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According to the Fair Trading Common Property memorandum, Owners Corporation Responsibility 8(c) the main stopcock to a unit is common property and everything downstream of that is lot owners responsiblity.
Now, this has changed over recent years but that seems to be the current thinking.
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Can a buyer having done their strata search showing continuous negative balance in Admin due to SC/OC not rectifying the deficit (but proceeded with the purchase) at a later time take legal action against the OC?
Any “interested party” – owner or tenant – can take action at Fair Trading and NCAT at just about any time for just about anything.
As a new purchaser, you could wait until the next three-month deadline clicked over and then reasonably argue that you thought the discrepancy would be corrected. But then you would probably have to pay your share of the make-good levies too. You could try to calculate how much that special levy would be and have it taken off the purchase price before you bought.
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One other question, does this type of renovation ever fall under exempt developments legislation in NSW i.e. no DA required? Or does this legislation only apply if attaching to a ground floor or to a house?
Have a look at Subsections 5 and 6 of the relevant SEPP (Exempt and Complying Developments). I suspect you may have to get this past your strata committee rather than the council, provided you comply with the standards laid out in the Act.
I don’t think it only applies to houses, as far as planning is concerned.
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You are changing the outward appearance of the building so you will propbably need a DA from the council which will probably be contingent on approval from your Owners Corporation.
If you are attaching the awning to common property or straying into common property air space (check your strata plan) you will also need a common property by-law and you may even have to compensate the strata scheme for taking over common property.
In this instance, I would not depend on the word of contractors unless they have done very similar work in your specific building. I vividly recall a flooring salesman telling me not to worry about strata committees as “it’s all BS and they can’t stop you doing what you want.”
It isn’t and they can.
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I think you can transfer the funds but you must restore it back to the Capital works fund within a certain time limit.
Actually, all you have to do is make an arrangement within three months – that is, say you’re going to pay it back, rather than actually do it. Section 76 (2) of the NSW Act says this:
The owners corporation must, not later than 3 months after the transfer or use, determine the amount to be levied as a contribution to the fund from which the transfer or use was made to reimburse the amounts paid from the fund. Section 81 (3) and (5) apply to a contribution determined under this subsection.
In real terms, this allows for a lot of creative accounting including repaying and re-borrowing the amounts – entirely on paper – or agreeing a token levies increase for the following financial year.
This is common practise, but that doesn’t make it a good thing. Depleting the capital works (sinking) fund to compensate for a shortfall in the admin fund is a sure sign of bad financial management and poor planning. That money will be needed to maintain, replace or repair common property at some point.
All your committee is doing is shifting the cost of current wear and tear on to future owners. Prospective apartment purchasers should be aware of this kind of jiggery-pokery when they are buying into a block, especially if there’s a repeated pattern.
Not only does it mean financial pain down the road, it’s an indication that the committee and strata manager have been sailing close to the wind and who knows what other “compromises” have been made along the way.
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If this was being proposed at my block’s AGM, I would point out that any such by-laws or Codes of Conduct are unenforceable and are therefore just cluttterig up the by-laws and costing money for registration, to no one’s benefit.
They can have a code of conduct for the committee, but not for non-elected owners.
If they want to deter serial pests, then they should find a better way of doing it (such as by publishing in the minutes the amount of correspondence and the cost of responsing to it.)
But if they don’t want to engage with ANY owners, why are they even standing for election?
NB: This topic is now closed.
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Do you think potential purchasers of a lot when searching the records may be put off by what they may interpret as owners being muzzled?
I think potential purchasers are more likely to be put off buying if they think someone is stirring up trouble unnecessarily – which makes it hard to argue that you want owners to stir up trouble.
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You suggest that the SC be challenged in a future AGM. The SC members are in the positions for life (sitting on a small hill of proxies, replenished annually) as most residents are charmed by a couple of them and are clueless as to what is proposed.
That would be a very, very small hill. In a strata scheme the size that you have described, each committee member is only allowed to hold one proxy vote
My worries are as follows: a) The by law (or “code”) will enable the SC and agent not to acknowledge ANY correspondence they receive, so in the case of say overpaid or wrongly charged levies, the owner could take forever to get her money back.
As already said, the code is redundant and has no force. It’s entirely up to the committee members whether or not they respond and then they have to justify their inaction when they stand for election.
… the SC has not had a properly constituted SC meeting for the three years since the current mob were elected. Presumably they talk informally amongst themselves and choose not to hold SC meetings, but that is not what is required under the Act, isn’t it?
The only requirement under the Act is that an AGM must be held every year. However, if the committee is meeting and making decisions, then they must issue a notice of meeting, an agenda and minutes, under the terms of Schedule 2 of the Strata Act. If they are making decisions without due process, then it may be worth challenging them at Fair Trading and possibly even NCAT.
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Questions: 1. Is the suggested by law “harsh, unconscionable or oppressive”? And presumably, “illegal”.
No, it’s just stupid, unworkable and unnecessary. There is no law requiring committee members to read or respond to correspondence, therefore there is no need for a by-law telling them they don’t have to. The only consequence is that they might not be re-elected at the next AGM.
2. Is the suggested “code of conduct” a violation of a person’s rights and presumably, “illegal”?
What are they going to do? Tie your hands behind your back so you can’t write? Again, it’s unworkable and unnecessary.
Reading between the lines, however, this has the feel of a signalling motion to get people to back off. There’s a fair chance that someone in your scheme has decided that the best way to get what they want is to badger the committee members with emails, letters and phone calls. This can be unproductive and deeply annoying and even distressing for committee members.
In fact, the best way to get what you want is to persuade other owners that you (and likeminded owners) should be elected on to the committee and the easiest way to do that is to persuade them that money is being wasted and their property values are being detrimentally affected.
If a disgruntled owner can’t persuade their neighbours of either of these things, then they have an uphill battle. And be clear, all that constant irritation of people in power does is to make them irritated. It certainly doesn’t make them more inclined to hear others’ points of view.
On the other hand, if owners aren’t prepared to listen to their neighbours, then why are they on the committee in the first place?
So, if you object to these moves to silence owners, put another motion up asking that committee members state whether they are prepared to read and respond to owners’ questions, complaints and suggestions, before the committee elections.
If the motion fails, it means your fellow owners simply don’t care and it’s time to let it go.
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Not 100 per cent sure of the strata laws in Queensland but I would think you’d have a very strong claim for restitution from the Body Corproate if you do reduce the rent.
Oddly enough, though, it may need you to get the tenants to make an official claim for a rent reduction with the Qld equivalent of Fair Trading, so that you then have an official figure to take to the Body Corporate.
You and your tenants could apply for Dispute Resolution under the Residential Tenancies Authority and then you could take the agreed figure to the BC as the basis of your claim. That way they can’t accuse you of being over-generous at your neighbours’ expense.
By the way, there’s not question that the tenants are entitled to a backdated rent reduction – all that’s in doubt is the amount.
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It may be too late but your owners corp needs to get on to this immediately.
Not only has chummy broken all the rules, he has left your block with a stack of potential claims against the strata scheme, if and when all his illegal renovations start falling apart.
Make no mistake, the new owners will be able to demand that you, the current owners, fix everything that goes wrong with common property for the simple reason that you didn’t demand the mad renovator agree to by-laws covering the alterations.
If the property hasn’t sold yet, talk to a lawyer about starting action at fair Trading and NCAT, quickly followed by an Interim order, demading that all common proeprty be reinstated – or responsibility accepted in a binding by-law, before the unit is sold.
If you don’t do it, I can guarantee you will be back here in a year or two asking what can be done when the new owner demands (with some justification) that you fix the previous guy’s stuff-ups.
Talk to a strata lawyer NOW!
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We are 10 villas. I was paying $700 and increased to $800 per quarter.(we received NO notification,just a one month late Levy Notice)———————————————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— —- Kaindub’s answer below covers the general gist but I thought I would break this down:4 owners where present at A.G.M and 4 gave their “individual proxy vote” to the Chairwoman at our Strata Management who runs the A.G.M. (as we do normally every year)The chair (or anyone else) in a 10-lot strata can only carry one proxy so three of the proxies were redundant2 owner appeared not counted for (no explanation why that is).Maybe they were unfinancial (behind with their levies) so their votes wouldn’t count.so instead of 10 votes only 8 voted,right?Wrong, as Kaindub explained, only 5 votes counted (or should have) because too many owners gave their proxy votes to the chair.I received a (12minute) saying AMENDMENT TO BE RESOLVED!What is a 12minute? And “to be resolved” might mean that they haven’t yet worked out the levies for the rest of the year or there is another matter that will affect the final budget. But yes, this is vague and confusing.———————————————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— —- The question is:1.-Why are they able to sent the Levy Notice if it hasn’t been resolved?They have to send out a levy notice to get the money to keep the building running. There is nothing sinister in this except that it smacks of inefficiency. Subsequent levies could iron out any over or under-charging.2.- Why the Strata Management in the minutes DOESN’T shows a list of all owners and their correspondent preference of vote YES OR NO that took placed? so the absent owner’s will able to SEE clearly how the vote where counted.They don’t have to. Maybe for next year you can propose a motiong that all votes should be recorded and noted on the minutes. If the majority of your neighbours agree, then it should happen.——————————————————— —————————— ———– 3.- Is there a law that protects owners from Strata Management and certain owners to get away with their preference. disregarding the one present by proxy?No, there isn’t. But then the proxies here are a mess with, as we’ve said, too many being given to one person for them all to count. Your chair should have rejected three of the proxies and suggested they were passed them to someone else who would be there———————————————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— ———- I will be most appreciative if you indicate “a law” obligate to print out such a list result so I can see my vote respected specially when raising LEVIES. (if there is no accountability ,corruption can be done easily if no reported) don’t you think?The only law that would require a record of votes to be taken relates to “poll” votes, where you count unit entitlements rather than a show of hands. But, as I said, you could propose a motion to require this at future general meetings.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.
Have a look at this advice on the Consumer Advice Victoria webpage. Contact them and tell them you have done all you can to resolve the situation. At the same time, contact your former strata managers and tell them that’s what you’re doing. And ask your new strata managers if they can make a call on your behalf, just as a favour (they have no responsibilities in this but a bit of inter-profession nudging can’t do any harm).
Come back to us if there is no response
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I think it’s a bit more complicated than “keeping money that isn’t theirs”… it’s usually because an owner has accidentally paid into right strata account but for the wrong lot.
Normally, I might agree with you but the OP isn’t even a client of this company any more. So it’s not a matter of merely paying money into the wrong account, it’s paying money to people who weren’t entitled to it in the first place. Messy.
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