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It would help if we knew what your standing orders were and whether or not they are supported by a by-law
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Well, there’s your leverage over the fence. If she wants more, she pays more.
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Not being familiar with WA strata law, I would guess – and it is a guess – the answer to your question is no, you don’t exclusively own the land under your house.
Thinking of digging a cellar … or opening a mine?
The real question is, however, why your unit entitlements are 1 to 1 when they probably should be 92/194 and 102/194 (47.4% and 52.6%) especially since your neighbour wants the land divided that way.
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@rhea said:
I am not aware of Strata legislation that enforces sharing of information collected by office bearer via survey.All owners are entitled to see any records or correspondence made to the Owners Corporation (or committee) conducted as part of the management of the strata scheme. Asking people for their opinions and getting them would surely be considered correspondence.
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@Austman said:
Actually, compulsory strata building insurance usually covers all the building(s). That’s common property building structures but also private lot property building structures. It also often covers lot fixtures and improvements. Sometimes it’s legislated that way (eg NSW, VIC, ACT) but with all my OC’s policies (they are all CHU) it’s actually written that way or in the case of lot fixtures and improvements, offered as an optional policy. CHU’s residential strata policy does however only cover common contents.I don’t dispute any of the above but think we have to be very careful here that we aren’t giving the wrong impression so that people think they are covered by insurance when in fact they aren’t.
Compulsory strata insurance “covers all the buildings” means, basically, common property and all thatentails.
‘… often covers lot fixtures and improvements” means what? Kitchen cupboards? An internal shelf on a wall? An approved extension? An unapproved extension? Either way, the word “often” should have readers looking at their policies to see what actually is covered.
The fact that lot fixtures and improvements coverage is offered as an add-on suggests that in some policies they aren’t there to begin with. Again, owners should check their policies.
I’m only saying this because too often I’ve come across lot owners who saw the premiums come up every year as part of their strata scheme’s budget and thought they were fully insured – and discovered they weren’t when things went terribly wrong.
If anyone is interested, this is the current CHU residential strata policy.
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This is a very complex and potentially time-consuming job.
I think your best bet might be a building manager (rather than a strata manager) who would take this on as a one-off project (and I’m not sure if anyone would).
Have a look at Manage-Meant and Francis Management. They both have the skill-set and the connections but I don’t know if they’d have the inclination.
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@Austman said:
I would have thought the damage would be covered by the OC’s building insurance.Different insurers have different policies but yes, that would normally be the case. However, there may be an excess and the strata committee would have to decide who paid that.
Even if the damage was due to an owner’s negligence, I believe the owner has a right to request a claim on the OC’s building insurance.
Only the holder of the policy can claim and that’s the owners corporation. Building insurance doesn’t cover private property unless that property is damaged by defective common property and a claim is made against the OC (and even then …). If the damage was caused by the owner’s negligence, the OC might claim against the lot owner for the amount of any excess.
An owner, being part of the OC, has contributed to the insurance policy and should be automatically covered. It’s different for a tenant who is not automatically covered.
Most building insurances don’t cover individuals, whether they are owners or tenants. Strata insurance covers the whole block for damage to or by common property (e.g. if balustrade glass falls and injures a passing pedestrian).
Home and contents insurance covers the individual owner’s lot and its contents. Landlord insurance covers the landlord for damage to their property (and, depending on the policy, damage to common property) by tenants.
Strata insurance is all about common property, plant and equipment and any private property that is under the care and control of the owners corp.
If the EC refuses to claim, the owner could try claiming directly.
Any claim would have to be against the Owners Corp (who might then claim against the insurer). The insurer probably would not entertain a claim from an individual owner.
As for excesses, it’s usually the claiming party that has to pay them. Generally the OC claims for common property damage while owners claim for lot property damage.
Correct – but these are different issues. In NSW the ‘Who’s responsible …” document states that, for instance, in the case of a burst pipe in a common property wall damaging the contents of a unit, the OC is only responsible for the damage caused in repairing the defect, not in the damage to personal property caused by the defect. That would have to be covered by home and contents insurance.
FYI: Our sponsors CHU offer a discount on Home and Contents premiums if your strata insurance is with them.
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The owner has to take some responsibility if the furniture was inappropriate for the conditions in your block. A beach umbrella on a balcony subject to high winds would, for instance, have contributed to the damage.
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This is not just a strata issue and whatever you do, there’s going to be a backlash, so be prepared for that.
However, the most important thing is to get a message to them that if they want to continue behaving in this way, they are in the wrong kind of accommodation.
How do you do this? I would prepare the ground for a full-on battle but hope that it never occurs.
I would talk to the police about their intimidatory behaviour and I would get the strata manager to prepare a list of possible strata breaches that you can hit them with.
You might also talk to your insurer about raising the premiums specifically to deal with the change of use – because the difference can be charged directly back to them. And I would certainly talk to your local council about the illegal food service.
You might even consider putting a gate on the entrance to the property (with electronic access) and fitting some security cameras and floodlights that would deter the dodgier characters and worst behaviour.
Even better, if you can get a letter from your insurer saying that all these things are a requirement for them continuing to insure you, you might be able to claim the cost against the the neighbours.
Best case scenario, if you can convince them (or get an interpreter to do so) that it’s going to cost them – and only them – a lot of money and hassle if they carry on like this, they might just pack up and move to somewhere that their behaviour doesn’t impact on others.
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Agree with Austman. It doesn’t matter now many lots are serviced by these stairs. I wonder what would happen if there was an accident and the owner sued for negligence? If the steps were broken, you’d have to fix them regardless of the number of owners who used them.
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If you have evidence of unfair, unreasonable or abusive behaviour, you can go to NCAT and seek orders that the offending person be removed from their role on the committee or, indeed, from the committee altogether. The first step is to apply for obligatory mediation (which is free).
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There are provisions under Section 90 of NSW strata law (below) that if costs are awarded against the OC and in favour of the owner, then a special levy has to be raised to cover the costs and the ‘winning’ owner doesn’t have to contribute.
Therefore there is no need to ‘quarantine’ the owner’s levies – if she wins, she doesn’t have to pay.
I’m curious about the ‘pecuniary interest’ consideration, even though it was moot. I’m not sure that simply being in dispute with the Owners Corp is a conflict of interest, as all the committee members are effectively in the same boat.
90 CONTRIBUTIONS FOR LEGAL COSTS AWARDED IN PROCEEDINGS BETWEEN OWNERS AND OWNERS CORPORATION
(1) This section applies to proceedings brought by one or more owners of lots against an owners corporation or by an owners corporation against one or more owners of lots (including one or more owners joined in third party proceedings).
(2) The court may order in the proceedings that any money (including costs) payable by an owners corporation under an order made in the proceedings must be paid from contributions levied only in relation to the lots and in the proportions that are specified in the order.
(3) The owners corporation must, for the purpose of paying the money ordered to be paid by it, levy contributions in accordance with the terms of the order and must pay the money out of the contributions paid in accordance with that levy.
(4) This Division (other than provisions relating to the amount of contributions) applies to and in respect of contributions levied under this section in the same way as it applies to other contributions levied under this Division.
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I admire your determination to get things done and you could submit a bill to the owners corp for the legal fees.
However, if I were the OC or strata manager, I would say there were other avenues you could have pursued that would not have required the use of a lawyer – such as seeking mediation and then orders via NCAT.
Worth a try but I wouldn’t go to the barricades over it.
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We give away our personal information so freely these days that it’s worth being cautions whenever we are asked to do it again.
On the face of it 1Form seems to allow prospective tenants to give all their relevant details once and then not have to do it every time they apply for a tenancy (handy, if you miss out a couple of times just becasue someone else beats you to it).
The use of information advisory on the website does say your information will be given to third parties – which in the case of Real Estate agents is pretty obvious but who else gets it? This is what it says – and the last line is relevant:
1form collects the personal information you provide via this Application System and discloses it to relevant real estate agent(s) and/or property manager(s) (or their integration service provider) for the purpose of your current and future rental property applications or to property service providers for verification.
1form may also use your personal information to promote the services of 1form (including its related parties) and selected third parties. 1form’s Privacy Policy further explains how 1form collects, uses and discloses personal information and how to access, correct or complain about the handling of personal information.
If you request connection or other property services via 1form, then we disclose your personal information to retailers, service providers, real estate agents and property managers for the purpose of your requested services. 1form has contractual license obligations with trusted strategic partners related to limited personal data.
Those partners are prohibited from using personal data for direct marketing without consent.
Should you be concerned? This is the first complaint we’ve had but then, as I said, we’ve all become a bit casual about who has our personal information and how they use it.
I reckon the convenience factor outweigh the privacy issues … but then I’d never heard of 1Form until this post so what do I know?
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Surveys can provide a valuable indicator of how the majority of owners are thinking – or if they are thinking about a topic at all – but, like the polls before a political election, they are not a substitute for the real thing when votes have actual consequences.
In your position I would put a motion to your committee that any report on these straw polls should:
- present a summary of how many owners or residents were contacted
- how they were contacted
- the total number of responses
- the results be presented to the strata committee for consideration before they were presented to the owners corporation as the basis for any motions to a general meeting.
I would add as a footnote that any perceived lack of transparency undermines the credibility of what could and should be a valuable tool in the management of your community.
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