Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Just a wild guess, but I bet the strata manager turned up with a sheaf of proxy votes and ran the meeting to suit himself and his cronies. Another big change from the old days!
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.
@scotlandx said:
Ok – but what about before the new Act? ????Sorry, Scotty, I’m not with you.
The new Act is in place so if the two residents want to force the issue, they can
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.
@Arthur Baker said:
Surely if the pensioner couple are the only ones to turn up to an AGM, there wouldn’t be a quorum, so they wouldn’t be able to conduct any business at all?Oh Arthur, mate, you are so-o-o-o last year.
Under the new strata laws (Schedule 1,[17] below), if there is no quorum at the appointed time of a meeting, after 30 minutes have passed provided the chairperson is there, he or she can declare those in attendance either in person or by proxy to be quorate.
17 QUORUM
(1) Quorum required for motion or election A motion submitted at a meeting must not be considered, and an election must not be held at a meeting, unless there is a quorum present to consider and vote on the motion or on the election.
(2) When quorum exists A quorum is present at a meeting only in the following circumstances:
(a) if not less than one-quarter of the persons entitled to vote on the motion or election are present either personally or by duly appointed proxy,
(b) if not less than one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlement of the strata scheme is represented by the persons who are present either personally or by duly appointed proxy and who are entitled to vote on the motion or election,
(c) if there are 2 persons who are present either personally or by duly appointed proxy and who are entitled to vote on the motion or election, in a case where there is more than one owner in the strata scheme and the quorum otherwise calculated under this subclause would be less than 2 persons.
(3) A person who has voted, or intends to vote, on a motion or at an election at a meeting by a permitted means other than a vote in person is taken to be present for the purposes of determining whether there is a quorum.
(4) Procedure if no quorum If no quorum is present within the next half-hour after the relevant motion or business arises for consideration at the meeting, the chairperson must:
(a) adjourn the meeting for at least 7 days, or
(b) declare that the persons present either personally or by duly appointed proxy and who are entitled to vote on the motion or election constitute a quorum for considering that motion or business and any subsequent motion or business at the meeting.
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 don’t think you acted improperly but I do think you were badly advised. A good strata manager (perhaps one less concerned about scaring the exec committee with the cost of a major outlay) would have seen this as a sign that the whole board needed to be replaced, as the situation was more likely to deteriorate than miraculously improve.
I’m sure there are many examples of this around the traps – piecemeal repairs when a entire refit was the better long-term option. But I’d like to think this wouldn’t happen so much these days with better informed strata managers and, indeed, owners.
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.
Technically, the owner can specify in her proxy authority which motions she wishes the proxy to vote on. However there is nothing in the Act that says who can talk to a motion and who can’t.
But let’s turn this around and ask what happens if you say “no” and insist that the proxy either speaks for the owner through the entirety of the meeting or remains silent.
Otherwise, that the proxy could be required to leave the room while the owner is speaking to her previously advised chosen issues as the proxy has no right to be there except as a proxy.
Obviously, this owner will go ballistic at this and will potentially disrupt the meeting, but then what? The only recourse she has is to claim that she was denied her rights to attend and to vote (which she wasn’t).
Even if she had been denied her vote, she would still have to prove to the Tribunal that it would have made a difference to the outcome.
Her only other recourse is to have the committee or individual members sacked for mismanagement of the scheme – clearly that is unlikely to fly either.
I would be tempted to say enough is enough, it’s your committees opinion that her desire to speak and vote, alternating selectively with her proxy, is intended solely to disrupt the meeting and serves no other purpose.
Get your committee’s backing that either she or her proxy can speak, but not both and not selectively.
Then hand her the official form requesting mediation at Fair Trading – it’s free, so there’s no cost involved – and invite her to go ahead and start proceedings that might lead to action at NCAT.
If she chooses that route, your committee will defend its position vigorously and seek that costs be awarded against her.
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.
Your friends need to document the action (or inaction) of the strata manager and then raise this issues as a written complaint.
If the situation doesn’t improve, they can then take action at the Tribunal under Section 72 (below) to have the strata contract terminated. The Tribunal will then decide if the strata manager has failed in their duties.
Under the new laws, strata management contracts have a limit of three years before they must be renewed. If your friends are the only ones who attend the AGMs, they have a great opportunity to get rid of the strata manager then, as the SM can’t use proxies to vote on their own contract.
72 STRATA MANAGING AGENT AND BUILDING MANAGER AGREEMENTS MAY BE TERMINATED OR VARIED BY TRIBUNAL
(1) The Tribunal may, on application by an owners corporation for a strata scheme, make any of the following orders in respect of an agreement for the appointment of a strata managing agent or building manager for the scheme:
(a) an order terminating the agreement,
(b) an order requiring the payment of compensation to a party to the agreement,
(c) an order varying the term, or varying or declaring void any of the conditions, of the agreement,
(d) an order that a party to the agreement take any action or not take any action under the agreement,
(e) an order dismissing the application.
(2) If the Tribunal makes an order terminating the agreement, the Tribunal may also order the strata managing agent or building manager to return to the owners corporation, within the period specified in the order, any documents or other records relating to the strata scheme that are in the possession of the agent or manager.
(3) The Tribunal may make an order under this section on any of the following grounds:
(a) that the strata managing agent or building manager has refused or failed to perform the agreement or has performed it unsatisfactorily,
(b) that charges payable by the owners corporation under the agreement are unfair,
(c) that the strata managing agent has contravened section 58 (2),
(d) that the strata managing agent has failed to disclose commissions or training services (including estimated commissions or value of training services or variations and explanations for variations) in accordance with section 60 or has failed to make the disclosures in good faith,
(e) that the strata managing agent or building manager has failed to disclose an interest under section 71,
(f) that the agreement is, in the circumstances of the case, otherwise harsh, oppressive, unconscionable or unreasonable.
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.
Did the owners who replaced their fuse board have permission? If not, they may have to cop it sweet.
However, one way round this may be for the switchboard to be replaced by the Owners Corp which then “buys” the new fuse boxes off the owners.
However, if you can’t get enough votes to get a special resolution through to enable that, then the owners who jumped the gun (and, by the way, acted improperly) could be compelled to pay their share of a new board.
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.
@communityresident said:
However I’m oblivious and perhaps a little (or a lot) stupid about what is the issue with the word Strata as it refers to the management of the building. Do you have an issue with anyone using the word Real Estate Agent, or perhaps Landlord.
Did you have a bad day when you wrote the post about my comment on using “The Strata”?!
I hope your day has got better since then.
I’m sorry you have chosen to take this personally but, since you mention it, “The Strata” is meaningless. The strata manager, the strata committee, the strata scheme, the strata chair, the strata secretary, the strata plan … all have specific and different meanings.
But saying “I wrote to the strata …” is like saying “I wrote to the Sydney …”
If you’re having a pop at me because you can’t see the difference, you are pretty much missing the point.
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.
@david2708 said:
I presume we will have to update our by-laws at the next AGM for its inclusion.In the meantime, are we just left with using the disturbing the peaceful enjoyment of a lot by-law to come down on smoking on the common property.
No, if you and your neighbours consider the issue serious enough, you can hold an Extraordinary General meeting (EGM) specifically to update that by-law and any others that require attention. If you do so, you’d be well advised to use model by-law No 9 (below)as your starting point.
9 Smoke penetrationNote.Select option A or B. If no option is selected, option A will apply.
Option A(1) An owner or occupier, and any invitee of the owner or occupier, must not smoke tobacco or any other substance on the common property.
(2) An owner or occupier of a lot must ensure that smoke caused by the smoking of tobacco or any other substance by the owner or occupier, or any invitee of the owner or occupier, on the lot does not penetrate to the common property or any other lot.
Option B(1) An owner or occupier of a lot, and any invitee of the owner or occupier, must not smoke tobacco or any other substance on the common property, except:
(a) in an area designated as a smoking area by the owners corporation, or
(b) with the written approval of the owners corporation.
(2) A person who is permitted under this by-law to smoke tobacco or any other substance on common property must ensure that the smoke does not penetrate to any other lot.
(3) An owner or occupier of a lot must ensure that smoke caused by the smoking of tobacco or any other substance by the owner or occupier, or any invitee of the owner or occupier, on the lot does not penetrate to the common property or any other lot.
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.
@Miranda said:Re clear line of sight…when I’m going out i just point it and it is behind the dashboard and it works. But coming in i have to open the window and hold my arm out, or sometimes get out of the car. Even then it takes a lot of clicks.
Are you the only resident who has this problem?
It sounds most likely that there’s an obstruction of some kind that isn’t in the way when you are inside the garage, but is when you are outside.
As your neighbours or building manager (if you have one) or writ to the strata committee secretary. It’s not that the remote isn’t working – it’s that it isn’t working when you are outside.
Find out is something has changed since the remote receiver was installed. And, yes, it’s the OC’s responsibility – if your remote belongs to them in the first place.
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.
@Orion011 said:
… what does OC stand for please?Owners Corporation – or Body Corporate, as it used to be known.
I don’t understand why the rest of the owners have to pay for the “loss of rent” as it could have been could have been avoided by the owner notifying the committee before it got to the unliveable stage.
I’m guessing the problem here may have been quantifying the extent to which the failure to report the problem contributed to the damage. So then you get into a legal debate that costs time, energy and money. Sometimes it costs less to surrender than fight a battle and win.
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.
@Miranda said:
Er Jimmy where did you write about “the strata”?A very grumpy post at the end of this thread.
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.