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@Stanganie said:
My question is: is this a Body Corporate responsibility?Yes.
Does it depend on the origin of the tree roots?
Yes. The Owners Corp should fix it and then send a bill to the OC of the adjoining building
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@justsaying said:
Hi Everyone,Q: does the treasuer without approval at a ECM have permission to spend funds?
No, unless there has been an agreement at the EC or a general meeting to allow non-specified spending.
Q: if the ECM vote to spend an amount at a ECM can the treasurer overrule that decision?
No. However, it’s very easy to remove that person from that role. You put a motion up for your next EC meeting to declare the role of treasurer vacant and elect a new treasurer. They will still be on the EC but at least they won’t have hold of the purse strings.
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The answe to this question was used as the basis for a Flat Chat column. You can read it HERE
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@strata Newbie said:
I believe that we have the right to set down the terms of acceptance of which the owner needs to adhere to not the owner dictating terms to the majority.
That is true – but only if you do it via a by-law. And if you are going to pass a by-law, then you should start with a discussion about what the majority of owners really want and what regulations you need to achieve that.
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It strikes me that the lawyer has pulled down a previously used or template letter and just added some (but not all) specific references.
I would write back and say that their letter doesn’t make sense, doesn’t address the issues and the committee will proceed as it sees fit.
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(c) prevent an occupier of a unit who has a disability from keeping a relevant animal at the unit, or restrict the use of a relevant animal by the occupier if the relevant animal is trained to assist the occupier in respect of the disability; or (d) prevent a visitor to a unit who has a disability from using a relevant animal trained to assist the visitor in respect of the disability.
In its Glossary, the SA strata Act refers to an Assistance animal “as defined by the Equal Opportunity Act 1984.” That Act defines a difference between an Assistance Animal and a Therapeutic Animal. The former has to be registered with the Dog and Cat Board (I kid you not) but the latter can, indeed, be established by a doctor.
The thing is, the strata Act says nothing about “Therapeutic” animals … only “assistance” animals. So where does that leave you?
You could get all bush lawyer about this and reply to the (real) lawyer’s letter saying the bird is not an assistance animal as defined by the SA strata Act or Equal Opportunities Act, therefore the exclusions don’t apply.
Or you could take this opportunity to revise your by-laws to allow pets, provided they are not a nuisance to any other owners under any reasonable circumstances. And you could take the opportunity to define the criteria for assistance or therapeutic animals, including, perhaps, that the doctor signing the letter also has to state what the disability is and how the animal assists.
Doctors are great at signing “sick notes” for strata residents, not giving a damn about the effect on the rest of the community of their actions, so they should be held to account.
That said, the health benefits of pet ownership, especially for seniors living on their own, are well documented. Pets are also excellent for bringing communities together (yappy dogs, notwithstanding). Your bird-loving neighbour needs to be less of a dog in a manger when it comes to pets.
One other thing, I sense the people who train assistance animals are starting to get annoyed by strata residents who claim their ordinary pet is an assistance animal, as it undermines the credibility of the real ones.
This is what the Equal Opportunity Act says:
88—Assistance animals
Subject to this Act— (a) it is unlawful to impose a condition or requirement that would result in a person with a disability being separated from his or her assistance animal; and (b) a person who imposes such a condition or requirement is, in addition to civil liability that might be incurred under this Act, guilty of an offence. Maximum penalty: $2 500.
88A—Therapeutic animals (1)
It is unlawful for a person— (a) to refuse an application for accommodation; or (b) to defer such an application or accord the applicant a late order of precedence on a list of applicants for that accommodation, on the ground that the applicant intends to keep a therapeutic animal at that accommodation.
(2) Subsection (1)(a) does not apply if the respondent establishes that in the circumstances of the case the refusal was reasonable.
(3) In this section— therapeutic animal means—
(a) an animal certified by a medical practitioner as being required to assist a person as a consequence of the person’s disability; or
(b) an animal of a class prescribed by regulation, but does not include an assistance animal, a dangerous dog within the meaning of the Dog and Cat Management Act 1995 or a dog of a prescribed breed within the meaning of the Dog and Cat Management Act 1995.
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CLICK HERE to read the story to which Whale and the original poster are referring.
Had the tenant simply wanted to deal with a nuisance from a neighbour and the landlord and EC had refused to get involved, she could have taken action herself via Fair Trading.
However, the Tenants Union advises renters to take action against the landlord under the Residential Tenancies Act because it is less expensive, less complicated and it may result in a rent reduction or, as in this case, financial compensation.
By the way, reading the details of the story, I wonder if the owners corporation may be liable in a claim by the landlord becuse “a mechanical problem in the internal ventilation passages of the strata [allowed] the smoke to pass from the downstairs unit into the inside areas of the upstairs unit”.
If I were his lawyer, I would be all over that.
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@Winston said:
Thanks Jimmy,In relation to the Minutes of the EC Meetings – please take time to examine the text slowly:
Winston, maybe you should take the time to read the rules of this website SLOWLY before you post your insulting messages .
You have posted variations of the same questions in a number of topics. This is not only arrogant, annoying and a waste of time – with various moderators on this website thinking your questions hadn’t been answered and others thinking they had – it is a violation of the rules of the website.
Consider yourself suspended for 7 days.
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@Winston said:
As the next AGM is now due, can you advise if currently, does the Strata have a Secretary Treasurer & Chairperson up to and including the AGM or just a Delegate in the form of the Strata Manager & what action (if any would you suggest). There is currently an EC Meeting motion to elect those office holders.This is a fairly confusing question. What do you mean by “the Strata”? If you mean the strata scheme or owners corporation, then did you mean to ask if the committee must have office-bearers?
The simple answer is that the law says that an EC, in the first meeting after its elected – i.e. the first meeting after each AGM – it must appoint someone to those roles (it could be one person doing all of them).
If the EC fails to do so, an owner can apply to NCAT (under Section 19 of the Act) to order the EC to hold a meeting to appoint someone into those roles.
Normally, an EC where no one wants to fulfill any or all of those roles will delegate them to their strata manager. However, if an office-bearer is subsequently elected, they can resume those responsibilities from the SM.
I formed the opinion the Strata Manager is not up to the job, and the EC as it is has little idea also, and really should not continue. Any suggestions?
This is a different question entirely and the first thing you need to do is establish the terms of the strata manager’s contract. If they haven’t breached the contract, your opinion isn’t going to make much difference. However, if the contract is up for renewal in the near future, you can start trying to persuade your fellow owners that it is time for a change.
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Why would the “public” be interested in a video of you?
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You have answered your own question – if there is not change of use, why do they require a DA?
The establishment of the change of use can be found in the result of the Land & Environment Court findings with regard to City of Sydney’s case against Australian Executive Apartments and its operations in the Bridgeport building.
The LEC found that short-term lets could not be conducted under the terms of the Residential Tenancies Act and therefore were illegal because the building was zoned residential only.
Every aspect of a building’s operations is related to common property, including access, lifts, electrical supplies, water provision, sewage, lighting and maintenance. Short-term letting puts extra strain on many of these resources.
Also, there are special requirements for holiday lets, such as emergency exit signage and parking, all of which affect common property.
Go to the meeting and if the motion is not a special resolution, tell the chairman you will challenge any affirmative result both at council and at NCAT. I would also ask him to resign as he is leading the building into areas that will cost you all a lot of heartache (and possibly money) without checking his facts.
By the way, what does your council’s DA form say about strata applications? Is it the same as City of Sydney?
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The strata manager is correct
By-law changes require special resolutions which must be conducted by a poll vote (based on unit entitlements)..
It must say on the agenda which items are to be determined by special resolution.
Special resolutions require that no more that 25 percent of of those voting at a general meeting, either in person or by proxy, are against.
Abstentions are not counted in the overall number of votes. For instance, if those at the meeting represent 50 unit entitlements, 29 vote yes, 10 vote no, and 11 abstain, the motion fails because more that 25 percent of those voting objected even though they represented only 20 percent of the total votes at the meeting.
Any owner can call for a poll vote (unit entitlements) on any issue at a general meeting, even those that require a simple majority.
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@theora said:
The strata manager has told us that if we want to know anything more to ask them which I won’t do because I’ve been threatened by them before and I think it should be his responsibility to make sure everything is done correctly…Also, should our Strata Manager be doing something other than washing his hands of it. He’s scared of them as well but as far as I know it’s his job so he shouldn’t be taking management fees if he won’t do it.
Strata managers are not strata cops. The Strata manager can only act as instructed by the Owners Corp or EC unless EC powers have been delegated to the SM under your current contract.
If that’s the case, they should be doing more. If not, that’s not to say they shouldn’t be a bit more helpful.
With that in mind, rather than getting both the strata manager and the other owner offside, I would be asking the manager what you should be doing.
At the very least, I would be seeking mediation at Fair Trading over issues regarding common property (attaching the air-con and deck to common property walls).
The reason for this is not necessarily to prevent them from doing something, but to make sure they and anyone to whom they sell their unit in the future are responsible for repairs and maintenance, as specified in the Act.
Given that you won’t have the 75 percent of votes required to pass a by-law, you can apply to NCAT to issue orders under Section 140 (4) and (5) and Section 141 of the Act. There are other provisions about resolving disputes that may be more relevant, depending on the circumstances. Your strata manager should be able to advise you on this.
If the strata manager doesn’t have delegated powers and there’s a 50-50 split of Unit Entitlements, you can’t instruct them to act on your behalf.
However, you have a majority of UEs, you can hold a meeting and issue instructions from that. Either way, the strata manager will almost certainly charge the owners corp (you and your neighbour) for any extra work involved.
Otherwise, if you want someone to represent you, you should be talking to an experienced strata lawyer who will make the tricky phone calls and write the strongly worded letters (and then charge you for it).
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