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This becomes difficult if the existing owners did not install the equipment and purchased the lot with an assumption that equipment on the common property (and not mentioned in a by-law) was Owners Corporation equipment and therefore maintained by the OC.
I recall a case from several years ago where a cafe sat under a pergola that needed to be repaired. The cafe owner said it was OC’s responsibility, as it had been installed without a by-law, and the OC said it was the cafe owners’. Using the regulations quoted above, a tribunal ruled the pergola belonged to the OC. Within a couple of days the OC arranged for the pergola to be removed. Cafe owner hoist on their own petard, methinks.
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In NSW, it is possible for owners corporation funds to be paid back to the owners.
That can only occur when there is a unanimous vote by the owners – a very rare event.
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Find out if anyone voted before the meeting. If yes, the wording of the motion must NOT change.
A motion can be amended provided the main intent of the motion is not changed and I don’t think the existence of pre-meeting votes changes that. In fact, section 14A of the regulations states that an amendment could render pre-meeting votes redundant.
However, if the entire vote was conducted by pre-meeting votes, the motion can’t be amended.
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Please refer to Sections 109 and 110 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). There are lists of what is considered “cosmetic” or “minor renovation”.
The Strata Schemes Management Regulations also has a supplementary list of definitions.
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Can anyone answer the question regarding the responsibility of the Strata Committee to insure (sic) that every resident is safe from accidents that are common property.
There is no question of responsibility, except that it mostly lies with the owners corporation, not the strata committee per se. The committee does what the OC tells it to do, and if there is a successful motion to the OC to investigate and recommend remediation on any of those items, then they should follow it up.
However, if the strata committee receives a complaint and declines to act on it, a case could be taken to NCAT under section 232 of the Act (with no guarantee of success).
A better process would be to raise the issue with the strata committee, if you get nowhere then seek mediation at Fair Trading and if that doesn’t work consider your next step either internally or via the Tribunal.
The slamming door issue is an easy fix. Fire inspectors tend to set doors at maximum slam for safety reasons, but a fiddle with a hex key can quickly make them both fire safe and resident friendly.
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STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 55 Strata managing agent to record exercise of functions
Just in case you are unfamiliar with the Act, this is what it says:
55 Strata managing agent to record exercise of functions(1) A strata managing agent who exercises a function of the owners corporation or of an officer of the owners corporation must, immediately after its exercise, make a record specifying the function and the manner in which it was exercised.
(2) The strata managing agent must give a copy of the records kept for the preceding 12 months to the owners corporation at least once each year.
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STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 55 Strata managing agent to record exercise of functions
Just in case you are unfamiliar with the Act, this is what it says:
55 Strata managing agent to record exercise of functions(1) A strata managing agent who exercises a function of the owners corporation or of an officer of the owners corporation must, immediately after its exercise, make a record specifying the function and the manner in which it was exercised.
(2) The strata managing agent must give a copy of the records kept for the preceding 12 months to the owners corporation at least once each year.
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Simone, pipes in a common-property wall are common property.
But an internal wall is not common property unless it abuts on to an adjoining unit or common property.
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those who did not know all the facts about the renovation eg me as the buyer and others who I am informed were not given particulars about the renovation should not have to pay for the rectification. Do you think this is a strong argument?
In a word, no. The key phrase in property purchases is caveat emptor – buyer beware. Unless you can prove that the strata committee or owners corp knew that the renovations were substandard and deliberately withheld that information from you as a purchaser, then you will probably be part of the collective responsibility for remediating any defects.
There are too many grey areas involved for you to hang your hat on this as a reliable legal argument that won’t end up costing you more money than it would take to fix the issue. And be careful that you don’t paint yourself into a corner where the OC demands the right to reinstate common property to your disadvantage.
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You will need to get professional tests done to identify the source of the leaks, but the moisture is either coming from common property or the adjoining unit, so the owners corp (strata committee) should investigate.
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in a jointly-held property, do the joint owners have to nominate which of the joint owners will attend meetings and vote?
In NSW, two owners from the same property may not both nominate for the committee unless they also own another property in the block. However, any committee member can nominate someone to be their stand-in for the meeting, which must be approved by the committee at the start of the meeting. The problem here seems to be the owners chopping and changing mid meeting. Sounds a bit controlling and disruptive to me and should not be encouraged
They should pick a lane and stay in it.
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The one exception was when two lots owned by the same person raised the possibility of installing aircon. We decided to prepare an aircon bylaw that would cover all six lots.
This makes perfect sense when there is a more or less standard upgrade that most if not all owners will want to undertake at some point.
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do you mean the committee should pay for the work or the owners corporation?
The committee is essentially the Owners Corporation and can make some decisions on the OC’s behalf. You should probably accept that you aren’t going to get this resolved at no cost. When you buy into a strata scheme you inherit a lot of the responsibilities and commitments left by the previous owners. It’s up to purchasers to do their best to make sure everything is clear and unencumbered.
There are theoretically ways you can make the people responsible for a fault pay for remediation, but they often aren’t worth the time, energy or financial cost of pursuing them. For instance, you might be able to make the vendor pay for the unauthorised renovations, but it would cost you more in legal fees and hassles to do so.
Nothing is simple or clear cut in strata disputes.
I strongly recommend that you go to the Fair Trading Living In Strata web pages and have a thorough read of what your rights and responsibilities are, as well as how complaints are handled.
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Go for mediation. Tell the committee that they allowed the previous owner to remove the insulation in the floor and therefore restoring it is their problem. Then negotiate a solution that means they are sharing the cost of carpeting (by far the best sound blocker) or proper insulation.
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