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RF said
As I have the proxy of my owner am I entitled to another proxy – thus giving me (two proxies) but equal voting as the above owner?
No, because you are a proxy holder, not a company nominee (i.e. on the strata roll and entitled to vote in your own right).
The law limits the number of proxies held by individuals, not the number of votes. Under the 5 per cent rule, in a building of 35 units, you are entitled to 1.75 votes rounded down to one.
The interesting thing will be when someone says their proxies are rounded down to one but their unit entitlements in a poll vote should be a total of 5 per cent. Look out for that one.
Limit on number of proxies that may be held
The total number of proxies that may be held by a person (other than proxies held by the person as the co-owner of a lot) voting on a resolution are as follows:
(a) if the strata scheme has 20 lots or less, one,
(b) if the strata scheme has more than 20 lots, a number that is equal to not more than 5% of the total number of lots.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.
If the laneway is, as you state, a public road – and therefore not the Owners Corps responsibility – you should ask your local council to send a parking officer round to ticket the truck for impeding access on the road.
NB: Your committee may have decided that as this is a public road it is not their responsibility … but they should have told you that, at least.
If the laneway is common property, apply to Fair Trading for mediation prior to seeking orders under Section 232 (1f and 2) [below], compelling them to take action. You’ll find links for all the forms you need HERE.
232 Orders to settle disputes or rectify complaints
(1) Orders relating to complaints and disputes
The Tribunal may, on application by an interested person, original owner or building manager, make an order to settle a complaint or dispute about any of the following:
(f) an exercise of, or failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed on an owners corporation under any other Act.(2) Failure to exercise a function
For the purposes of this section, an owners corporation, strata committee or building management committee is taken not to have exercised a function if:
(a) it decides not to exercise the function, or
(b) application is made to it to exercise the function and it fails for 2 months after the making of the application to exercise the function in accordance with the application or to inform the applicant that it has decided not to exercise the function in accordance with the application.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.
Even if the builder doesn’t need insurance for jobs under $4000 their insurance for the whole company should cover them – unless they are a small, semi-professional business doing this on the cheap.
The best thing you can do if you are worried is to employ a legitimate and established builder who isn’t going to disappear in a puff of brick dust as soon as a problem appears.
That will probably cost more – but there’s your insurance.
As for the long-term damage risk, with all the work going on in your building, who’s to say which apartment’s renovation caused the problem?
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1. Have they ever been the subject of a complaint to Fair Trading? If so, what, why and how did it go?
2. How are their fees structured – all inclusive or flat fee plus schedule B charges?
3. If it’s schedule B, what do they charge for and how much? What would be a reasonable estimate of the annual charges for your scheme?
4. Who will be the actual strata manager – the one dealing with the scheme on a daily basis?
5. How much experience of a scheme of this size in this area do they have?
6. How would they deal with [insert specific ongoing problem in your scheme here]?
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No and no.
By-laws can’t interfere with you “dealing” with your lot. But they can be drafted in a way that says you must adhere to local zoning.
However, even if your apartment block is zoned residential only, it would be hard to argue that occasional lets of a room while the owner was there was a commercial let. Letting the whole apartment when you are not there is a whole different issue.
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I go with EGM.
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@Amy L said:
I’m new to this strata living, We just have EOG meeting with our managing agent regarding the new bylaws…Pardon my stupidity but what is an EOG meeting?
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@RJW said:
Could provision made that an owner would move out during construction and move in to an apartment with a similar aspect on completion?
I have noticed that owners who sell to a developer never get sufficient to buy into the re development .In fact there a is a lesser know provision of the Act that allows owners to add lots to their existing buildings, reconfigure the strata plan, redistribute the unit entitlements and sell the additional units to pay for work done. It’s happened already in buildings where there is 100 per cent owner approval. With the new laws, the majority of owners can agree to do this. You’ll find an article I wrote about this here.
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You haven’t included paragraph 3 which is referred to in the text.
Also your by-law refers to the 1996 Act (which has been superseded – but I’m not sure if it still applies to existing by-laws).
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What is the specific wording of the by-law?
By the way, if this person really knows someone from NCAT then they will know that by-laws tend to be upheld.
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The strata manager needs to be told in writing that the appointment of the building manager was not approved beyond the 2016 AGM and they are therefore liable for any payments thereafter and should refund the owners corporation.
What happens next depends on their response.
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OK, first of all, you are talking about a house where the impact on your neighbours is likely to be be minimal. Google “Bridgeport” and “Watergate, Docklands” if you want to see how bad it can get in an apartment block that’s been turned into a virtual hotel.
Secondly, this comment:
… it is only viable in holiday locations or close to a CBD to get enough guests. As such, it is not impacting supply of properties for rent.
That’s just not true. The most-used area of Sydney according to Airbnb’s own figures is Darlinghurst, which is neither a holiday area nor particularly close to the CBD.
Also, rents have gone up more than three times as much in areas where Airbnb is more active than they have in the rest of the city as a whole, so you can’t say there has been no impact.
So, yes, there’s a lot of hysteria going around – both pro and anti short-stay lets.
But my view, for what it’s worth: residential flats and houses are for residents (and their bona fide guests). Hotels and motels are for holidaymakers and business people.
If there isn’t enough holiday letting accommodation, build more and let people invest in places where they aren’t leeching off their strata neighbours’ shared facilities.
Just because you can fudge the line doesn’t mean you should.
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This Fair Trading fact sheet has a list of various grounds for claiming against the bond, but it adds this rider …
There may be other legitimate reasons for making a claim against the tenant’s bond, such as the cost of disposing of goods left behind by the tenant. The claim must relate to a breach of the tenancy agreement by the tenant. (my emphasis)
So have a look at your list and decide if any of those items are a result of the tenant breaching the terms of her agreement, then make the claim. She can always dispute this and take you to a Tribunal if need be, where an independent arbiter will decide.
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@Mitsy said:
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really don’t want to have to go to fair trading or CTTT.Unfortunately that’s the best and probably only relevant advice we can give.
You have a right to peaceful enjoyment of your home and that right existed before your neighbour removed the only effective insulation from his floor and before the by-law was passed.
The strata committee probably should be involved since common property has been damaged, but why fight two battles when you only need to fight one.
I would get your complaint into Fair Trading as soon as possible and I would make it about the removal of noise insulation rather than the installation of timber floors.
Look at it this way, you have no say in what this person puts on their floor as long as you are not affected by noise. So what you want is for them to restore the same level of sound insulation as was there before by whatever means possible.
So that should be your case – restore the sound insulation to its previous levels. Don’t get hung up on whether it’s timber or tiles or carpet. They removed sound insulation and they need to replace it with something equally effective.
Gather whatever evidence you can, including signed statements from friends and neighbours and keep a diary of all the noise and when it occurs.
Also ask the strata committee to help (rather than take the case on themselves). Try to keep them onside. It’s better to have willing support rather than an unwilling champion.
Perhaps they will permit your strata manager to advise you or issue a statement that the owner knew a by-law on flooring was imminent.
You might quietly remind them that they have a responsibility to maintain and repair common property and the magnesite was important insulation. That is a technicality they can’t avoid so it’s probably easier for them to support you than take on the case themselves.
What you have in your favour is that the owner knew there might be an issue with noise which is probably why they jumped the gun on the flooring.
And they have shown that scattering a few rugs is inadequate.
Have a look at Section 153 (c) and possibly (a) of the Act (below), download your application for mediation to Fair Trading here, then start gathering your evidence and get the wheels rolling.
No one is going to come in and do this all for you. But if you follow procedures, in a few months the only noise you hear from upstairs may be carpet layers putting down a new wall-to-wall.
153 Owners, occupiers and other persons not to create nuisance
(1) An owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee in possession, tenant or occupier of a lot in a strata scheme must not:
(a) use or enjoy the lot, or permit the lot to be used or enjoyed, in a manner or for a purpose that causes a nuisance or hazard to the occupier of any other lot (whether that person is an owner or not), or
(c) use or enjoy the common property in a manner or for a purpose that interferes unreasonably with the use or enjoyment of any other lot by the occupier of the lot (whether that person is an owner or not) or by any other person entitled to the use and enjoyment of the 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.