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Or, you could vote yourself on to the committee. Then you could have first hand knowledge of things in the future.
Unfortunately, my link to Mark180’s original posts didn’t “take”. Getting on to the committee appears to be a major problem here: https://www.flatchat.com.au/topic/nomination-for-members-of-the-strata-committee/.
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It seems that unless by-laws are totally specific, we haven’t got much ammunition.
Specific by-laws demanding a certain thickness or brand of insulation could be redundant in NSW, following the Court of Appeal’s ruling against by-laws banning pets.
The gist of the ruling was that by-laws can’t force residents to do anything to pre-empt a problem that might happen. You have to establish whether or not a problem exists and then deal with it using the available aspects of strata law.
That would mean anyone can put down any flooring they like, but they should be aware that if it cause a noise issue, they could be forced to change it.
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Section 232 (2) of the Act has provisions that allow the Tribunal (NCAT) to order the committee or strata scheme to fulfil their legal obligations – like maintaining and repairing common property. You could seek orders under that provision.
Or you could just phone your strata insurers and tell them that the building is being insured under false pretences. That might work, if they threaten to cancel the insurance cover if the membrane isn’t fixed.
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I would be interested to know if these by-laws are similar to the average by-laws, or if your by-laws have stronger provisions in them.
Every building, to some extent, has its own by-laws and enforces them to different degrees. For future reference – e.g. when you try to get your block’s by-laws upgraded to be a bit more effective – my own building’s flooring by-law stipulates 11mm Regupol underlay between the timber and the slab. Others tend to set noise transmission standards and leave it to the owners to work out how to best achieve them.
Unfortunately, your by-laws stipulate Australian Building Standards which, I have to say, are woefully inadequate and designed to make building apartments more affordable for developers rather than livable for residents.
And just to be clear, other blocks’ by-laws are irrelevant to your situation. You have to live with what you’ve got.
So, assuming the flooring upstairs doesn’t meet even BCA standards, the relevant questions are:
1. Did the upstairs owner get the required permission to lift the carpet and install timber flooring?
2. If they did, was it to install flooring without insulation?
If the answers to either of the above is “No” you can ask your strata committee to commence action to have the floorboards removed and relaid with appropriate insulation or the floor recarpeted.
If the answers are yes, you can start action against the committee for breaching its own by-laws (assuming the sound insulation doesn’t achieve minimum standards) and the upstairs owner for breaching section 153 of the strata Act (below).
There should be a written record of any correspondence with your secretary or strata manager, which you are entitled to see. If they say this is a matter between you and the resident upstairs (as strata managrs and committees often do) point out that the Act requires the owners corp to to enforce its by-laws – it is not optional and you can compel them to do so under section 232 (2) of the Act.
153 Owners, occupiers and other persons not to create nuisance(1) An owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee in possession, tenant or occupier of a lot in a strata scheme must not—
(c) use or enjoy the common property in a manner or for a purpose that interferes unreasonably with the use or enjoyment of any other lot by the occupier of the lot (whether that person is an owner or not) or by any other person entitled to the use and enjoyment of the lot.
Good luck and brace yourself for the possibility of a long and bitter battle (especially considering the apparent selfishness and stupidity of your neighbour).
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One useful piece was a document “Acoustic-Ratings-Floors” giving comparisons between the acoustic properties of different floor treatments. Can you tell me the derivation of this document please? There’s a note at the bottom of Table 1 about the Association of Australian Acoustical Consultants (AAAC). Did it come from them?
OK, that post is more than 10 years old and the whole of strata law in NSW has changed since then. But if you want to find guidelines, here is an informative document from the AAAC.
Personally, I wouldn’t get too hung up on guidelines and tables. There are several elements that contribute to noise transmission – the materials on the floor, the thickness and density of the concrete slab and the behaviour of the occupants (do they wear shoes indoors, or run around, or play loud music).
It’s hard to say what the remedy in your specific situation is, except that the upstairs owner has left themselves wide open to action by you or the owners corporation.
For a start, if they have in fact glued the floorboard to the slab, then they have interfered with common property and, as such, probably required the written permission of the strata committee at the very least.
There may be by-laws in your building related to what floor coverings are permitted and what aren’t.
And even if they did get permission, and they weren’t in breach of the by-laws, it comes down to your fundamental right, enshrined in strata law, to the peaceful enjoyment of your lot.
There was a time when the Tribunal might have ordered the upstairs neighbour to put down a few rugs to mitigiate the noise. I doubt very much if they would do that now. They are more likely to order them to recarpet or re-lay the floorboards with proper insulation underneath.
All you have to do is prove that there is an unreasonable level of noise coming into your apartment because your upstairs neighbour has removed the only effective noise insulation and the next sound you hear could be sobbing from upstairs, interrupted by the sound of timber being ripped up from the floor.
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You are fortunate that you are in Victoria as, unlike in NSW, the Tribunal there (VCAT) will rule on Company Title matters, according to this factsheet.
But wherever this dispute takes you, your first challenge is to establish that the laundry and balconies are common property, and that will be somewhere in the articles (rules) of the company that owns the building.
There is only one appropriate response to people who say “sue me” – and that is, “I hope your lawyers are as expensive as mine as I will be coming after all costs when I win.”
BTW, you neighbour sounds like a bully – and there’s only one way to deal with that kind of beast … unless you want to see where the thin end of this wedge leads to.
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Are these restrictions about the safety of people? Or simply a risk mitigation Strategy that is protecting strata from legal worries?
OK, there is no current NSW Health directive saying that strata pools and gyms should be closed. In my building, for instance, the pool and spa have been open for weeks, as have the gyms, albeit with restrictions on the numbers of people who can exercise at any one time, controlled by a booking system.
Perhaps your block lacks the management structures to be able to set up a system like that. Or maybe they just lack the imagination to come up with a workable plan.
Or maybe they are just taking the opportunity to save money. I would be telling the committee, the strata manager and your landlord or rental agent that you have paid for these facilities and there is no good reason for them being denied to you.
You want them open or you want a rent reduction. Simple as that.
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BTW, I had a conveyencor to look at these matters, would strata minutes searching be one of their duties?
There are searches and there are searches. A more thorough (and therefore more expensive) search would have turned up the debt to council, an ordinary search probably wouldn’t have. You get what you pay for.
I recall one case where a purchaser’s lawyer’s strata search failed to pick up strata committee notes that they were intending to ban pets fom the building. By the time she had exchanged, the new by-law was in place and she was told she couldn’t bring her dog into the building, even though she had chosen that flat becasue the block was supposedly pet friendly.
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The extraordinary general meeting was conducted almost half year ago. Now it seems that it was conducted in a wrong way. Does that mean the absolution of maintenance by-law they passed at the meeting is not valid? Or that it passes a time limit, it cannot be undone?
The limit on challenging by-laws is, I think, two years. However, there is a wrinkle in strata law that says that says just becasue an element of a meeting was wrong, not all the decisions taken at that meeting are invalid. It’s complicated and you would probably have to show that the actual decision to create the by-law was improperly taken.
And at this point I’m getting preilously close to giving legal advice which I am not qualified to do. You should talk to a lawyer.
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Will Strata Answers represent a client to deal with OC and strata manager?
They used to, for a fee. Don’t know if they still do as they are now providing strata education services for City of Sydney. You might also call Sachs Gerace and see how much it would cost to get them to write a letter to your strata manager explaining how they have broken the law and what they need to do to fix it..
By the way, you might also explain that it doesn’t matter what the committee decided regarding conflicts of interest – the law is the law and they can’t ignore it when it suits them.
And I would report the strata manager to Fair Trading immediately.
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… the strata owes council 2 years of water related bill from years before. I just became an owner early this year. Should I pay this bill?
This is really between you and the previous owner (and whoever did the search on the strata minutes before you bought). In reality, I think you’ve missed your chance.
The level of non-compliance and incompetetence in your block is incredible. I would be raising a complaint with Fair Trading about the strata manager and would seriously consider taking action at NCAT to have the other members kicked off the committee under Section 238 of the Act.
Or you could just say to the committee members and the strata managers that these are your options and do they want to do this the easy way or the hard way?
I would also consider contacting our sponsors Strata Answers and asking them to come in, give the committee and the strata managers the facts of life (for a fee) and then try to move on from there.
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I attended the first half of the meeting. I wasn’t allowed to attend the second half where they discussed the absolution of maintenance by-law, because I wasn’t a committee member. Was this right? The owners are not allowed to attend committee meetings if they are not a member?
This is definitely not right. Owners are absolutely allowed to attend committee meetings but they can only speak if invited to. I think it’s safe to say your committee members and/or strata manager don’t know what they are doing or do know what they are doing but have decided to flout strata law.
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As we have said many times on these pages, if your scheme has a lot of dealings with your strata manager, then you should go for a contract that’s more expensive but all inclusive.
If everything is settled and the strata manager is just orgnsisng meetings, collecting levies and paying bills , then it’s worth going for a less expensive contract thatallows for Schedule B charges.
If I’m reading your post correctly, you are paying a lot more than the quoted figures in your actual strata management fees. So ask the strata manager what an all-inclusive (no schedule B charges), contract would be.
If they can’t offer a serious reduction on $75k, then you are entitled to look elsewhere. By the way, the average per unit fees these days seem to be between $260 and $300 (but it all depends on the Schedule B charges and how keen they are to top up with them).
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