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The wording in the NSW act is that the remaining committee members “may” appoint someone to fill the vacancies. I have a feeling it used to say “must”.
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Why can’t one of the remaining three be chairman?
In any case you can ask your strata manager to act in any or all of the office-bearer roles … but they will quite rightly charge you fro the privilege.
Why don’t you ask one of your tenants if they want to come on (although you will have to get a non-member owner to nominate them)?
Next AGM, reduce the numbers on the committee to 5 or 3.
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Stevecro’s points are valid but I think the one on mediation applies to internal mediation processes which are now allowed in NSW. It doesn’t prevent owners seeking mediation through Fair Trading.
Regarding the possibility of NCAT ruling a claim as vexatious, it still requires engagement and a response of some kind, including appearing at the Tribunal (you could respond in writing, but that is risky).
A cleaner but harder to achieve outcome would be to get the owner declared a vexatious litigant by a higher court
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I may be wrong but my understanding is that the “old schemes” by-laws apply automatically where there is no by-law in place covering that topic.
In this instance, if there was a legitimate registered by-law saying anything about flooring, then the “standard” by-law would not apply. For instance you could have a by-law saying specifically that By-law 14 was being removed.
But if a previous regime had simply removed the by-law, then the renewed one would slot into the gap.
Having said that, I am really not sure, so would welcome other input.
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Here’s my take on this, for what it’s worth.
Owners can be allowed to maintain common property but they can’t be compelled to do it. If they decline, the owners corp still has the responsibility.
The only way this would change would be if the OC passed a series of special resolutions passing responsibility for the common property to the individual owners.
No owner in their right mind would accept that if they didn’t want to maintain the common property themselves – and if they didn’t accept it, the special resolution would not stand.
Given that the older owners don’t want to hire tradies, the best compromise would be for the EC to agree that the painting should be done by volunteers and then call for volunteers to do all the painting, whether or not the individual owners of the lots participated or not.
Wouldn’t that work?
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@monkey_business said:
I’m not completely sure it is within NCATs jurisdiction to be able to declare someone as vexatious …Me neither. I know they can reject applications for being vexatious in their Discrimination division but it says nothing regarding their strata section. I will enquire further.
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You have to differentiate not attending mediation and not attending the tribunal.
The former is not compulsory and you would be entitled to write to Fair Trading and say you were not attending because the complainant was using Fair Trading as a form of harassment by wasting committee time (listing all the previous failed cases).
For the Tribunal, I would be tempted to hire a lawyer to defend your position while making it clear before the hearing that you
a) would be demanding costs from the litigant and
b) would seek to have him declared a vexatious litigant by the TribunalIf 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.
Just thinking about this. The chairman would have been allowed one proxy at the most and you have at least two votes of dissenting owners. Unless there was a poll vote and his vote and his proxy vote totalled more unit entitlements than the objecting owners, the motion to increase fees would fail.
Time you got yourself a new chairman and strata manager, I would say.
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This is an extreme case but here is a recent example of someone declared a “vexatious litigant”.
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Proxies have to be submitted in writing on the appropriate forms and as such form a record of the procedures in the strata scheme. You are legally entitled to view the records of your strata scheme, although there may be a small charge applied for doing so.
If there is any hesitation in providing the records, you should maybe start proceedings immediately (apply for mediation through Fair Trading) to have the AGM declared invalid as there is a time limit on any such challenges.
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You would require 100 percent approval from owner fro the repayment of funds, so that won’t fly.
But solicitors threaten – that’s what they do. I would be tempted to tell them you are coming after the debt and the costs of legal action too. Hire your own solicitor and get them to issue threats on your behalf.
Thse people are stealing from their neighbours and they need to realise that’s what they are doing, not taking money from some anonymous body.
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The strata committee is obliged by law to organise a meeting of tenants for the election of a representative where more than half the residents are registered tenants.
If only one tenant turns up, they can be elected as tenants rep. They can attend and speak at committee meetings but they have no vote and can be excluded from “sensitive” discussions.
There’s more about this HERE.
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Bullies can be charming too. Put a motion to the committee that they issue a Notice To Comply with by-laws (a precursor to a fine).
It also sounds like your neighbour is in breach of planning and noise laws in that they are undertaking work that they are not qualified to do and doing at times that are in breach of noise laws.
The next time this bully confronts you, tell them that you believe they are breaking several laws and by-laws but you will leave it to the committee, NCAT and the local council to decide whether or not this is the case.
If they persist, tell them your next option is to seek an AVO from the police. Invoking by-laws is not harassment – it’s good management.
In the meantime, suggest that in your compulsory review of by-laws, you bring in one about renovations that limits the time they can be done (NOT evenings or weekends) and who they can be done by.
Finally, it sounds like section 111 of the strata Act (below) applies. Does this person have special resolution permission to change common property (ceilings etc)?
You need to get the committee 100 per cent behind you and they need to get the strata manager activated on this. It should not be just you versus your neighbour.
STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 111
Work by owners of lots affecting common property
111 Work by owners of lots affecting common property
An owner of a lot in a strata scheme must not carry out work on the common property unless the owner is authorised to do so:
(a) under this Part, or
(b) under a by-law made under this Part or a common property rights by-law, or
(c) by an approval of the owners corporation given by special resolution or in any other manner authorised by the by-laws.
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@newlsie said:
Hello, Is there a sample code of conduct description anywhere.Have a look here at the one we posted this week.
And Sir Humphrey posted the ACT’s standard Code of Conduct here (item 2).
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