s why NSW appointed Building Commissioner David Chandler
You could make a complaint to the WA Ombudsman.
You could contact the Australian Apartment Advocacy, a WA-based apartment resident support organisation, headed by Sam Reece who reckons she has politicians sitting up and taking notice (although their reference to “apartment livers” on the front page of their website suggests grammar isn’t their strong point).
Or contact Madeleine De Jong, Community Campaigner at Office of Senator Jordon Steele-John . I have no idea if she’d be interested but, hey, if you call yourself a community campaigner, you should expect all sorts of issues to come your way.
Good luck.
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One needs to take the advice of WorkplaceNSW with a grain of salt. The WHS act has a definition of a workplace, and generally strata buildings don’t fall in that category.
We are having a mandatory fire drill next week. Our building employs cleaners, concierges and a building manager – they seem to be work as far as I can tell.
But seriously, while most buildings may not have employees working on site (as opposed to external contractors), many do. Are those apartment blocks not workplaces?
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An uncooperative part owner? Does this mean the strata scheme isn’t sure who to pay the money to? In any case, you should not have stopped paying the levies.
What you owe in levies and what the strata scheme owes you in compensation are two different things entirely (although you could come to a formal agreement to offset one against the other). That said, this is not a decision you can take unilaterally.
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I think I may know the the type of person you are talking about.
Now, you can’t prevent this person from writing to you, but neither can he force you to read the emails and letters. So you could pass a resolution at your committee that, in view of previous abusive and time-consuming communications, the committee has resolved not to read them unless they come from the owner’s solicitor, and have instructed the strata manager to deal with them the same way.
Just make sure the resolution is absolutely neutral and doesn’t contain any comments that could be seen as defamatory. Personally, I would only refer to this person as “the owner of lot ###” – not even his apartment number – as anyone who wants to know who they are can soon find out but you aren’t seen to be unfairly targetting one person.
Something like “In view of the tone and number of communications from the resident of lot X, this committee resolves not to read or respond to further communications unless they are in writing (or come from the owner’s solicitor), and has instructed our strata manager to restrict direct communications accordingly.”
If the miscreant takes action at Fair Trading and NCAT, you can seek costs on the grounds outlined HERE, including:
- The relative strength of a party’s case or whether the case was hopeless
- A party’s case was frivolous, vexatious or misconceived
- Any other matter the Tribunal thinks is relevant
I note you refer to this resident as “tenant”. Are they a renter? If so, they are on even shakier ground, I would think.
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WorkplaceNSW says “It is a legal requirement that all workplaces have an emergency plan.” So if the block employs an on-site building manager, occasional tradies or cleaners, then yes.
Otherwise, regulations on emergency exit maps tend to relate to hotel-like buildings and, prospectively, short-term rentals (until Airbnb persuades the NSW government that regulations mustn’t stop people from making them richer).
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That would be the landlord or lot owner.
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Section 19 (2) 0f the Act says this:
“The secretary of the owners corporation, or another officer if the secretary is absent, must convene a general meeting (that is not an annual general meeting) of the owners corporation as soon as practicable, and not later than 14 days after, receiving a qualified request.
Section 19 (4) says:
A request is “qualified request” for the purposes of this section if it is made by one or more owners of a lot or lots in the strata scheme having a total unit entitlement of at least one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements.
It says nothing about entitlement to vote.
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Does the SM has the power to decide breach of bylaw and issue NTC without the SC vote?
Yes, they do unless the strata committee instructs them not to do so. If they issue an NTC, they have to state which by-law has been breached and how.
Can we be the one to escalate to the tribunal as we believe we have a case here?
Why would you do that? You are not required to prove you are right, unless they take you to the Tribunal.
If I were you I’d tell the strata manager and committee that this is harassment, they are in the wrong, and they should take your parents to the tribunal if they are confident they have a case. And if they do so, you will seek costs. Otherwise they should leave your parents to live in peace.
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For clarity’s sake, 0-39 lots allow one proxy vote per proxy holder, 40-59 allows two proxy votes, 60 to 79 allows three etc etc.
You can’t just pass on the votes to another person but the standard proxy form has a space for the lot owner who’s giving you the proxy to nominate a second person to carry the proxy if you are over the limit.
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Bullying and verbal abuse are forms of assault and you could get a personal viloence order from your local court if you have enough evidence of the abuse and of the detrimental effect on your health (like a doctor’s letter).
Take the worst of them to court and the rest will back off very quickly.
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If the couple are living on the premises and they decide to rent a room to 1 or 2 other people, thereby breaching the agreed limit of 2 persons (as per the RTA), then my refusal to consent to this is not “unreasonable”. True?
This should be contractual – as in the tenants should abide by the terms of the contract – but I am loath to predict how the tribunal would view it.
For instance, section 137 of the Act effectively (although in a roundabout way) sets the “reasonable” occupancy limit of apartments at two adults per bedroom.
But then if the tenants have signed a rental contract that set the limit at two adults, aren’t the they being unreasonable in challenging it.
I think the compromise, given the lingering effects of covid and the resurgence of short-term letting, would be to say that you were prepared to accept another couple for a higher rental.
But,as Kaindub reiterated, this has nothing to do with by-laws, unless there is overcrowding.
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Can a by-law be created for the OC to penalise (be it financially and/or an order for eviction) of a tenant who offers a room or the entire premises for short term letting without the approval of the landlord?
No. Section 139 of the Act says:
By-law cannot prevent dealing relating to lot
No by-law is capable of operating to prohibit or restrict the devolution of a lot or a transfer, lease, mortgage or other dealing relating to a lot.
The owners corporation has no dog in this fight, unless there are by-laws in place that prevent short-term lets by anyone.
FYI: This section was used for many years to block by-laws that prevented owners from listing on Airbnb, until the Appeals Court in WA and the Law Lords in the UK ruled that since planning laws forbade short-term lets in apartment blocks, there was no right to run Airbnbs for the by-laws to inerfere with. That’s why the NSW government changed the laws.
When it comes to Tenants sub-letting, the standard residential tenancy agreement allows the tenant to sublet part of the property with the written permission of the landlord which can’t be unreasonably refused.
However, the landlord can refuse the transfer or subletting of the entire property.
By the way, since, under the new laws you can’t have by-laws restricting short-term rental of part of a property while the owner or tenant is in residence, there is nothing to stop a tenant from letting a room on Airbnb or its ilk. Sub-letting the whole unit is another matter entirely.
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Am I wrong to think there is a difference between fixtures/fitting which cannot be taken with you when one moves out; and movable contents are your furniture and personal use items.
I think you are right about fixtures, which include built-in cupboards and shower screens as they would be covered by most building insurance (with slight variations).
The same applies to broken windows and glass doors as they are common property in most modern buildings.
However, this does not cover wear and tear. It’s basically accident cover. Also, if the lot owner or their tenants were negligent and caused the damage, they would be liable to pay for the repairs.
Everything else should be covered by home & contents insurance and, where applicable, landlord insurance. Check your existing insurance policies or ask for the terms of any new policies you are thinking of undertaking.
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