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@kiwipaul said:
How were fixtures and fitting denoted on the older style plans as common property because I must admit I’d be very unhappy if I had to contribute for a new fitted bathroom for an owner who asked for the strata to replace it. No way would I accept the owners quote I’d get the cheapest quote possible and give the owner a take it or leave it option.The Strata Management Statement that accompanied the strata plan would often describe the bathroom and all its fittings as common property. This was, I believe, a precaution against owners failing to maintain their sinks, pipes, baths and WCs which could then cause considerable damage to other lots and common property if they failed.
I have lived in older buildings where a number of owners replaced cracked WCs and sinks at the Owners Corp’s expense.
The idea of buying the cheapest possible bathroom isn’t terribly community spirited. If the OC has a legal obligation to repair or replace common property, surely a negotiated settlement whereby the OC can offer a contribution based on the minimum reasonable cost of replacement and the lot owner can then install the bathroom they want (with the proviso that they assume responsibility thereafter) would be the kind of compromise that makes strata run smoothly.
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@kiwipaul said:
Yes the bathroom is your problem and you are responsible for replacing it with the exception of any pipework in the common walls or floor.It’s really not as simple as that. First of all, you have to see what the strata plan says. Older strata schemes often had all bathroom fittings included as common property. Secondly, the owners corporation is responsible for repairing or replacing anything that is damaged during the repair of common property.
Check the original strata plan and work from there. Either way, the Owners Corp could be better off buying or contributing to a new bathroom than trying to repair the old one to a reasonable standard.
Get your own quotes and present the Executive Committee with a reasonable proposal on the one hand or, on the other, the threat of a Section 62 order from NCAT to repair and replace common property entirely at their expense.
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@Help said:
… is the notice to comply to be decided by a vote count or unit entitlements, is there to be an agenda, are minutes to be issued, who is responsible if notice is issued who enforces compliance.Lots of questions all wrapped up in one post so here are your answers in order:
1. If the meeting is an Executive Committee meeting, then the decision is by a simple show of hands. Unit entitlements don’t count and neither do proxy votes (unless they are proxy votes by absent EC members, which have to be agreed on by attending members of the EC).
If it is a properly constituted general meeting – with proper agendas etc – then votes can be by unit entitlements and proxy votes are allowed provided they are on the correct official form.
2. If it’s an executive committee meeting, an agenda must be issued 72 hours before the meeting. If it’s an extraordinary general meeting, an agenda must be sent out 7 days before the meeting. In both cases, minutes must be recorded and supplied to owners.
If there is no agenda and no minutes, it’s not an official meeting although you can reach an informal resolution to simply abide by your by-laws.
3. Let’s assume there is a clear breach of by-laws and you and the other owner have issued a Notice to Comply (which must be on THIS FORM ) and the miscreant has ignored it then the Owners Corp (you and the other guy) can apply for a penalty to be applied, using THIS FORM.
However, if you are on your own on this – the third party doesn’t want to get involved – you can take the matter to Fair Trading for compulsory mediation and then pursue it through NCAT for orders and penalties, if need be. You’ll find out more about this HERE.
All said and done, you are much better to resolve this internally and informally because, if nothing else, these guys are your neighbours. So here is a simple strategy you can follow if you wish.
a) Establish first of all if the neighbour’s behaviour is a clear breach of by-laws (e.g. parking on common property). All by-laws are different for different schemes so check what yours say. Then, before you get into the nitty gritty of the argument, address what it is that you want rather than how you can make that happen. In your case, you want unimpeded access. So the first question to be addressed is, what can your fellow owners do to make this happen?
b) Even if they dig their heels in, try not to make it personal – why they are being selfish is not the issue, the consequences are.
c) The fact that they have “always done this” has no bearing on the issue. Perhaps the previous residents didn’t care, didn’t know they could do anything about it or felt too intimidated. That is not your problem. Explain that opinions don’t matter as much as by-laws and they won’t be able to change the by-laws because even with the other owner onside, they will never reach the required 75 percent.
d) If they still won’t budge, explain that you would rather not pursue this through Fair Trading and NCAT but you will if you have to. There are mechanisms not only to force them to abide by the building’s by-laws (or be fined up to $5500) but to pay for the cost of any actions you may have to take to have the by-laws enforced (you can apply not to pay the portion of the levies to cover the legal costs).
e) As a last resort, if the other owners aren’t prepared to abide by the by-laws of the building, you might apply to have a strata manager (of your choice, which is a mandatory condition) employed to run the scheme on the grounds that the Owners Corporation is no longer functioning for the benefit of all the owners and under the terms of its own by-laws. This will be expensive and the owners will have no say in the running of the building for the duration of the strata manager’s appointment. This is not what you want to do but it is a last resort available if there is not other solution.
f) Now go back to the original issue – you want unimpeded access; what can your fellow owners do to make this happen?
What happens [if the] secretary/treasurer/chairman failed in their roles to enforce by laws.
There is no punishment or fine for failure to be a good office-bearer but there can be very unpleasant consequences, as outlined in item (f) above.
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@Sue S said:
does anyone understand the new laws on restricting window openings to 125mm in all floors above ground level? Are keyed locks sufficient, or do they need to be unopenable?As long as the keys or locks are properly “child resistant” you are OK
THIS GUIDE from the Australian Building Ccdes Board explains the rules in considerable detail, and says this:
The BCA (Building Code of Australia) allows a screen or window opening restricting device which protects an openable window to be installed in a manner that allows it to be removed, unlocked or overridden. This would be useful, for example, in the event of a fire or other emergency or to allow for cleaning. In these situations, the unlocking device must be child resistant.
It goes on to describe a child-resistant restraint thus:
lA child resistant release mechanism could include a device which requires a key to unlock; a coordinated two handed operation to release; or the use of a tool such as a screwdriver, spanner, or allen key to remove the screen or shift the window to the fully open position.
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@larry_vincent said:
… training may help here, and Strata Community Australia provides a free online course on Executive Committee Governance providing participants with basic knowledge about Executive Committee membership in a strata plan.Good thinking Larry – but considering that most of the EC members I know haven’t done the course, how embarrassing if a tenant turns up knowing more than most of the committee.
Go to the Strata Communities website http://www.nsw.stratacommunity.org.au for more information and to access the course and other resources.
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@fred22 said:
We are considering appointing a tenant representative to our Ex Com. Has any own experience of this? Are there things that we should be aware of? Any tips about appointing such and has anyone had a problem with this?Under current legislation, you can appoint anyone you want to the EC provided they are nominated by an owner who is not standing for election him or herself and then elected by t owners at a general meeting. I believe a non-owner can also be co-opted to join the EC to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of a sitting member, provided they are nominated by an owner. A tenant elected to the committee under these conditions would have full voting powers.
Unser the proposed changes to the Act, buildings with more than half of its lots tenanted “may” appoint a tenants’ representative but they will have no voting powers and can be required to leave meetings during sensitive financial discussions.
On the whole, the current system of electing tenants as proxies for owners may be better for tenants. By the way, I have heard of buildings where long-term tenants have even been elected chairman (very successfully) something that will be banned in the new laws.
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@Costa said:
Surely something can be done about that, but what? It seems strata managers and executive committees can manipulate things dishonestly at will with no consequences.At the risk of stating the obvious, the simplest way to remedy this is to have a clear-out of your executive committee and take back control of your building. Admittedly, you will need a 75 percent vote to dismiss the entire EC (or any individual member) before your next AGM but it’s amazing how activated owners can suddenly become when they discover that their money is being wasted on individuals’ pet projects.
Your other option would be to go to NCAT and ask for orders declaring the decision to go ahead with the work invalid (so that those who approved it would have to pay) but I think that may be a long shot.
Or you could go for the appointment of a strata manager but I suspect that the issues in your building are not serious enough to get that over the line and, in any case, that often backfires when the statutory manager starts doing everything by the book.
How about writing to all owners telling them what is going on and asking why your scheme has a secretary who never communicates with anyone (when that is basically their only function).
Put pressure on your other EC members to remove the secretary from that role (which only requires a majority vote at the EC) and generally make life uncomfortable for all those who clearly prefer to do nothing. Make your EC accountable by writing to individual members on behalf of the other owners.
In effect, what you want to do is set up an Opposition or “EC in Exile”, if you like, so that by the time the next AGM rolls around, the owners have a clear alternative.
A word of caution, though. However hard it is, you must do your utmost to avoid making this personal. Complain about the office, not the office-bearer, the systems and not the people who run them and the committee, not the committee members.
The easiest way for rusted-on committee members to keep their jobs is to characterise you as an individual troublemaker and dismiss your complaints as the unfounded rantings of a lone voice with a personal grudge.
The more people you can get onside, the better. And the less you alarm your other owners in the way you go about things, the more effective your campaign will be.
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@Millie said:
Has anyone ever heard of the NCAT/CTTT ever issuing orders blocking an Owners Corporation spending monies on Legal Fees? Does anyone know of a section of the SSMA under which we could apply for an order?The Act says you can’t spend money on legal action of more than $12,500 or $1,000 per unit (whichever is less) without agreement at a properly convened general meeting. NCAT probably won’t prevent the spending but if it has been done without proper authority, any owner could apply to make sure the people who organised the unathorised spending were held personally liable for doing so.
You could however, try to get an interim order but the money hasn’t really been spent until the bills come in and are paid. A letter from a strata lawyer explaining the law and the consequences of ignoring it might have the effect you desire.
By the way, cases are often thrown out of court these days when the defence argues that the legal fees have not been agreed at a general meeting therefore the action is illegal. Any EC or office bearer who takes legal action without proper authority (except in a genuine emergency, for which permission is given retrospectively) deserves having to pick up the tab themselves.
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The critical issue is the nature of the material on a publically available website. I recently had a motion thrown out at our AGM to have or website password protected so that only owners and, to a lesser extent residents, could access sensitive information, while the public could get general information about the building. This was shouted down with great enthusiasm for the simple reason that the powers that be could not bring themselves to allow me to have a motion approved. Ironically within a few weeks the EC quietly removed their email addresses from the website in case they were “googled”. One law for them … etc etc. It’s my fault, it was a sensible precautions and I should have got someone they’re not scared of to propose it.
All that aside, Kangaroo is right. Sensitive information should be protected, general information should be generally available and if the EC isn’t going to provide a forum for discussion and dissemination of issues in the building, they [shouldn’t] prevent someone else from doing it … provided there are safeguards.
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You have two basic problems here. The first is that you have to be able to prove that the rangehood has been vented to the common property ventilation system and secondly you have a building manager who is not doing his job.
Let’s take the building manager issue first. The building manager is not the boss of the the building – he is an employee of you and all the other owners, as represented by your Executive Committee. You need to ask them to tell him to do something about this.
Now, establishing that the rangehood has been improperly installed is a whole other issue. you could always ask them if this is the case and you never know, they may have done this in all innocence and be prepared to remedy the problem one they are told they have breached by-laws.
But, for the sake of argument, let’s assume they don’t want to cooperate. Since your neighbour’s rangehood has already set off smoke alarms, there is a legitimate reason for the equipment to be checked as part of normal fire safety checks.
That would be my first option – your units should all be getting regular fire safety checks (which are compulsory) and in the case of this unit your building manager should attend, look at the equipment and take photographs for future reference, if need be. There may even be a way of tracing where fumes from the range hood go.
Failing that, in NSW, NCAT (formerly the CTTT) can order owners to allow access for inspections of common property. The same applies in Victoria via VCAT.
So go back to the building manager and ask them what they plan to do about this. If that doesn’t work take it to the executive committee and if they aren’t interested then you are off to NCAT (or VCAT) seeking orders that the Owners Corporation fulfill its legal duty to maintain common property.
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@considerate band fair said:
Computer quirk? … Nothing about the pet issue?
Cheers CBF
Changed the headline, removed extraneous mutterings about spelling, now let’s see if we can get some opinions about this.
Should there be different rules for pets in two-unit strata? Or anything else for that matter. Should every two-unit strata have to appoint an on-call adjudicator?
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Where in Australia are you – it makes a difference.
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I’m thinking you can’t pass a by-law that contravenes a superior law and owners are allowed to discuss issues in the Owners Corp by whatever means they like so stuff ’em.
But seriously I would be sitting down with these control freaks and asking them what it is they are worried about and then explaining that if they put this motion up, you will run a campaign in your newsletter to overturn it and they will be left with egg on their collective faces.
You only need 25 percent of those voting to defeat their motion (which may well be illegal anyway). And how much is this bogus attempt to censor owners costing the building?
Do they want you to moderate what’s in the newsletter – or do they want to make you a hero of free speech? Their call.
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@elephant said:
are business permitted to be run from a residential strata unit?Basically, yes, provided that doesn’t break the law (drug dealing, prositution etc), contravene planning regulations or alter the insurance liability of the building without Owners Corp approval.
For instance, this website is edited from an apartment in Sydney but in doing so I am not affecting the insurance status of the building (this could change if mobs of angry strata professionals laid siege to the building).
But what if someone set up as a part-time massage therapist? Clients would have to come into the building but the risk could be so minimal it might be ignored. It would be a different story if they were queuing up in the lobby.
However, council might take a different view – it’s a change of use, after all – in which case it could be seen as breaking the law. A hairdresser or nail salon would probably be beyond the pale because of the smell from chemicals.
My building has housed a drug dealer (who claimed he was a private detective) and a hooker but she only did out-calls. The dealer had to go, the hooker got to stay.
To cut a long story short, it depends on the busines. But even if yours is entirely legal, if it involves clients comeing and going all the time or the storage of potentially dangerous materials, you could be in a spot of bother.
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