Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
@kiwipaul said:
1) I’ve been told that short term letting is considered a business and generally there is a bylaw that requires approval by the EC for running a buisness from a lot.I think you need to look at the other posts on this topic to see it’s not as simple as that. Defining the difference between a business and the provision of accommodation could keep lawyers in court for months.
2) Short-term letting / holiday accommodation requires different fire standards and so I would have thought you should have some leverage here.
Again, look at other posts – the Supreme Court in Victoria has just ruled that the issue of fire safety is not relevant when considering the legality of short-term lets.
3) Your strata insurance is based on a residential complex and if you are doing holiday lets that is no longer the case and so your insurance premiums should go up (the extra payable by the holiday letting owners).
This may be the case – although I haven’t heard of any examples where that has happened – but if the short-term renters have the influence to stop their owners corp taking action against them, they would generally be able to approve the payment of the higher premiums.
Whale’s scheme needs by-laws stating that all rentals have to be for a minimum of three months and occupancy of dwellings should be limited to two adults per bedroom — that would shut out the holiday lets.
However, with eight out of 27 units holiday lets, he will find it hard to get the 75 percent vote required to pass the by-law. The best bet may be to look at council zoning and then get an order from the CTTT to stop all holiday lets as they are in contravention of a superior law.
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.
I am feeling very stupid right now.
I should have mentioned that failure of your hot water service comes under urgent repairs and it means that if you can’t contact the landlord or agent (or they refuse to do anything about it) you can go ahead and pay for the repairs yourself ans then demand the money back from your landlord.
With a number of tenants affected, a group of you could split the cost and share the money when you get it back. The landord should be able to claim most of it back from the owners corp anyway.
Have a look at this factsheet on the Tenants Union’s excellent website for more information.
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.
We could argue the legalities of this situation in and out but the realities of strata living are you can do whatever you want until someone objects to it. There are no StrataKops patrolling buildings in search of miscreants on whom to slap Notices To Comply (more’s the pity).
A landlord can reasonably expect to have some minimal level of access to their buildings (although there are regulations about how and when they can inspect their units) and turning up once a year to watch the fireworks is unlikely to cause a problem … unless someone takes exception to it.
Personally, I’d be in favour of landlords actually visiting their buildings now and again, whatever the pretext, because that is maintaining some direct communication that rental agents don’t always want.
Don’t abuse the privilege – and treat it as a privilege rather than a right – and i can’t see any problem.
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.
@Stumped said:
Those who know my little website could look at the page ‘bylaws & useful links’ for a photo or two… Alas my camera is too good for its own good – it does all this auto-light etc correction so the foyer doesn’t look as mucky as it really is.
And the address of the website is …?
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.
I don’t suppose you took any photos of the destruction, did you?
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.
@kristojackal said:
What if a person wants to spy on another person? Can he take his pictures in public without letting him notice? Isn’t that against the privacy law???Generally speaking, in Australia you can take pictures of anything you like in a public place.
However, you can’t take pictures of a person in their private property.
Owners Corporations don’t have to post notices saying that they are filming people on common property (although they should have a by-law permitting them to do so) but they do have to put up notices warning tradespeople that they are being videoed. Why? Beats me!
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.
@SlapShot said:
Does anyone have an answer to this question? Thank you
Is there a time frame for answers to Flat Chat questions?
Seriously though, two months is too long especially where health and safety is concerned.
Your managing agent should write to the strata manager and Owners Corporation secretary insisting that the work be done within a certain time frame (seven days?) or they will seek emergency orders at the CTTT forcing them to do it.
The letter should carry a reminder that failure to obey a CTTT order carries possible fines of up to $5,500.
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.
I’d just like to add a couple of things to Whale’s excellent reply.
Firstly, I’m assuming that apart from the water situation, you like living in the apartments, otherwise I would be recommending that you find somewhere else and give them notice that you are leaving due to a failure to provided the basic amenities of the rental unit.
Otherwise, how about spicing things up by threatening to move into a hotel at their expense until such times as they force the owners corp to fix the hot water.
You probably cdo that without prior permission but they need to be reminded at maintenance of common property is not optional – the Owners Corp is legally obliged to fix the hot water (Section 62 of the Strata Schemes Management Act) and the owner should be pressing them to do exactly that.
Or you could seek an order through Fair Trading, forcing the owner to seek a Section 62 order. It’s not going to happen overnight but if the strata manager tells the Owners Corp that they don’t have any choice in the matter could get the ball rolling before winter sets in …brrrr!
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.
Whale got it (in)exactly right when he said “it depends”.
Anyone who has been reading this website and/or dealing with these issues for a while will know that the theory of who is responsible for what means very little when it bumps up against the commercial reality of “how much will it cost if I try to wriggle out of paying for this?”
Insurance companies will pay for stuff they really shouldn’t to avoid the endless hassle of dealing with people who have a half-right case and a pathological obsession with proving it. And sometimes they will not pay for damage when the plaintiff has a rock-solid moral right but no legal basis supporting it.
It depends …
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.
All buildings – especially those of a “renovatable” age should have a comprehensive renovations by-law which states, among other things, that there has to be a written agreement on hours of work, noisy work, delivery of materials and disposal of rubbish.
Builders will do whatever it takes to save money. The unit owner will go a long with this. That’s why ECs and Owners Corps have to think about these things and act on them before their blocks are turned into building sites.
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.
@chai said:
The reasonable request from a lot owner to install an air conditioner compressor in the common area cannot be denied. At all times, the pump is considered the property and the responsibility of the lot owner.Two points: The owner in question wants to change the compressor at the Owners Corporation’s expense. This owner does not consider the air-con to be their own private property. This was an illegally installed unit for which responsibility has transferred to the owners corp (unless the owner is lying).
On that basis, the Owners Corp has acquired responsibility for the air-con but, as I have said repeatedly, they don’t have to fix it. They can just remove it.
This is a different situation from an owner wanting to fix their own air-con at their own expense.
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.
You have no legal right to inspect the documents as you are not an owner but the vendor can give permission for you to do so. Normally this is done via a solicitor and/or a strata ‘search’ company. Talk to the real estate agent or vendor directly. There may be a charge (less than $30) attached to viewing the documents.
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.
@bpositive said:
It seems strange that the Owners Corp is required to maintain individual aircons for a lifetime for units which are for the owners benefit only.
The basic principle is that, as the Owners Corp has responsibility for Common Pronperty and someone makes a change to common property without their permission, then it is up to the OC to rectify that.
If the OC doesn’t know that the changes have been made, that is just the same as ignorance of the law – it’s no excuse. That’s why the illegally installed aircon becomes the repsonsibility of the OC when the unit is sold.
They could, theoretically, inspect the unit when it is up for sale and immediately make an application to have the air-con removed. If OCs are too lazy or uninformed to do that, it’s hardly the fault of the new or subsequent owners.
That’s why it becomes the responsibility of the OC and that’s why nobody should ever allow common property to be changed on a nod and wink basis.
But, as i said below, there is a solution to this – tell the owner if the air-con is the OC’s repsonsibility, that’s fine. The OC will rip it out an reinstate the common property to its previous state. The OC may have responsibility for the air-con but it doesn’t have responsibility for the temperature in the owners’ homes.
It really is as easy as that.
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.
You have another option.
The Owners Corp is required to maintain common property, it’s true, but you have a choice. Yes, you could fix the Air-con or you could tell the owner that, as there is no record of permission, common property is going to be returned to its previous condition (no air-con) at the OC’s expense.
If the owner wants to keep the air-con, they can agree to a special resolution by-law giving them responsibility for the air-con and its maintenance and that of the common property around it.
Or they can arrange a time for your builders to come in and remove it and reinstate the CP.
Just keep the wheels spinning in what promises to be a long, hot summer and I suspect your neighbour will soon come round to a reasonable compromise.
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.