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Firstly, I have to say German Shepherds are possibly not the best dogs for apartments. They can be aggressive/defensive and will bark when they hear people near your unit door. That cute puppy is going to grow into a large, smart, energetic and demanding animal.
However, the owners corp can’t force you to remove the dog right now. But they can ask and if you refuse that will probably count against you when it comes to their decision.
What you need to do is address their possible concerns, for instance:
* by offering not to enter the lift with the dog when other people are already inside,
* to have the dog on a leash and muzzle whenever you take it through common property,
* to satisfactorily complete dog training classes with the pup,
* to ensure it is never left alone in the apartment (the main cause of excessive barking)If you can fulfill all these commitments, the committee will find it hard to reasonably refuse your request (although you may have to fight them at NCAT if they do).
You can also point out that, if the worst comes to the worst, the owners corporation has an avenue, under Section 158 of the strata Act, to require the removal of a dog that has been permitted but has proved to be troublesome, so it’s not as if you are asking for carte blanche permission, come what may.
Meanwhile, only NCAT can order the removal of the puppy and the fact that you were originally given wrong information by the building manager gives you a strong case for keeping the pooch until such times as this is resolved.
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Send the owner a bill for the repairs wrongly paid by the owners corporation.
If (when) they refuse to pay, take them to the small claims court on the grounds that the strata manager knew the owners corporation was not liable for the payments but went ahead and allowed the work in any case.
You are not seeking penalties – just for people to pay what they owe due to an error
Meanwhile, report the strata manager to Fair Trading, just for the Hell of it (they won’t do anything because they never do … ever!)
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Unless it is an issue requiring a unanimous vote, the votes of non-financial owners are not counted. So, tes, it is 4 out of seve – a mjority.
Now, a warning. You are posting multiple versions of the same questions but altering the figures here and there. This has to stop or you will be suspended from the Forum. If you have a genuine question, ask it. Meanwhile download a copy of the Victoria Owners Corporation Act 2006 and read it thoroughly. All your answers are there.
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No, an abstention is a non vote. The distinction can be significant in a case where the percentage of those voting is critical (as often occurs in NSW).
For instance, if there are 10 people at a meeting, voting on a special resolution, the law says it can’t pass if more than 25 percent of those voting vote against. If 8 vote yes, two vote no, it passes. If 7 vote yes and three vote no, it fails. If 7 vote yes and two vote no and 1 abstains, the vote against is 2 out of 9 against, or 22 per cent so the motion passes.
An abstention is a non vote, not a no vote.
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Victorian law is pretty much the same as NSW in most of the relevant areas except that if a special levy – known there as extraordinary fees – is more than double the annual budget, it has to be approved by a special resolution (unless “immediate expenditure is or was necessary to ensure safety or to preventsignificant loss or damage to persons or property”).
And a special resolution is where it get’s tricky. Victoria’s regulations on special resolutions are governemd by everything from the number of owners who didn’t turn up to wind direction (OK, not that, but it’s complicated).
Section 96 of the Victorian Act defines a special resolution as :
A special resolution of an owners corporation is a resolution passed by—
(a) if a ballot or poll is taken, 75% of the total lot entitlements of all the lots affected by the owners corporation; or
(b) in any other case, 75% of the total votes for all the lots affected by the owners corporation.What??? But wait, there’s more … How about an Interim Special Resolution?
97 Interim special resolutions
(1) If, at a meeting or by ballot, the vote in favour of a matter requiring a special resolution is at least 50% of the total votes for all lots affected by the owners corporation and the vote against the resolution is not more than 25% of those votes, the resolution is to be taken to be passed as an interim special resolution.
(2) If the interim special resolution is passed at a meeting, notice of the interim special resolution and the minutes of the meeting at which the interim special resolution was passed must be forwarded to all lot owners within 14 days of the meeting.
(3) If the interim special resolution is passed by ballot, notice of the interim special resolution (including the text of the resolution) must be forwarded to all lot owners within 14 days of the close of the ballot.
(4) The notice under subsection (2) or (3) must state that the interim special resolution will become a special resolution at the end of 29 days after it was passed unless lot owners who hold more than 25% of the total votes for all the lots affected by the owners corporation petition the secretary against the resolution.
(5) An interim special resolution becomes a special resolution of the owners corporation on the day that is 29 days after the day the interim special resolution was passed unless lot owners who hold more than 25% of the total votes for all the lots affected by the owners corporation petition the secretary against the resolution.
Note: The effect of subsection (5) is that an interim special resolution cannot be acted on for 29 days after it is passed and cannot be acted on at all if a petition is received by the secretary within that 29-day period.Simple, huh?
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The simplest way to discover whther you are paying for the stacker or not is to comparethe Unit Entitlements of your unit with another that’s roughly the same size or value and has a car slot. If they’re the same, then you are being over charged and the way to remedy that is to have the Unit Entitlements adjusted (which is, as Kaindub suggested, notoriously hard to do).
However, the maintenance of the stacker will be a line item in your scheme’s annual budget so that will give you a starting point to “reverse engineer ” the Unit Entitlements (UEs) to discover if the savings you and other owners in a similar situation might make would be worth the expense and hassle of taking this to NCAT for adjudication.
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If you haven’t already done so, I would send a formal letter asking them to send you details of when the work was likely to commence. If they say it isn’t, or just don’t reply within two months, then you could pursue them under Section 232 (2) of the Act for failure to fulfill a function as the committee of the OC.
Or you could just send a letter saying that, given their failure to complete the job for the whole building, you have several options, any or all of which you might pursue.
1. Seek orders at NCAT under section 232 (2)
2. Seek the compulsory appointment of a strata manager to take over the running of the block
3. Seek resitution at a civil court for “fraud against a minority” which is where a majority of owners (or shareholders etc) makes a decision that benefits only them to the detriment of the minority of owners.
4. Seek removal of committee members (at NCAT) for failure to fulfill their statutory duty to run the building for the benefit of all owners.
And if any or all of the above tactics appeal, you might want to consult an experienced strata lawyer who will write a letter for you that might get them moving.
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I can only echo Scottie’s comment – ask the strata manager exactly why a by-law is required. If your renovations aren’t affecting common property (apart from the flooring) then there is no obvious need for one. They appear to be covered by Section 110 (3) of the Act. Don’t be too surprised if your strata manager is unaware of this – some are on the ball, others less so.
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If the insurer was prepared to pay out, that suggests the owners corp was liable. If the OC is liable, they should pay the excess, not you. The fact that the majority of owners decided tio arrange inadequate insurance is not your fault and it definitely is theirs. Send them a bill and pursue it through your local small debt court system. Or just tell them that’s what you are going to do and maybe they will see sense.
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From what I can see, Strata Consultants offer a comparison service to allow you to choose your new manager and will assist with the transfer of the business from your current manager to your new one.
What I sense you are looking for is a company that will help you to divest yourself of a manager in mid-contract. I’m not sure that they will do that (but they might – ask!).
They may be able to advise you on the conditions that will allow you to break your contract – i.e. the terms of your contract that might have been breached – but I can’t see how they can do more than that.
What it comes down to is examining your contract, establishing the terms under which you can terminate and then work from there.
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If your owners can have an AGM over the phone, they can surely hold a committee meeting that way.
The should consider this – there is absolutely no legal obligation to hold a certain number of strata committee meetings during the year – not even one. Therefore, by insisting in holding this strata meeting in person in a confined space, your office-bearers are unnecessarily putting committee members’ and other owners’ lives at risk.
They need to think about the implications of that before they proceed with this reckless and entirely needless breach of social-distancing restrictions.
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When strata managers are left to source tradies themselves, this inevitably leads to suspicions (usually unwarranted) they they are in cahoots, getting kickbacks from inflated charges. That’s why they are asked to source three quotes.
Part of the strata manager’s duty of care is to make sure the tradie is qualified, licensed and insured. That takes time and therefore has a cost attached.
Most strata manager have a list of reputable tradies that they know are fully licensed and insured. The downside is that there may be good people not on that list.
However, if you and your committee cohorts aren’t even sure how to find tradies in the first place, how likely are you to be able to do those due diligence checks and how likely is your research to be accurate?
Perhaps you should start by contacting the strata committees in other blocks and ask who they used and how they worked out. Or just google the trade you require alonside the word “strata” and see what that turns up.
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