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I had an answer all lined up for this … until I got to the line about being in SA.
If you were in NSW, you’d be allowed to bring in a by-law limiting the maximum number of residents to two adults per bedroom.
Now, it might be interesting to get a copy of the tenancy agreement for the unit, as that might specify how many people are allowed in it. And if the tenants are in breach of their rental agreement, they could be in breach of your by-laws
Also your DA for the block might say how many people the unit is designed to accommodate, although that would be harder to argue in a court or tribunal.
You could try to amend your water levies or contributions to reflect the number of residents per apartment, However that would require a unanimous agreement at a general meeting, according to this handy guide.
By the way, under SA strata law, a unanimous agreement is one where a vote at a general meeting is passed unopposed. So you don’t need everyone in the scheme to agree and you don’t even need everyone at the meeting to vote in favour – as long as no-one votes against.
If the owner of the unit is an absentee, you could sneak the new regulation into the AGM agenda (by using non-alarming language) and they might not even notice if they don’t attend the AGM.
Or you could install separate water meters for each unit and charge the residents accordingly – whichj is a good idea anyway.
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According to Section 18E of the Home Building Act faults in a fire safety system are considered “major” defects.
As such, your warranty period is six years, not two.
If the builder or developer is no longer around, you might be able to take legal action against the original fire inspector since their dereliction of duty resulted in your scheme’s financial loss.
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A quick phone call would be in order. It could be a badly worded letter intended to refer to a lot within the strata plan, where the writer doesn’t know the difference.
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Actually, the story in Vice is a great piece of detective work and well worth a read. It tells how a victim of the scam contacted other victims and eventually identified the scammer. The yarn has a great kicker, right at the end, too. Click on the link above and settle in for a great read.
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Our unit block has recently gone through the agonies of calculating the load on the power supply if everyone was allowed to have air-con installed. It turned out our electrical system simply wasn’t up to scratch and it could feasibly have cost millions of dollars to upgrade.
But that was based on every unit potentially installing it, despite the fact that it was possible to discriminate between those who wanted it and those who needed it. Welcome to the too-hard basket.
In your case, however, it may make sense to look at the implications of all owners installing air-con, bearing in mind that modern units use much less power than those that were around when your block was built.
So, first of all consult an electrical engineer to establish the maximum safe load on the basis of every owner installing aircon (that may not happen but you can’t allow one owner to do it then stop others, on a first come, best dressed basis).
Then look at the power demands of the unit that the owner wants to install. It may be that even if everyone installed the same, your system could still handle it.
If not, your owners corp can set maximum power levels for all air-con systems and leave it to the unit owners to find systems that fit the bill.
Basically, in terms of permission, this affects common property so your owners corp is able to exercise a level of reasonable control. But your committee should neither let it through nor refuse outright, just because it’s “too hard”.
Consult the experts, do the calculations and set the standards for everyone, present and future.
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Glad to see someone has as much trouble with arithmetic as I clearly do.
This does raise the question of what is a reasonable speed on a driveway. Inside our car park the limit is 5kph, a speed I and (it seems) other residents find difficult to maintain. A couple of steep access slopes make it almost impossible in anything faster than a farm tractor.
This website suggests 10 kph, which is not just reasonable but achievable. There’s no point in having limits that people can’t easily observe and maintain.
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Strata management contracts are different everywhere – because strata laws are different everywhere. Victoria is only now looking at laws that would require strata managers to reveal their insurance commissions. WA is reviewing its strata laws and that state is way behind most of the rest of the country in the evolution of its legislation.
You know what they say about “assume” …
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There are a lot of “ifs and buts” in you lecture about how I am wrong and have “missed the point”.
IF all the conditions you list apply, then MAYBE you are right. Otherwise I would advise the VeeDub to regard your advice with extreme caution.
The parking garage floor is common property. Fixing bollards to it would require Owners Corp approval. The landlord (if there is one) would need that approval. The Owners Corp is refusing to give it.
That is the point.
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I also refer to the recent post “Conflicting Advice About NSW Minor/Major Renovation By-Laws”
I am perplexed with one of our bylaws. The by-law’s purpose is “to govern the process for the seeking of approval from the Owners Corporation for carrying out Lot Owner Works”. The by-law defines Lot Owner works as:
(i) Changes to Window and External Door configurations;
(ii) Bathroom renovations;
(iii) Internal Wall changes; and
(iv) Work that is not Cosmetic Works or Minor Works.
It then states the Strata Committee shall determine, at its absolute discretion, whether or not the Works proposed to be carried can be approved under the provisions of the by-law (or will require a new by-law under the Act to be approved by special resolution of the Owners Corporation in general meeting)
It also states any expression used in this by-law has the same meaning as that expression has in that legislation unless a contrary intention is expressed in this by-law
Then follows the usual provisions for carrying out the approved Lot Owner Works like insurance/plans/contractor name/if the works affect common property and … “evidence of a concrete x-ray scan of the post and pre-tension cables and ducts within the floor and details of the contractor who will carry out the core hole drilling.”
Is this wise? The by-law appears to give “absolute discretion” to the strata committee to decide to allow an individual lot owner to carry out work that is neither cosmetic per s109 nor minor per s110. It appears to attempt to provide a mechanism to avoid the Act and regulations, including any need for special resolutions and by-laws for structural and waterproofing, indeed any, works.
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I reckon your owners corp has a duty of care to ensure that your parking spaces are available to you. Since they have refused to allow you to install practical bollards, then they need to come up with a workable alternative solution.
My first step would be to write a polite but firm letter saying exactly that, telling them that if they haven’t come up with either a plan to resolve the issue (by a certain date) or permission for you to fix the bollards yourself, you will be pursuing this through Fair Trading under Section 232(2) of the Act, regarding failure to fulfill their statutory duties.
Then, of course, you have to follow through on that, which means applying to Fair Trading for mediation, as a first step. Just make sure it’s more of a hassle for them to do nothing than it is to do something and you’ll get a result.
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The current average fees for full-service strata managers are between $250 and $300 per unit per year, although they could be more or less. On that basis, your scheme should be paying $4,500 p.a. at most. The 20 percent commission on insurances seems excessive too.The fees would obviously be higher if other services such as caretaking/building management were also provided.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.
I have frequently suggested that strata schemes should have a statement of intent on the front page of their by-laws, just so everybody knows what they’re dealing with. I don’t mean one of those “mission statements” that mean nothing and noone reads anyway.
I’m thinking of stuff that gets to the nub of apartment living, directly and clearly. Something like:
We recognise everyone’s right to have a social life but we will actively pursue excessive and/or repeated noise with applications for fines and orders from the Tribunal, and calls to the police, if need be. (See By-law XX).
We accept that residents want to have pets but they are subject to our restrictions. (See By-law YY).
Visitor parking is for visitors only. Definitions of bona fide visitors and restrictions on parking times and durations are set out in by-law ZZ.
Short-term letting is not allowed in this building (see by-law AB). We use the services of BnbGuard to identify culprits and then employ whatever legal means available to us to punish and prevent by-law breaches in this regard.
You get the idea. When I suggested this to our committee, one of the bush lawyers on it said we’d get into trouble because residents would say that other by-laws could be ignored as they were clearly not as important. When I countered that the point was that people don’t read the bleeding by-laws most of the time I was accused of being cynical. Me?
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