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Some very specific allegations here (beow) – Is Tolerance perhaps one of the parties to his dispute?
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This was emailed by a reader:
in response to your article today on filming neighbours, I think you’ll find your answer in the Surveillance Devices Act 1999-Section 7. Penalty is level 7 inprisonment and or fines…
Surveillance Devices Act 1999 – SECT 7
Regulation of installation, use and maintenance of optical surveillance devices
7. Regulation of installation, use and maintenance of optical surveillance
devices(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person must not knowingly install, use or
maintain an optical surveillance device to record visually or observe a
private activity to which the person is not a party, without the express or
implied consent of each party to the activity.Penalty: In the case of a natural person, level 7 imprisonment (2 years
maximum) or a level 7 fine (240 penalty units maximum) or both;
In the case of a body corporate, 1200 penalty units.(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to-
(a) the installation, use or maintenance of an optical surveillance device
in accordance with a warrant, emergency authorisation, corresponding
warrant or corresponding emergency authorisation; or(b) the installation, use or maintenance of an optical surveillance device
in accordance with a law of the Commonwealth; or(c) the installation, use or maintenance of an optical surveillance device
by a law enforcement officer in the performance of his or her duty on
premises if-(i) an occupier of the premises authorises that installation, use or
maintenance; and(ii) the installation, use or maintenance is reasonably necessary for the
protection of any person’s lawful interests.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.
@confused1 said:
I thought Co-owners could never nominate themselves? They can only be nominated by the other co-owner if they’re not standing, or a 3rd party?You could be right but it shouldn’t make much difference in the great scheme of things. This is what the Act says in Schedule 3
(5) A person who is co-owner of a lot may not be a candidate for election as a member of the executive committee unless the person is nominated for office:
(a) by an owner who is not a co-owner of the lot, or
(b) by a co-owner of the lot who is not a candidate for election as a member.
(6) An owner of a lot who is not a co-owner of the lot may nominate himself or herself for election as a member of the executive committee.
What it means is that you can’t nominate yourself, as a co-owner, and your co-owning partner (although they can still be nominated by someone else).
And you can’t cross-nominate each other. But I seem to recall in the dim recesses of my mind that the first-named co-owner can self-nominate but the second named can’t (although the memory isn’t what it used to be)
However, unless the co-owners are in dispute, you would expect one of them to be nominated by the other UNLESS the other one was standing for office themselves, in which case they would both need to be nominated by other owners.
In reality, it’s not that hard to get nominated to the EC by another owner – all you usually have to do is ask.
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Co-owners can be on the EC if a) the owner mention first on the roll nominates him or herself and b) if the other co-owner is nominated by a third party. Co-owners can’t nominate each other if they are both standing for election to the EC.
If they are legitimately elected, they have separate votes and they can both be office-bearers.
I think owners can nominate as many people as they want (with the above proviso) although I’ve never seen it done so I may be wrong.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.
OK, so now you are saying your building is not covered by insurance and therefore not subject to the six-month limit.
That’s fine (if it is, in fact the case) but if your strata manager is urging you to make your claim as soon as possible, I would be guided by them. Why would you wait to lodge a claim when you know what the problems are? The longer you wait, the more likely the developer is to a) say it’s wear and tear and b) conveniently go bust.
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You’ll find the relevant statement here – it’s the second paragraph under the Headline October 2011 Changes:
In general, home owners must lodge a claim for defective or incomplete building work within the insured period. If the work is defective, the home owner must lodge the claim within 6 months of becoming aware of the problem.
In your case, that would mean lodging a claim within six months of the inspection report being delivered. This is a NSW regulation.
JimmyT
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Special resolutions can be overturned but they require 75 percent of those voting in person or by proxy AT THE MEETING.
However, if you can muster 25 percent of votes at the meeting to reject the motion, then you can stop it in its tracks (much easier to do at this stage because of the figures involved).
Not sure why they need a special resolution for a paint job – may be worth further investigation before you become Sydney’s second ‘rainbow’ building.
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OK, by ‘forensic’ I meant getting a specialist strata search company to read all the minutes, letters and emails to see if there are problems brewing or others that have been kept under wraps. Experienced strata search firms will do this – those who mainly do house conveyancing wouldn’t even know what to look for. But your solicitor should know who to ask.
A good example of what happens when this isn’t done was in these pages about a year ago when a woman bought an apartment in a per-friendly building and a very cursory search of EC minutes didn’t reveal that there were plans afoot to change the by-laws to ban pets (which happened between exchange and settlement). I have no idea how much this level of search would cost but I reckon unless it’s astronomical, it’s worth 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.
If I can jump in first, welcome to our world. Don’t be put off by all the negative stories – people rarely write to ask for advice on how to deal with how happy they are.
There are certain precautionary steps you can take to make sure your strata life is happy and stress-free. This would be my checklist.
- Don’t buy off the plan unless you really trust the developer
- Don’t buy into a building that’s more than four years old (and less that 10) where a proper defects check and claim hasn’t at least been looked at
- Don’t buy into a small block that’s dominated by one family (usually the builder’s)
- Don’t buy into a block that has an onsite manager who is also allowed to run the rental roll
- Be very wary of any block where the minutes show absolutely no signs of any problems, disputes or issues. This is probably covering up worse stuff than you imagine.
- Unless you actually enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of other cultures (as many people do), make sure there isn’t an overly dominant ethnic or cultural group in the block – and that applies to retired WASPs as much as it does to new Australians.
- Don’t buy into a building where the developer, building manager and strata manager are all run by the same company.
- Don’t buy into a building that has ‘resort’ facilities that you might never use -any levies will seem high when you are paying for things you don’t want.
- Make sure you share the same view on pets – whether that’s for or against them
After that, make sure your solicitor orders a forensic check of the strata minutes for the past three years, using strata search specialists.
If you can tick most if not all of those boxes, you will probably have a happy time in strata. An believe it or not, there are plenty of apartments around that will give you exactly what you are looking for.
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I will be going online next week with advice that the Owners Corp should pass a by-law that individual owners’ webcams should not be looking at common property or into private property. In this case, if the camera was at the edge of the property looking back at the unit, there would probably be no cause for complaint.
However, if this is part on an ongoing dispute between neighbours, then logic and mutual respect have probably long since fled the scene.
If you have the time and want to look at the mesmerising range of issues questions like this raise, click on this link to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s report on privacy and, specifically, this section on the protection of children and young people which notes that ‘innocent’ pictures can end up being used for nefarious purposes. Scary.
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