[Jimmy-T]

DB, you have first of all multi-posted on variations of the same issue and now you have compounded the problem by repeating all your questions on the one post.
We’ll accept your excuse that you are new to this but this kind of thing is unacceptable (and may offer us a little insight into why your neighbours have stopped communicating with you). Nevertheless, in the interests of anyone who has been trying to follow this, I will try to provide some answers.

db said 

I live in a very dysfunctional strata scheme consisting of 3 lots. All 3 owners are on the executive committee. There was recently a disagreement between us on one issue affecting my proposed private renovation (which the other two did not agree with). After that disagreement, the other two owners and the strata manager have joined the forces against me on every single issue. They have completely isolated me, ignored me etc. The communications between the strata manager and the other two owners are not sent to me, even though I am on the executive committee too.

How do you know communications aren’t being sent to you if you don’t receive them and no one is talking to you?

Some specific issues are:

1.I have a problem with the strata manager lying in the minutes of the last AGM. I have repeatedly requested the manager to correct the minutes with no success. The manager just keeps ignoring my requests.
What are my options – how can I ‘force the strata manager to record the correct minutes?

Lying is a pretty strong word. If you think the discussion or your point of view have been misrepresented, send a letter to the executive committee asking that your alternative view be recorded for future reference.  Be careful about calling anyone a liar – that is defamatory and actionable.

2. The strata manager is not attending to my requests for repairs. I have broken tiles in the front and back of my town house. I have emailed her a number of times, but the manager keeps ignoring my requests. The strata manager treats the other 2 owners favourably and attends to their queries promptly. What are my options in ‘forcing’ the strata manager to start organising repairs? The other two owners will not support anything that does not directly benefit their own lots (town houses), and have joined forces against me.

The strata manager can only do what the executive committee instructs her to do.  If they won’t do anything then your recourse is through a Section 62 order against your owners corporation at Fair Trading and NCAT to maintain and repair common property.

3. Recently we appointed a new strata manager. I requested the strata manager to forward us a copy of the signed strata management agreement. The other 2 owners have got it, but not me. The strata manager keeps ignoring my requests for a copy of the agreement, and she treats the other two owners favourably. 
How can I ‘force’ the strata manager to send me a copy of the signed strata management agreement?

As an owner, you are entitled to see copies of any documents and contracts.  All you have to do is turn up at the strata manager’s office and pay about $30. If the strata manager refuses, complain to Fair Trading

4. Do EC meeting minutes need to be approved by all EC meeting members? Can an EC member just write minutes and send them to the strata manager without asking for my sign off? As mentioned previously, the other 2 EC members have ganged up against me and are pushing their own agendas avoiding me. So if I complained to them about the inaccurate minutes, they would just ignore me.

EC minutes are approved (or not) retrospectively by a majority of members of the EC at its next meeting.  Some ECs pass them round beforehand for prior approval but this is not required by the Act.

5. How can I call an EC meeting in NSW? I am not aware that we have a secretary, so can I just send an email notice of the EC? What is the minimum period of the notice prior the EC meeting?

I suggest you acquaint yourself with the Fair Trading publication Strata Living which you can download by clicking on that link.  Turn to page 22 and you will find all you need to know about EC meetings, including the fact that you require one-third of EC members to request a meeting and that 72 hours notice of that meeting must be provided to owners.

If you don’t have an elected secretary then the strata manger fulfils that role by default as every Owners Corp is required to have a secretary.

Can the EC meeting go ahead if the other 2 members don’t attend – should I just go ahead with the meeting on my own, make decisions, record the minutes and send them to the strata manager/other EC members? 

An EC meeting can’t make decisions unless half the members are in attendance (quorum).  The minority can have a chat but no effective decisions can be made.  The EC can accept proxies from other non-attending members but you must have a quorum first before proxies can be accepted by the meeting (as they must). In your case, you can call a meeting but if the others don’t attend it has no validity and your “minutes” would be meaningless

As mentioned previously, the situation is very hostile, and the other 2 EC members have joined forces with the strata manager against me.

Welcome to democracy but this is not a situation you can fix as long as you continue with your accusations of conspiracy and collusion.  You need to talk to your neighbours in a reasonable way or they have no reason not to shut you out.

What is the process of lodging a complaint against the strata manager?

You could try Fair Trading but without evidence of corrupt or illegal behaviour, you don’t have much hope … and even then!  If she works for a larger company, you could try complaining to her superiors

Can a strata manager be dismissed, if 1 owner is in favour and 2 are against the dismissal, due to the lack of service and a dysfunctional OC?

Why would you think a minority could dismiss anyone, let alone your strata manager? You clearly haven’t got your head around the idea that you are just a small part of a community where the majority view rules.

You could try to go to NCAT to have a statutory appointment of a new manager of your choosing but you would need to show a lot more reason that being “shut out”.  Usually it requires evidence that the fabric of the building is being seriously compromised or the Owners Corp is breaking the law or there is a level of fraud.  Is doesn’t sound like you are even close to any of these things. 

The law will protect the minority against unfair decisions (like refusal to repair common property) but otherwise, it’s a democracy and individual owners can’t expect everyone else to do exactly what they want.

The best thing you can do is to stop banging your head against this particular brick wall.  You are outnumbered and outvoted.  That doesn’t mean you have no say, it means you have to approach your neighbours in a more conciliatory way.

I strongly recommend you read Strata Living and then ask your neighbours if they will agree to take part in a Community Justice Centre (CLICK HERE) mediation so that you can all say what you need to, clear the air and hopefully move on.  

These bitter in-house battles are distressing, exhausting and no good for the value of your property.  If I were in your shoes and there was no prospect of a civilised agreement to disagree (at least) I would be putting the “for sale” sign up as soon as possible. 

And on that note, this discussion is now closed.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

In answer to Blocker’s question, first of all, on the question of using jack hammers in older buildings, I don’t know about that but I do know that you can’t start smashing holes in common property without the written permission of the owners corp.  You also can’t remove supporting walls without a council Development Authority.

On the question of the carpets, check your by-laws to see if there is anything there about floor coverings.

Even if there isn’t, you are still covered by strata law that says you can’t interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of another lot.

Overall, your carpet lifting, DIY renovating neighbour is a nightmare and you need to get your owners corp to demand that:

a) He pays for a structural engineer to assess the building work for safety.

b) He pays for any remedial work required

c) He agrees to pay for the upkeep of any common property or lot property affected by the work (under a special resolution by-law)

d) He recover the floorboards with carpet and quality insulation.

If he fails to do any or all of these things, he will be dragged to both NCAT and the council where he will be ordered to reinstate common property to how it was before.

Give him two weeks to agree, after which your owners corp needs to hire a lawyer – which could be another expense for him –  and start proceedings. 

In fact, I would pay for a specialist strata lawyer to come to the meeting and explain the facts of life to everyone there.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

@db said:
One of the issues with that is, apart from wasting my time to deal with them, is that they are incurring unnecessary costs… Is there any way that I can stop these unnecessary and meaningless meetings from occurring…

The numbers means that you have to go with it as they can approve the expense retrospectively. 

or can I make the other two owners (who request these pointless EC and later OC meetings) pay the costs out of their own pockets (ie additional strata fees)?

There are very few instances in which the share of levies can be adjusted from what is calculated by unit entitlements and this isn’t one of them

Can the other two OC members go alone to create and register the SBL regarding my renovation, and then somehow get the strata manger to pass the bill to me? I suspect the answer is no (because of 65A(1) – I will fail the special resolution, and 65A(4)(a) – I will never consent to the SBL), but just double checking.

Correct on both counts.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

SMO said

Average property price is about $200k at the moment, levy is a touch over $1000. So those with property in the $300k range have a much better ratio than those in the $80k range given every unit has the same unit entitlement.

HUH???? Townhouses that cost four times as much have the same unit entitlements as the cheapies?  Something seriously wrong with your unit entitlements – or maybe there’s a digit missing.

By the way, are you talking annual or quarterly levies?

@SMO said:
How about 0.005 – 0.007% for unit value range to annual levy ratio.
That is our ratio of average unit sale price to annual levy.

I’m thinking that would 0.5 to 0.7 percent (calculation is annual levies ÷ Property value x 100). That means an average unit ($200K) paying $1000 pa in levies is 0.5% (the upper end of average for townhouses with no facilities.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

@Mailbox said:
From the airbnb Sydney office:

In terms of getting in touch with us – our ‘contact us’ feature on the site is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we take feedback about breaches to our policies very seriously. 

OK, let’s have a quick reality check on that. You have to do a bit of sniffing around on the airbnb website, then scroll to the bottom and click on “help” then click on “community” then “Neighbours” then  “My neighbour is an airbnb host …” you will find a toll-free number to call … in America.  I may be wrong but I suspect than number is far from free if you call it from Australia.  But, just in case, check the link for that HERE.

Otherwise the “contact airbnb” feature requires you to be registered on the website and even then provides no local email address or phone number and no obvious place to make your complaint.  Considering that the website boasts more than 1000 listings for Sydney alone and others all over Australia, you’d think we ‘d merit a contact point of our own and an easier way of finding the appropriate link.  

The fact is that the airbnb site is totally geared towards the letters and renters (as you’d imagine).  But there should be an easily accessible form, an email address or a phone number for those of us who have a problem and want it fixed at source.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

@daphne diaphanous said:
I think they gave you the proverbial finger JimmyT.

I promised to run their response without editing it.  I didn’t say I wouldn’t comment.  But I might leave that to the Flat Chat Massive, for a while. Meanwhile, I feel digitally unmoved.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

The ‘airheads’ gave me a good kicking in comments on this online story but the Domain editors shut them down when it became clear it was an organised campaign (same phrases, same stupid allegations that I was taking money to attack airbnb).  Not my call but I can see why they pulled them.  You don’t want to be encouraging trolls of any kind.

Airbnb have actually contacted me and i had a chat with their media person who is going to post something here soon.  Looking forward to it.

By the way, City of Sydney is currently investigating 80 complaints about illegal lets, some (but not all) are connected to online letting systems.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

I’m going to take a punt here and say that the balcony is common property and that you are entitled to have your tiles replaced if they are damaged by any work done to repair it.

I will go further and say that the Owners Corp has a statutory duty to maintain and repair and should do so without delay.

Anyone have any different view on this?

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.

[Jimmy-T]

@andyj said:

In a post by Jimmy there was a reference to a district court case where a resident took the owner of a residence to the district court about a bunch of short term tenants partying all the time and got orders against the owner. Our lawyer was intrigued and would like to do the same. Can you please provide me  a link to the case or article so I can pass it on to our legal team.

You’ll find it HERE.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

Under Section 62 of the Act (below), the owners Corporation has a legal duty to maintain and repair common property.  You could argue that while the tree belongs to the neighbour, the airspace containing the offending branches are common property.

The owners corp (not the EC) can only decide not to maintain and repair CP if they pass a speial resolution (more than 75 percent of votes at a general meeting) and if doing so would not affect the appearance of the block.

In short, if I am right about the airspace being common property, the EC ihas no right to refuse, regardless of how few residents would be affected.  Threaten to run them through Fair Trading and NCAT whioch will cost the building even more than a tree surgeon.

62 What are the duties of an owners corporation to maintain and repair property?

 

(1) An owners corporation must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.

(2) An owners corporation must renew or replace any fixtures or fittings comprised in the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.

(3) This clause does not apply to a particular item of property if the owners corporation determines by special resolution that:

(a) it is inappropriate to maintain, renew, replace or repair the property, and

(b) its decision will not affect the safety of any building, structure or common property in the strata scheme or detract from the appearance of any property in the strata scheme.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

Considering Peter’s response, your by-laws probably also have the “permission must not be unreasonably refused” qualifier.

If so, failure to respond to a written  request and any subsequent refusal on any other grounds than the dog had proved to be a nuisance would probably fall over on that count alone.

Send the EC a registered letter telling them that you intend to move the dog previously described in letters to them, into the unit. That way they can’t say they didn’t know.  Then just do it.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

Well, I got a response  … of sorts!

Sarah M, Nov 16 05:10:

To whom it may concern,

I’ve forwarded your inquiry to a member of my team who can better assist you. Please feel free to add any additional information to this email, and we’ll be in touch with you soon.

Best regards,

Sarah M
http://www.airbnb.com/help

“To whom it may concern?”

After the time you take to register your name and address, you get a reply that’s as anonymous as a suicide note? Watch this space … but don’t hold your breath.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

@Strata Plan of 4 by the beach said:
We really wanted to establish a good relationship with the new owner as the previous owner was an absolute nightmare … 

It is good to be able to nut things out on this site. I hope to post another reply about the mutually agreeable resolution.

Haw about arranging a mediation through the Community Justice Centre which will give you a chance to explain to them that there are procedures they have to follow (and consequences if they don’t).  You can even give them a copy of Fair Trading’s “Strata Living” booklet and point them in the direction of the NSW SCA’s online training program 

Most strata breaches occur from ignorance rather than arrogance.  Or, as one sage put it, never ascribe to malice anything that can just as easily be explained by stupidity.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

@Austman said:
Also, it’s likely such a major renovation (moving walls or creating new rooms) needs council approval … You generally do need council approval for “reconfiguration of internal space by moving or removing walls, new window and door openings”.

My neighbour removed a wall, extending his lounge room into the space occupied by a third bedroom, meaning it now adjoins the bedroom of the next door flat.  City of Sydney council said they had a certificate from the builder saying it was “exempt” and didn’t need a DA. The EC said they had a letter from the council saying it had been approved.  The council said they had no right to check and if there was a problem we should take it up with the builder who issued the certificate.  So maybe the need for approval isn’t as “likely” as you think.

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.

[Jimmy-T]

Thumbs up from me too!

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.

[Author]

Replies