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Given the time that you have, the simplest answer may be to have the dog registered as an “assistance” animal for your son. Now, when I say “simplest” I have no idea how difficult that might be but if you can achieve it, the Owners Corp can’t refuse your dog.
Have a look here – and then take it up with your local council.
By the way, saying “it’s my own property” is not going to get you the approval and support you might need. When we choose to live in strata we give up some of our individual rights as home owners so as to enjoy the collective benefits. If you don’t like the by-laws, you get involved and persuade other owners to change them.
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@Faraway girl said:
… we have only the 8 By Laws that he registered with the Strata Plan and these all favour his apartment. He still holds 39% of the lot entitlements and will do until he has sold more units.You can always go to NCAT and get the by-laws rescinded on the grounds that they are unfair, unconscionable or oppressive, and then replaced with the standard by-laws as laid out in the strata regulations.
You can also get orders that the developer is not allowed to participate in the committee.
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I don’t think you’ve been doing anything wrong. You have fixed the window and then I assume it has come out of your strata insurance or maintenance funds.
You could try to prove the resident has caused the break but then they could claim the window was defective. Sometimes it’s better just to do the work and move on.
By the way, this is different from a tenant-landlord situation as the landlord has a bond that they can claim against for breakages, in which case the balance of whether or not it’s worth fighting the issue is reversed.
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You are entitled to peace and quiet in your home and if your neighbours’ have gone ahead and installed flooring without consideration for you, then you are entitled to demad that they do something to remedy the situation.
The process is to request mediation at Fair Trading, then orders at NCAT. Perhaps you can find someone to help you with this as it can be quite complicated. At some point fining a sympathetic strata lawyer would be very, very helpful.
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@excathedra said:
With respect, I think that JimmyT is being unduly restrictive with his criteria for permissible lengths of stay for visitors.I should have made it clear that those hours were just an example. Every owners corporation would set the limits to suit their own circumstances and preference. I should have put an ‘e.g.’ at the start of the sentence.
That’s one of the beauties of being able to pass your own by-laws … what works for you is more important than arbitrary rules set by bureaucrats who may have never lived in strata.
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@Boronia said:
But by-laws can’t be readily enforced on “visitors”?Yes they can, indirectly. Residents are responsible for ensuring that their visitors behave according to the by-laws of the building. So, in this case, you go after the commercial unit tenants or owners and force them to stop their employees from using the visitor parking spots.
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Thanks for the update.
The message for all tenants in a similar situation is NOT to stop paying rent – that just puts you behind the eight-ball when you might be able to negotiate a reasonable outcome.
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The first thing that occurs to me is that the cracked glass could be dangerous and you need to get it fixed ASAP.
After that, I’m pretty sure that balcony door glass is supposed to be higher grade than window glass so it may be that this is a defect in the door. Check with your building manager/ strata secretary to see if this has occurred in any other apartments.
The balcony door will be common property so the Ownerrs Corporation (body corporate) need to fix it first and start looking at whose fault it is later.
When it comes to the “he said/she said” and finger-pointing, unless you can prove that it wasn’t you, they and the landlord are entitled to assume that it was.
You can only hope that they have landlord insurance or that the Owners Corp just claims against its insurance.
But, once again, the priority is to get it fixed and that means talking to the building manager or strata manager or committee secretary and only then worry about who pays.
One other thing – do you have permission to have the dog from the landlord and/or the strata committee?
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@Boronia said:
Is there any official definition of a “visitor”? In the absence of any limitations in the By-laws, are there any other implied restrictions on how often/how long non-residents can park in these spaces? What would distinguish these workers to not be “visitors”.This is an excellent point. The first thing I usually advise OCs to do when they have visitor parking problems is to pass a by-law defining what visitor parking is.
No longer than two hours during the day, and overnight only after 7pm and before 8am is a reasonable restriction, with an allowance for longer periods in special circumstances, provided permission has been given in writing (including emails).
In this case, however, the strata committee seems reluctant to do anything so they may still need a nudge in the form of a threat to take the matter further.
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If your scheme is properly run, your AGM will include a motion that allows the strata committee to make decisions on behalf of the Owners Corporation. Restrictions on that decision-making exist in the Act meaning they can make day-to-day decisions (like allowing pets or otherwise) but can’t pass by-laws or engage in legal actions above a certain cash limit, for instance.
In the case of employing a surveyor to assess the unit entitlements, I’d say that was perfectly legitimate.
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@Ziggy said:
I emailed the SC saying that if nothing is done I will put a shortened version of the SC newsletter, which tells people not to park illegally, under the windscreens of the offenders. They say I can’t do that. Is that true?Aaaah, the old 1376 “Thou shalt not touch another person’s windscreen wiper” law.
No, it’s not true. But it’s probably not the best tactic either.
Apply to Fair Trading for a mediation with the strata committee and the business owners (who will probably not turn up) then escalate that to an action at NCAT, under Section 232 (2) of the Act, requiring the Owners Corporation to enforce their by-laws related to visitor parking.
Or just tell them that’s what you’re going to do and see how they respond.
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VicRes is right but bear in mind that if you change the lock or add a new one, you are now responsible for something that was previously common property.
Also, if the building manager has a valid reason for needing access in a genuine emergency or subject to Tribunal orders, and you have in some way obstructed that access (by not being around when they need to get in, for instance), you could be liable for any damage caused in gaining access.
It all depends on how much you trust the key-holder.
In the building where I live, in the early days, “security” guys were using duplicate pass keys to access apartments they thought were empty – until a woman who would normally have been at work walked out of her shower and caught one of them reading magazines on her lounge.
That said, 15 years on, I can’t count the number of times my spare key – left with the concierge – has rescued me from a night on the street looking for a locksmith
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The Tenancy Hearing Form – which you are supposed to fill in before the hearing – invites you to tick a box indicating whether you are a landlord, agent or tenant – so that pretty much indicates that the landlord’s presence is not required.
But check with your agent, to be on the safe side.
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Which bank?
I ask because at the moment Macquarie is the largest provider of banking services to strata schemes (or strata managers) and others may not be set up to cope with, say, a change of treasurer.
But if you have a viable alternative, let’s hear about them.
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It seems strange to me that some people still think living in strata means you have to put up with whatever inconvenience occurs because someone is enhancing the value of their property.
The renovator is responsible for the actual disruption and the Owners Corp is responsible to some extent for allowing the work to go ahead in a way that caused more disruption than it should have.
You have a clear and definable financial loss from this, so why not go for it.
The best advice I think anyone can give at this stage would be to seek legal advice.
Talk to an experience strata lawyer right away – and our sponsors Sachs Gerace Broome are particularly strong in this area. Give them a call and tell them we sent you.
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