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Just to add to Sir Humphrey’s comments, this should be covered by strata insurance (if at all), so, if you are an owner, your claim should initially be against the owners corporation (body corporate) for the reasonable costs of alternative accommodation and ancillary costs (like removals expenses).
If you are a tenant, the claim should be made against your landlord who can then take up the matter with the owners corp.
If the OC or strata manager won’t come to the party and the issue is covered by their strata insurance, you may be able to take it up directly with the insurer.
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You have to tread very carefully here. The opportunist (thieving) neighbour needs to know that their behaviour isn’t acceptable but you also have to be wary of defaming them publicly and of creating unnecessary alarm within the building.
On the question of defamation, given there were no other witnesses, this would just be a “he said, she said” argument in the unlikely even the police were called, but it could lead to an expensive civil action if you reported in minutes that Bloggsy in Number 13 was a kleptomaniac.
You could send a note around that there is a thief in the building and for owners to make sure that no goods were left on doorsteps. But would that raise unnecessary alarm?
However, don’t you have a duty of care to other owners to let them know that the block is not as safe as people might hope or assume?
And as for the cake-taker, they need to know that other people in the building are aware of their shenanigans.
I think if it was up to me, I’d send around a note saying something like:
“An item was taken from the doorstep of a resident recently. The culprit was identified and the item returned. However, please be careful about any deliveries that you may arrange to be left outside your door in your absence. And please report any missing goods to a committee member and we will pursue this with the police if need be.”
The ensuing chatter should be enough to make your sweet-toothed sneak think twice before doing it again. But, sadly, that loss of trust is a bell that can’t be unrung.
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Your questions in order:
1) How can owners force a strata manager and strata committee to provide all owners with a copy of the management agreement?
When polite requests don’t work, then you have to threaten action – but you have to mean it. See answer to question 4.
2) … several owners have requested a copy of the agreement and have been ignored. A solicitor’s letter requesting a copy has also been ignored. Can owners get a copy by inspecting Owners Corp records?
Yes. Owners are legally entitled to view any documents related to the running of the strata scheme.
3) Can strata managers charge for photocopying documents at such inspections?
Yes. And they can also charge a set fee for the visit at which the documents are viewed. Contact Fair Trading for the current amounts.
4) Can strata managers and/or strata committees be removed for such behaviour? If so, is an application to NCAT the appropriate action?
You can apply to NCAT for orders that an unfair or illegal management agreement to be rescinded and for individual members of your committee to be removed – or the whole committee to be sacked – for failure to manage the strata scheme according to the Act. The first and obligatory step is to seek mediation through Fair Trading, which might be enough to make the strata manager and committee realise you and like-minded owners are serious.
5) The strata committee has also breached other by-laws and the legislation as well.
Again, this might be wrapped up in your application to Fair Trading. But remember that Fair Trading can’t and won’t make a ruling on this. Whatever happens, you can then (and only then) take your case to NCAT, at which point you and your fellow concerned owners might do well to consult an experienced strata lawyer.
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Your local council planning department should have something to say about this. It’s a change of floor plan and that requires planning approval.
You could also tell the renovator that you will ask NCAT for orders that the unit entitlements be reviewed at the renovator’s expense – a long and often costly process.
As far as your objections being reasonable – that very much depends on the NCAT member who hears the case.
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When the mobile phone system was being set up, there was (and is) a part of the relevant law that said you couldn’t prevent companies from installing communications infrastructure.
When broadband came on the scene, some companies leapt on this as a way of forcing themselves into apartment blocks and installing their cabling (to the exclusion of rival providers).
But smart blocks hit back, saying okay, we can’t stop you from installing your infrastructure, but we still have a major say in how it’s done.
I’m guessing that quirk in communications law is what this provider is using, but they are trying it on. They need strata approval and, in any case, tenants shouldn’t be doing anything to common property.
If you want to nip this in the bud, hit the tenants with a bitll for repairs and order the broadband provider to remove their cables form common property. See what happens then.
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There are a few concerns with this. Firstly, they shouldn’t be making decisions about common property without special resolutions, including who will have responsibility for the structures when the work has been done. The significant change in the construction is, I believe, a valid reason to demand another vote.
Secondly, is this owner taking part of common property to enhance the value of their own lot? If so, have they paid the owners corporation the required compensation (the amount by which the value of the lot has been enhanced minus the cost of construction).
Finally, NCAT is supposed to be a low-cost (no lawyer) avenue for resolving disagreements and owners have to seek permission to have lawyers represent them.
You could put forward a case that this is a simple issue of them not following strata law and that being forced to have a lawyer representing you is a cost that you shouldn’t have to bear as you are the ones just trying to have the law enforced, so they shouldn’t have one either.
Or you could go for a low-cost option like our sponsors Strata Answers.
You can complain about strata managers to Fair Trading HERE.
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You have 28 days from the date of the meeting to apply for mediation at Fair Trading, an essential prerequisite to seeking orders under Section 24 and Section 25 of the Act.
You appear to have a case that the meeting was handled improperly by electronic voting forms not being issued and that it would have had a different result because several people might have voted against the motions, but for the aggressive way the meetings are conducted (it would help if you could get their support.)
If your strata manager won’t follow the law because it’s too complicated, it’s time to get a new strata manager before they do some real damage.
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If the agenda hasn’t been issued yet, then you can insist that it should include your motions. That is your legal right.
If it has been issued (and it really should have been) the only way to get your motion included would be for them to delay the meeting to allow and amended motion to be circulated.
The regulation notice period between the agenda going out and the meeting date is seven days but that has to take into account potential delays from postage and public holidays so it’s really closer to 10 days.
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As far as the value goes, find a commercial storage facility nearby and base your charges on their rates (but probably a bit less).
The easiest way to discover how and why the committee member is given this privilege is to ask the secretary or strata manager or secretary and if they don’t answer, put a motion on the agenda of then next EC meeting.
But be warned, storage is at a premium in apartment blocks which means as soon as you establish that it should be paid for, there will be a bun fight to see who is at the front of the queue to do so.
Turn it into a bicycle park if need be.
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Having now seen the seven-page set of rules for this scheme’s fitness area and pool, and taking into account the feedback that there is no over-arching by-law to back it up, it occurs to me that the Community Association has decided that, by compelling residents to sign an agreement that restricts their actions (and access to the pool) before they are allowed access to the fitness area, they have been given approval for this.
I am not a lawyer, but I would say this would be worth challenging. If there is no by-law, then it has little legal standing. The rules include threats to remove residents from the complex and ban them for misbehaviour or not following the rules. The rules themselves are reasonable (apart from the ban on under-16s) but these sanctions go way beyond what is normally permitted in a strata scheme.
Now, if this was a commercial operation to which residents had privileged access, that would be different. But if, as it seems, this is a common property asset, then I believe the Community Association can’t restrict access to it without appropriate by-laws, agreed through the proper processes, in place. The problem for the CA is that any such by-law might well be challenged as “harsh, oppressive and discriminatory”.
It may be that the fitness centre has had an issue with kids being allowed to run free, unsupervised, in and around the pool. If so, there are legitimate ways of controlling this but a blanket ban isn’t one of them.
Also, there is the issue of the storage and security of biometric information (fingerprints) used to access the area. Given that many mobile phones and other devices can now be unlocked with fingerprints, the CA needs to address this for the benefit of all residents
Questiontime10 and other owners would do well to have a chat with an experienced strata lawyer.
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Watcherman is right. As soon as owners start messing around with the waterproof membrane and tiles, they need a by-law which transfers ongoing responsibility for the waterproofing to them.
I can’t see any way you would change the grout without affecting the tiles and potentially the membrane, so a by-law is required after which the responsibility for the work and ongoing maintenance lies with the lot owner.
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I am only now realising that this is a Community Association issue (if that’s what CA means) and the law may be slightly different. However, if there is a by-law that allows children into the pool, or no properly constituted by-law that doesn’t , then they probably still have to follow due process.
Raise a mediation request at Fair Trading and see how the pigeons react to that cat.
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At some point, you are going to need some sort of legal document, and you might want that written by a lawyer, which could amount to the same cost as getting an easement.
Get another opinion and quote from a different strata lawyer, if only to make sure your strata manager is getting you the best deal.
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