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For some reason everyone, including me, thinks SMs can hold as many proxies as asked. Whereas owners follow the rules you’ve outlined above.
I’ve never heard of that one – but then I’m happy to be contradicted … as soon as someone quotes the part of the Act that makes it so.
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Quick question, how many proxies can a Strata Manager hold at an Annual General Meeting?
In a scheme of up to 20 lots (in NSW), only one. In schemes of more than 20 lots, a whole number representing no more than 5 per cent of the lots.
In real terms, this means
- 1 to 39 lots = 1 proxy, maximum
- 40 to 59 lots = 2 proxies
- 60 to 79 lots = 3 proxies
- 80 to 99 lots = 4 proxies
… and so forth, rising in blocks of 20 lots.
In case of argument, you might want to quote Schedule 1, 26 (7) of the Act which says:
Limit on number of proxies that may be held
The total number of proxies that may be held by a person (other than proxies held by the person as the co-owner of a lot) voting on a resolution are as follows—
(a) if the strata scheme has 20 lots or less, one,
(b) if the strata scheme has more than 20 lots, a number that is equal to not more than 5% of the total number of lots.You might also be interested in Section 25 (7):(7) Limits on exercise of proxy by building manager, on-site residential property manager or strata managing agentA vote by a proxy who is a building manager, an on-site residential property manager or a strata managing agent is invalid if it would obtain or assist in obtaining a pecuniary interest for, or confer or assist in conferring any other material benefit on, the proxy.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.
the objects of this is to keep every owner informed of the strata affairs, encourage greater participation and more transparency.
If it’s all about transparency and communication, you might be better to look at a system like Stratabox, where everybody can be informed about everything (or as much as they want).
A small efficient committee that keeps people informed is always going to be better than a large group, half of whom don’t want to be there.
And on that note, I would pay special attention to the comments below about the quorum – if you get fewer than five members turning up, the meeting is a bust.
You can’t force people to join the committee and you can’t force them to attend once they’ve joined. If this is really about diluting the power of a tight, rusted-on core of owners, there are better ways.
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Put a motion up that the strata manager cease and desist from editing owners’ motions and explanatory notes without a detailed and written explanation of why they have chosen to do so. You might even couch them in terms of creating work for themselves so they can charge more Schedule B fees.
Oh, and you ciuld try sending the accompanying notes as a PDF – that might baffle them
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Every time I submit a motion to be placed on the agenda of meetings, they are completely edited and rewritten by either the SM or SC. Is this re-edit legal?
Did the edit change the intent or emphasis of the motion?
Also, I think a firmly worded note to the strata manager or committee asking them to not edit the motions, or at least explain why they want to make changes, would be reasonable.
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What would happen if a pet (dog) was allowed into a lease agreement, yet, the BC was not consulted for permission, an NTC was sent, and as the days/weeks went by without action, the dog had bit someone?
Why would there have been no action. You send the NTC and if the dog hasn’t been removed you pursue the issue directly at NCAT.
If the dog bites someone, that’s clearly grounds for its removal from the strata scheme under section 156 or section 158 of the Act. If you are asking who’s liable, it would be exactly the same as a dog biting someone in the street or in the owner’s home – it’s the personal responsibility of the dog’s owner.
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The Strata Insurance company has advised that the cost of the repair is under the claimable excess of $1000 how can I proceed to remedy this issue?
This is one of the great misconceptions of strata. Assuming the stairs are common property, just because the OC isn’t fully covered by insurance, doesn’t mean they’re not liable.
This is about liability, not insurance cover and if the cover is inadequate, the person who persuaded the owners corp to have such a hefty excess, might want to ask if it was such a good idea to go for the cheaper option.
Even so, what the OC saved in premiums will more than compensate for what they’ll ahve to pay when you bill them for the stair repairs.
By the way, if the strata manager has forwarded the emails and the committee isn’t doing anything, it’s not his or her fault. The committee instructs the strata manager, not the other way round.
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We are bound by the STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT (1996) Schedule 1.
Which says: 16 Keeping of animals
(1) Subject to section 49 (4), an owner or occupier of a lot must not, without the approval in writing of the owners corporation, keep any animal on the lot or the common property.
(2) The owners corporation must not unreasonably withhold its approval of the keeping of an animal on a lot or the common property.At the risk of being picky, unless you have changed the by-laws, you are subject to Schedule 2 of the Strata Scheme Regulations (which says the same thing anyway).
Anyway, they are being a bit cute here by not allowing the strata committee to decide. So the first thing to to is issue a Notice To Comply (with by-law 16 of Schedule 2 of the Strata Schemes Regulations) for keeping an animal without written permission.
What happens next is up to them. If they apply for permission and your committee refuses, you have grounds to go straight to NCAT for penalties (which, incidentally, go into owners corp coffers) and you might also seek costs.
If they don’t apply for permission, then the NCAT option stands (provided you have sent them the Notice to Comply).
Or this could be your opportunity to take the temperature of the building and find out how badly the majority of owners don’t want pets. And you might want to line up your reasons for refusing the application. The majority of owners don’t want them or some owners suffer from allergies and asthma, will fly. “We’ve never allowed pets’ is not a reason – it’s just a statement of historical fact.
By the way, the notorous pet by-law case is in the Supreme Court this week but I wouldn’t wait for a verdict. Get your strata manager to issue the NTC. If they are as slack as you suggest, ask them to forward you a copy of their contract so you can check the use-by date – might be time to get a new SM.
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Installing a new kitchen (without major structural works) is a minor renovation and, as such, you only need to let the committee know you are doing it (in advance) as their permission can’t unreasonably be refused.
So what is the actual issue here? That they will get annoyed that you didn’t ask for permission? Big deal.
Worst case scenario, you don’t let them in and they put a note on the strata record that they demanded inspection and you refused (which you are entitled to do provided there are no orders from NCAT).
If your lack of notice on the kitchen reno was a genuine oversight, and you really haven’t crossed the line into common property, invite them in, pour them a glass of wine, apologise profusely and look forward to moving into your new home.
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Just to answer the question implied in the headline, strata committee members can’t be held persoanlly liable for decisions they make in good faith – and I guess that includes the decisions not to make a decision.
However, they and other owners should be made aware that there are almost always consequences to turning a blind eye to breaches and there are often financial considerations attached.
Perhaps if they and other owners were educated about this they might be less keen just to let things go whe, down the track the owners corp could face repair bills or legal costs of one kind or another and everyone will have to pay their share.
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Oh, dear. You have my sympathy but this is one of those cases, yet again, where a Flatchatter has asked for advice on what to do, presaged by saying they don’t want to follow the two obvious paths available – take the culprit to NCAT and sack the strata manager.
But I get it. Why should you alone suffer the sleepless nights and frustrations of fronting up the the Tribunal?
So here’s a compromise solution. How about sending a letter to the strata manager that says something like this.
“Please confirm that any works on lot XXX (unit YYY) have not been approved and changes to common property have not been authorised by the appropriate permissions or by-laws, as required by Sections 110 and 111 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (2015).
“If so, please inform the owners that failure to remedy this immediately could lead to them, or any subsequent purchaser of the lot being required to resinstate common property under orders from NCAT, under requirements of Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act.
“The strata committee also instructs you to copy this breach notice to the records of the owners corporation so that any future purchasers of that lot are aware that they may be required to allow us to reinstate common property, at their cost, due to the failure of the current owner to gain appropriate approvals.”
If the strata manager declines to do this, then explain to your other owners that the strata manager is setting you all up for future claims by purchasers of that lot for failure of common property installations over which you had no control – which could lead to expensive legal battles and the possibility of hefty bills to rectify the works.
Then sack them.
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I don’t see why not? As long as you aren’t accusing them of anything and do it under the pretext of wanting to let them know about the conditions of entry to the building, where’s the harm.
Meanwhile, you might want to check your by-laws and see if you can ping the residents for failure to control the behaviour of their invited guests.
The current model by-laws say this:
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 …
You may have that by-law or something similar. Get your committee or strata manager to send them a Notice To Comply on the official form. NB: You don’t need to send them a warning – an NTC is a warning … it just comes with potential penalties if they repeat the offence.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.
If anyone is following this, you have until midnight tonight (Sep 20) to access a fascinating breakdown of what you need (and need to avoid) to get compulsory management. You’ll need to register (for free) for Amanda Farmer’s Shared Space Summit (even though it’s “over”), then look for the final session on dysfunctional strata schemes in which Amanda goes into this in detail.
For her members, the session will be available in her “members only” section from tomorrow onwards and if you want to chase that up, you can become a member of Your Strata Property here .
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I learnt my distrust of NCAT from you. Your cartoon of a clown presiding over an NCAT hearing is seared into my brain.
I should be more careful with my insults. Here’s my take on NCAT: applying for mediation often does enough to stir committees into action and if that fails, applying for a Tribunal hearing can also do the trick. If nothing else, when strata committees know they are doing the wrong thing to save money, they prospect of spending more on lawyers to defend an indefensible position shakes up their ideas.
Where it all becomes a crapshoot is when you actually get to the Tribunal and you are subject to the whims of Members. Mostly they will look at the law and decide logically whether or not it has been breached. Often you will get the odd ones who will decide to rewrite strata law on the fly (as happened in the recent pet cases).
But if you do go to the tribunal. make sure your application includes a demand for costs, not only will that scare your committee just a bit more, it is the only way your costs will be covered if you win.
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