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Here are the guidelines on goods left behind in NSW. Readers in Victoria should look HERE, while in Queensland, the guidelines are HERE. This information is specific to landlord and tenant relationships.
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Yes, I should have cautioned about finding out what’s actually being said first – but a little subterfuge like getting a “prospective buyer’ to call the real estate agent and ask a few pertinent questions might be the answer.
Placing the “clarification” on EC meeting minutes would establish the facts for all to see from day one.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.
Yes, write to the Agent and tell them that you believe they are either deliberately or accidentally misleading the prospective buyers, contrary to Rule 3 of their Rules of Conduct here:
3. Honesty, fairness and professionalism
An agent must act honestly, fairly and professionally with all parties in a transaction.
An agent must not mislead or deceive any parties in negotiations or a transaction.
If that doesn’t work, go HERE to lodge a complaint with Fair Trading.
But to be on the safe side I would make sure your issues were properly minuted at an Executive Committee meeting ASAP.
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Firstly, any owner can be given proxies provided they are on the correct form. EC chairs would love to be the only recipients of proxies but this is not the case. Also, all EC seats are automatically vacated at an AGM so you only need a simple majority – not a 75% vote – to replace the six members of your EC. You simply make sure you have the same number of seats as candidates then vote your people in
To get the proxies you require, you need to go to your strata manager and get a copy of the Strata Roll which will have everyone’s addresses on it. Then send them a letter explaining the problems in the building and how they are costing them money
- through lowering the value of their property (and rents)
- through levies to pay for work done at non-competitive rates
- and through the cost of defending legal actions and complying with CTTT orders.
Be very careful, though, not to defame anyone.
Send blank proxy forms, and offer two or three names that people can put on the proxy form (or fill it in for them) and a couple of phone numbers where they can talk to you or your fellow EC member about the problems.
If the owners addresses are real estate agents, call the agents to make sure they pass the information on to the owners.
If you have a the money, include a stamped addressed envelope in your letter so that people can return the forms free of charge. If they have already given a proxy, tell them that any new proxy supersedes any previous one automatically so they don’t need to withdraw the previous proxy.
Get your timing right so that owners have time to respond but not so much that the incumbents have time to organise themselves. Be prepared for a nasty backlash – people like having power and they don’t like having it taken away from them.
Meanwhile click HERE to download the official proxy form.
If you get enough proxies, you can do what you like with the EC – reduce the numbers and elect whomever you want on to it. The bad guys do this al the time so there’s no reason why the forces of good shouldn’t do it too.
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If you know who the landlord is, in NSW you can possibly use some of the provisions HERE. Otherwise NSW does have an Uncollected Goods Act but both pieces of legislation put the onus on the holder of the goods to notify the person who has left them.
I would think if this was a recurring problem, it might be worth drafting a by-law that said goods left on common property for more than, say, 14 or 30 days would be deemed abandoned and would be subject to disposal by the the Owners Corp by whatever means they saw fit. The by-law could specify areas that were included – like a storeroom – and conditions under which things could be left there, including written permission for a specific period and charges for storage.
It could also state that abandoned goods might be sold with the cost of disposal subtracted from the sum received. This could probably be retrospective in that it would apply to goods still in common property when the by-law came into effect. It would be worth talking to a lawyer about this.
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@twins said:
Thanks for your reply. The cracked pipe under this units bathtub actually sits above the concrete slab, not under it. Can you please confirm who is responsible in this case. Thanks,If the pipe is above the slab, chances are it is the owners responsibility. But you need to check your by-laws and your original strata schemes management statement to confirm that this is the case because there was a time when many schemes made bathroom fittings a common property issue to ensure repairs were done professionally before leaks could do too much damage.
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It’s quorate and probably legitimate (if not entirely moral) as it sounds like the Strata Manager has delegated powers as secretary. If you also have an elected secretary you can ask them to over-ride the SM’s meeting plans.
Or you can ask just one of the other EC members who can make it to say they won’t attend if the Chair and Treasurer aren’t there – then it won’t be quorate. Basically, you should come up with dates when your chair and treasurer and most other members can attend and let the SM try to fit in with your plans, within reason, rather than the other way round.
Strata Managers will hate me for saying this but it’s a case of the tail wagging the dog, otherwise.
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OK, that settles it. I am forming a Strata Swat Team. We will descend upon dysfunctional ECs, crashing through the windows on abseiling ropes, if need be ready to dispense instant strata karma to the backsliders, nest-featherers, prevaricators, procrastinators and preposterous, posturing petty potentates that blight the bottom tier of democracy in this country.
We’ll issue sheaves of Notices to Comply, arrange EGMs at which all the baddies will be de-elected, clamp a few cars (just for fun) and then roar away on our StratMobile, leaving only a massive special levy which will be required to pay our extortionate fees.
Any takers?
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Having had my own experiment with anonymity, I can only suggest that you keep everything open and above board while still offering an opportunity for people to air their grievances and find out what’s going on.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the vast majority of people in strata are concerned with only three things: is this going to affect my levies, is this going to affect my lifestyle, and who is going to fix it for me?
So put your website together, pull together some articles about how the management of your scheme is wasting money and their decisions or lack thereof are affecting property values and you can even load up a forum like this one using software called SimplePress so people can log in and complain about each other – but be careful you don’t let them defame each other as that could be trouble for you as the ‘publisher’.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.
Having stirred this pot with my recipe for a secret website – here’s my take on the unsolicited email question, for what it’s worth.
1. Every owner in a strata plan has bought into membership of a corporation whether they like it or not, and I think that includes being able to be contacted by whatever means by other members of that group.
2. I think we should also insist on allowing recipients of unsolicited emails to say take me off your list (as you can with commercial emails).
3. However, I also think people who say “I don’t want to hear from any other owner about anything to do with my strata scheme” should lose the right to vote by proxy. Turn up at the meetings or read what people have to say – but don’t blindly give your votes to anyone who just happens to be in power – it distorts the whole system.
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@considerate band fair said:
How silly to get into spurious debate over what and if… put your money where your mouth is and say what you need to at the next AGM or AND put your hand up to be on the EC and be productive.What we’re talking about here is where the EC isn’t open and fair and you can stand for office as much as you like but you know the EC and their loyal supporters, plus those that they have convinced the sky will fall down if they aren’t elected, are going to vote themselves in every time. Then you get all the nastiness of the filthy looks and muttered imprecations as you walk around you own homes.
Friends of mine were bailed up in a cafe nearby by a friend of one of our EC’s ruling group when they said they wouldn’t be giving their proxy to the chair – and this woman doesn’t even own or live in the building!
Nothing spurious about this discussion at all. It can get very nasty and this is your home, after all. People feel isolated and frustrated and wonder if making their point is worth all the abuse they will inevitably receive. Roll on the end of proxy harvesting.
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