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@Ziggy said:
I agree with dustyrusty. I wanted to take our SC to Fair Trading (and hence NCAT) but was told I couldn’t; that I could only take the OC to mediation.“taking the strata committee to Fair Trading” IS mediation. It’s a necessary prerequisite before you go to NCAT in most cases. Even if the SC doesn’t turn up, you have to go through the motions. The SC represents the OC in this regard so someone has been splitting hairs.
Re DNA, the owners in our building have been asked to vote on a motion to create a special bylaw that is unfair and unjust to owner/occupiers. We therefore don’t want this motion approved because, if it is, we can be fined for requesting that common property be maintained in a good and serviceable state.
You can only be fined for breaching a by-law. A by-law is invalid if it contravenes the strata Act and since the Act allows you to request request that common property be maintained – and in fact insists that it is – then the by-law would be invalid.
What does the proposed by-law actually say?
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No. We have a Commissioner for Fair Trading (aka, the Department of broken TVs, dodgy builders, shonky mechanics and dangerous toys).
The highly credentialed Rose Webb was appointed last October without any reference in the official press release to strata or owners corporation law.
That’s a measure of how high a priority strata law gets in NSW. Personally, I haven’t heard of her or spotted her since.
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Simple answer, yes, if you are classified as a community scheme.
According to this factsheet, looking at it from the other direction, the law has been changed so that “the members of a community scheme will also be able to agree to insure some or all of the buildings in a community scheme through the agency of the corporation if they wish (even though the buildings are generally owned by members and are not common property).”
If you still aren’t sure, this factsheet has the phone number of SA’s free strata advisory service.
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I’m not an expert on Queensland Body Corporate law but it seems to me that there is a highly structured process of dispute resolution that requires each stage to be satisfied.
And given that the caretaker’s contract is with the Body Corporate, your dispute is probably with them for failing to effectively manage their manager.
I can hear our Queensland readers guffawing at this very idea. Queensland caretakers are a protected species under the fundamentally corrupt system that pre-sells management rights which, by virtue of a process designed with the sole intent of putting more money into developers pockets, are contracts that must be weighted in favour of the caretakers or they wouldn’t be worth buying.
Getting off my high horse for a second, the process, as explained here, means writing a letter to your committee and then putting a motion to their next meeting asking them to tell their manager to pull his head in, under whatever disciplinary areas might exist in the contract (cue more laughter from up north).
If they refuse or fail to do so effectively, then you should seek mediation and if that doesn’t work, you can escalate this to an application for adjudication.
Now, as I said, I’m no expert on Qld strata law and there may be a system whereby individual owners can take action against caretakers. If that’s the case, then someone may chip in.
One other thing, if you are sending a letter or putting a motion to a committee meeting or a general meeting, try to get the signatures of as many other residents on it as possible. You really don’t want to be facing a bullying caretaker on your own if you can avoid it.
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@crispy said:
… these bylaws were included in the bylaws included when the strata was registered. The rules of the Initial Period do not apply in this case since this is not during the initial period. Have I missed anything?You say it was not the initial period. Does that mean you had held your first AGM at which the by-laws were approved? As far as I know, the initial period ends at the first AGM.
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The simplest way to do this would be to arrange for a special resolution by-law giving you permission to swap car spaces, allowing the owners corp to use your car space for the perpetuity of the agreement. However, this is not a like for like (or you wouldn’t be asking for it) so you might have to offer a sweetener on the deal. I assume there are other people who park on the same level as you and face similar access issues – why would they not jump up and demand the same privilege?
The easiest thing is to offer money and you have to work out how much it’s worth you swapping spaces – and my guess is it would also have to be a figure that deterred your ‘me too’ neighbours from blocking the transfer. Oh, and you’d have to pay for the by-law too.
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@N860CR said:
Has anyone had any success in managing these sorts of people?You might consider taking an AVO against the former committee member – verbal abuse, including putting up signs, could be interpreted as assault.
And you could ask the strata manager to get orders from NCAT against the former committee member under section 232, “Orders to settle disputes or rectify complaints”, telling the owner not to take down signs put on cars or do anything else that interferes with the proper running of the building.
This bully is clearly not used to getting his own way – best thing to do is to make it clear that things are just going to get worse for them if they don’t pull their head in.
By the way, for anyone else reading this, this is a perfect example of how allowing one or two people on your committee to make decisions that benefit them and only them, quickly becomes an issue of entitlement and a source of conflict when you finally try to put things right.
Get it right at the beginning and save yourself years of grief later.
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@fredmertz said:
My question is, don’t all complexes have to have at least one designated visitor car space? This is in a Sydney suburb complex of 15 units. I find the council’s replies dubious on this matter.You are right to be cautious about the council’s replies. I have heard some bizarre stories recently of councils denying any knowledge of a planning breach until they were confronted with a sheaf of letters from them to the complainant.
Try to get hold of the initial DA for the block (it should be on file at the council offices) or find your sales contract which should have a plan of the whole building, including the defined parking areas, attached.
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The extractor fans are a common property issue and if they are keeping you awake at might they clearly haven’t been installed with any consideration of the disturbance they may make.
Write to your Owners Corporation secretary and demand (politely) that the noise levels be investigated and remedied.
If they refuse or do nothing, count down the two weeks specified in the law then pursue your rights under section 232 of the Act to compel them to fulfil their obligations to maintain and repair common property. You would do that by first applying to Fair Trading for mediation then taking your issue to NCAT.
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I would want to know why the rest of the owners are thinking of selling. Is it opportunistic or are there problems that they have been keeping quiet (until your vendor has sold) that they can’t afford to fix?
The tax issue is a trade-off and you should get advice on that. But I would be asking your conveyancer for a forensic study of the strata minutes before getting the chequebook out. And talk to the other owners if you can – they might know why the vendor is selling at such an odd time.
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I really don’t know why you are bashing your head off that brick wall – especially when there is a lawyer involved (who I will bet my bottom dollar is not a strata lawyer).
No matter what other cases you find, Rumpole of the Strata is going to dismiss them and try to bully you into submission.
Your committee is hiding behind the lawyer and the lawyer thinks they are a bit superior to the rest of us, so nothing you say to them directly will make any difference.
If I were you, I would go for mediation, then for NCAT orders and let them try to bully a Tribunal Member, with bluster and BS, into ignoring the law.
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There’s a weird “rule” in the “Who’s responsible …” document that says if there is a leak from common property water pipes, the owners corp isn’t responsible for the damage the leak causes but they are responsible for the damage caused in repairing the leak.
Now, if you can put together a compelling argument that it wasn’t the leak that cause the damage to the paintwork, but the plumber’s repairs, then the OC has to pay.
However, and I have been abused from here to New Year for saying this, I believe if a failure of common property causes damage to your property, then you can seek compensation through a small claims court.
Send them a bill and when they refuse to pay, take them to court. Don’t bother with Fair Trading or NCAT, go to your district court. Guess what, they will then claim it against their building insurance.
In fact, I think I’ve read in another post that you can go straight to the building insurer and make a claim against them – but I don’t know if that’s true.
Anyway, just tell the committee you’re coming after them for the money and you won’t stop till you get it. That might do the trick.
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Another good example is a special levy agreed upon before the sale of a unit but only imposed after the sale has gone through. The owner who bought the unit also bought the impending levy. Similarly, if you get a common property by-law agreeing to maintain and repair common property for which you have been granted exclusive use, then you are liable for its repairs. Nowhere is the phrase caveat emptor – buyer beware – more relevant than in strata.
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Spellcheck? Please?
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@petya said:
Are we allowed to set up security cameras to be able to identify at least those residents who leave the rubbish?Yes, provided you post a permanent notice warning people that they are being filmed
If somebody witnessing that some wrong rubbish is being brought into rubbish bin area is it sufficient for identification?
Not really, unless it is corroborated. Otherwise it’s just a question of “he said, she said”.
If we are able to identify residents what options do we have in order to ensure that those tenants (or maybe they landlords) to deal with their own rubbish appropriately ?
Landlords are responsible for the behaviour of their tenants (up to a point). Pass a by-law saying that residents must not leave oversized rubbish in that area or they will be charged the cost of its removal.
Put up a sign warning residents that leaving oversized garbage is a breach of that by-law.
And put a note on the by-laws given to all tenants warning them that leaving rubbish in that area could affect their bond as the landlord will be charged for its removal.
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