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@supersleuth said:
Thanks for that. So that would mean that I couldn’t vote for the other owner to have a position and she couldn’t vote for me?
No, you can vote for each other but not nominate. If you are a co-owner, you get your other co-owner to nominate you. If you aren’t a co-owner, just nominate yourself.
Use your poll votes to limit the numbers – there is a mandatory item on the agenda for every AGM at which you have to decide on the numbers on the committee before you hold the election.
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@Lady Penelope said:
It would be unreasonable to exclude some people from access to information either due to their inability to afford internet access and/or a computer, or their lack of computer skills. This form of communication may negatively impact the poor, the disadvantaged, and the elderly.A computer recycling scheme might be an idea – let people who are upgrading their PCs pass them on to residents who can’t afford one of their own (maybe as a loan from the Owners Corp).
Also there are various community college courses in basic computing for seniors like this one and this one and others.
Getting computer basics can make a big difference to seniors especially as they can keep in touch with friends and family … and the rest fo the world through emails, Skype and social media.
So I would use the push for an internal communications system as a way of getting people online rather that worrying that you are excluding those who aren’t.
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@scotlandx said:
You can’t use a proxy at a Strata Committee meeting.And your Unit Entitlements won’t be counted within the committee either
The unit entitlements of you and the other owner would only be relevant if you called for a poll. If there is no poll then you would only have two votes.
So it is in your interest to call for a poll vote for both the numbers on the committee and the election to it.
FYI you can’t self-nominate for election to the committee if you are a co-owner and you can’t be nominated by someone who is also standing for election.
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Stratabox.com.au will give you a free trial of software to do exactly that.
A password protected website or online forum will give you a level of protection against defamation and privacy claims because it is for internal use only.
However, that protection evaporates if there is malicious intent behind any offensive posts – especially if those posts get out to a wider readership. But that’s one reason a protected website is better than a publicly visible noticeboard.
I met a strata manager a couple of years ago who had to shut down a strata’s web forum because two owners were using it to hurl nasty abuse at each other.
Password protection and a tight code of conduct would take care of that, though. Your next problem is who manages it.
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This is from the NSW Local Government Act:
Penalties for offences are expressed in penalty units. Under section 17 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, the amount of a penalty unit is currently $110.
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The strata plan drawn when the strata scheme was created should show who the garages belong to.
If the garages are not on a lot or are not separate lots themselves, then they must be part of common property.
If they are the former, then you need to get your Unit Entitlements changed.
If they are the latter, then you need to get the current occupants to pay rent for them.
The easiest way to establish the value of the garages for either purpose is to get local estate agents to tell you how much a unit and a garage is worth (just as a ballpark figure).
So then you re-calculate the UEs accordingly. Let’s say for the sake of argument that the units are worth $500k each and the garages are worth $50k each.
Instead of your unit entitlements being 25 each, the would be 2 @ 27.5 and 2 at 22.5.
Or the owners corp could rent the garages to the current users and pass them on when that owner sells, on a first in, best dressed basis, so that access to the garage doen’t become part of the value of the flat.
Or you could even agree to sell the garages to whoever offered the most, with the money going to the sinking fund.
There are two critical issues here. First you need to establish who owns the garages. Then you need to get unanimous agreement (if humanly possible) on what to do about it.
Either way, the people currently using the garages are going to lose – the key will be to soften the blow as much as possible without cheating the other owners out of too much of what they are entitled to.
The easiest way to change unit entitlements is with unanimous agreement. But there are mechanisms via NCAT whereby a reasonable solution can be imposed by the Tribunal if one or more owners refuse.
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@SofiaMagnus said:
I was having the same issue.And??? Tell us more!
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Who are you trying to get the document from?
If it’s an outside agency they may be reluctant to give you, an individual, a copy of material they have provided to a body (the owners corp) even though you are legally entitled to see it
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Basically the law says that if the “occupier” denies access, the Owners Corp needs to get an order from the Tribunal. After that, if the occupier hinders access, they can be fined up to $550 and be liable for any damage caused in gaining access.
That said, you are a long way off that fairly drastic stuff. The issue is that you are having to give up your time to facilitate something that is of little or no benefit to you, right?
So put it back on the landlord or agent. Just tell them that it’s inconvenient for you to be there so they will have to make their own arrangements. They’ll have a spare key – let them use it.
Just lock away your valuables and photograph everything that can’t be locked away, then leave them to it.
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You have certain rights that are being trampled all over – your question is, do you want to lose your accommodation by asserting them (as you probably will, one way or another).
I suspect your landlady is probably evading tax and is certainly playing fast and loose with Boarding House laws. Have a look a THIS FACTSHEET from Tenancy NSW and have a think about what that means to you.
Regarding the missing parcel, report it to the Post Office. They don’t have a valid signature which means it has been accepted fraudulently and when you have established that you can ask for it to be replaced.
You don’t have to blame the landlady – that’s up to you. But she didn’t need to accept the parcel and if she hadn’t you would have been able to collect it from your Post Office.
So report the missing parcel to the Post Office. And meanwhile I would be looking for somewhere acceptable to live that’s run along slightly more legitimate lines.
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Whoopi – you consistently refer to receiving information from “strata” – do you mean the strata manager or building manager or the strata committee (or someone else)?
This is all really a matter of the protocols in your building where your strata manager, building manager or strata committee officers aren’t organised well enough to give you reasonable warning of the need for access.
If this is a serious enough issue for you, then you could refuse access unless it is accompanied by an order from NCAT. Or to put it another way, the Owners Corp is entitled to gain access to your unit under certain circumstances but if you refuse, they have to get an order from the Tribunal to enforce that right.
Now, having said that, there may well be circumstances where you don’t wish to impede the workmen or whatever – but you do want to have reasonable notice provided.
So let’s get back to what you really want – which I believe is sufficient notice.
Now, using the guidelines provided by Lady P, go to your committee and propose a motion for the next committee meeting that they adopt protocols for non-emergency meetings along the lines suggested.
The strata manager (or building manager or whatever “the strata” is) can only do as the owners corp, as represented by the strata committee, instructs and there is no reason an owner should be given less notice than a tenant.
So tell the committee what you want and tell them that if you don’t see a bit more consideration in this regard, you will not be permitting access without an order from NCAT.
If you want, you can get into issues of privacy and who should be getting your phone number etc etc – but there’s little to be gained by that if all you really want is a bit more notice than you have been getting.
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As far as I know, NCAT does not use other Tribunal cases as precedents (although this may have changed) but they will refer to rulings from a superior court.
Your engineer reports plus photographs of your courtyard from various angles showing their consistency with the look of the building will do more good than quoting other cases.
However, be careful that your planters don’t constitute a climb risk for small children by lowering the effective height of the fence.
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