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The landlord has a responsibility to provide healthy and safe accommodation. Mould is a potential health hazard so they are required to fix this, regardless of who signs a lease for when.
The Owners Corporation (body corporate) has a responsibility to maintain and repair common property (like walls) and the landlord should be hassling them, not you.
If the building is less than six years old, the Owners Corp should be hassling the builder to fix the defects.
However, unfortunately you are the low man on the totem pole and everyone is shifting their responsibilities down to you. Firstly, you should be demanding a rent reduction from the time that the mould was first reported.
Secondly, if you are in the last week of the tenancy and you haven’t either been give a notice to quit or signed a new agreement, you are effectively in a periodic tenancy which means the landlord has to give you three months notice if they want you out.
The have to fix the mould, regardless of whether you sign a new lease and you should tell them that you will only sign a new lease when the mould is fixed.
Contact the Tenants Union and they will explain all your options and you will also find an invaluable fact sheet on mould there.
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People have trouble getting urgent decisions from the CTTT when their ceilings are caving in – some mis-applied paint isn’t going to cut it with those guys.
I reckon your solicitor is right. Reserve your rights, settle (and take the developers’ money if it’s still on offer), fix the ceiling and move in.
If you are hung up on the principle of this – who’s right and who’s wrong and who should be doing what – I’d wager this ceiling business will be just the start of a short and unhappy journey in strata.
I hate to be blunt but what do you really want – the ceiling unpainted or to win the fight?
Frankly, I would rather get professionals in to do the job rather than the bozos who screwed up in the first place.
Extensive before and after photography will counter any claims that you have damaged common property.
Taking this to the CTTT is about as reliable as taking the money that was offered and putting it on red or black at the casino – except in the CTTT you don’t get a pay-out. The CTTT will not award damages – they will only instruct the losing party to remedy the fault. The average time to run a case – if the other party appeals – which they will – is about three months.
Pragamatism trumps principle in strata, every time, and I speak as someone who has learned the hard way.Take your lawyer’s advice – that’s what you pay them for – and certainly DON’T count on the CTTT to come to your rescue.I’m not even sure if I would take this to the CTTT’s strata adjudicators after you have fixed the ceiling. It sounds like a breach of contract to me and I’d be asking if it wouldn’t be better to run the case in the small claims court.
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Offering a trial period isn’t a refusal – it’s a conditional approval. If the cat isn’t a problem, then any subsequent refusal would certainly be unreasonable.
That said, there’s something about this that makes me think someone is trying to keep everyone happy.
If you have intimated that you are only looking after the cat for a while, then clearly the “trial period” is a way of allowing you to do that without upsetting the neighbour who raised the complaint.
My advice would be to forget the letter of the by-laws and be the reasonable person in this. Accept the trial period. In any case, there is nothing absolute in giving permission for a pet. If the animal breaches other by-laws relating to noise and nuisance, or if it endangers the health of another resident, the owner can still be ordered to remove it.
If it doesn’t breach those by-laws, then they have no reason for not declaring the ‘trial” a success
Go with the flow and deal with the end of the trial period when it comes.
And yes, ask to see the details of the complaint for the simple reason that you want to be responsible owners and modify the cat’s behaviour accordingly.
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It’s a fairly standard by-law but you are interpreting it wrongly. The ceiling and walls may be common property but the paint isn’t, Un-paint your ceiling, then send the builder a bill which you should pursue through a district court and not through the CTTT.
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I don’t mind the occasional endorsement of someone you have had a good experience with – as long as it”s not you. Name and acclaim, say I.
By the way, there is nothing particularly sinister about a developer presenting a strata manager as a candidate for the role as they will have used one to help set up the by-laws and strata plan in the first place (not that I’m recommending you go with their suggestion).
And finally, Strata Choice are the principle sponsors of this website – they wouldn’t be if I didn’t think they were good and decent people.
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@considerate band fair said:
To digress slightly … I have to say recently there have been some seriously negative posters that make my experience less than pleasant. Is that the price of popularity?
Just an update on this. One dimwit was posting under four different names, congratulating himself on how clever he was and “ganging up” on anyone who disagreed with him (especially me). He and his various doppelgangers are no longer with us.
My apologies to all the real people on this website for not spotting this sad onanist before now. I will be more diligent in fuiture.
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You might be able to hurry things along by taking action via the tenancy section of Fair Trading for a reduction in rent backdated to when the termites were first discovered until the problem is fixed, on the grounds of disturbance and loss of amenity. Call Fair Trading on 13 32 20 or have a look HERE for the Tenants Union fact sheet on repairs.
Maybe just telling the agent if this isn’t fixed pronto you will ask for a rent reduction might be enough to get things moving.
Perhaps the builder’s number was given to you so you could co-ordiante your movements with theirs (if they were actually moving).
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@Mortica said:
But seriously folks (was this the time for frivolous posts? Methinks NO) what Suminy6 should do is call the local police station and say he/she believes it’s a brothel … Sorry but I don’t find this situation all that amusing Scotlandx and Very Nice Landlord.You’re jumping to a lot of conclusions, Mortica. Did anyone say it was a brothel? Are those normal brothel times? 6.30 -7.30am? 10 – 11.30am? Maybe the person is a gym jumnkie or a personal trainer and he/she has a full set of weights and equipment.
ScotlandX was right on the money – and I didn’t think there was anything frivolous about his answer. There’s a law of physics that says you can’t tell how the noise you are making impacts on anyone else in another place – for the simple reason you are not there.
A knock on the door (or a note under it) and a very polite inquiry along the lines of “I keep hearing strange noises at these times – do you have any idea what it might be?” could solve a lot of problems before you start involving the cops or the council.
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Does your husband need to be at the mediation? If your solicitor is there, plus you, that’s all that’s required.
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Kerry Packer used to say “Never apologise, never explain” … or was it Sir Frank?
Anyway, I’m going to give you a magic phrase to use but you have to promise to use it wisely because it has almost magical powers. You say these words and only these words. You never explain or qualify them.
You siimply say: “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
Trust me – it stops people in their tracks. They may ask why or how or who says and all you do is shrug, as if this is an immutable law of the universe. Sigh, smile sympathetically, then walk away. If necessary, repeat them. But say nothing else. “It’s not possible …”
It will get you out of most situations. And, by the way, I’m deadly serious. I use it judiciously but it never lets me down.
By the way, it works particularly well with nutters as it seems to cut through their scrambled logic the way nothing else does.
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It seems like the person in the house looks after the house (including the roof) and the people in the unit block look after theirs and everybody loos after the bits in between – which seems fair. However, anything that impacts on the rest of the strata plan, even visually, might be an issue.
I wouldn’t imagine you’d have too much trouble with the solar panels (but you never know) but putting another door or gate in might raise some concerns. If you’re worried, talk to the other owners or their strata manager. That’s a better idea that wishing, hoping or missing out on a home where you may be perfectly happy.
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Mortica said:
Surely you are either legally allowed to record someone in NSW, or you are NOT legally allowed to record them without their permission because it is against the law.
It’s not a simple as yes or no – there are circumstances where you can record and others where you can’t. Even so, your question has already been answered in my last post.
Nobody is going to be arrested for recording noise they can hear in their own homes. Also, recorded noise is accepted as evidence in legal actions about noise in strata buildings.
It’s only recorded conversations that would be a problem – and even then there are circumstances where it is allowed (see below).
It’s worth noting, however, that if you have security video surveillance in your building, you must have signs up alerting visitors – not so much for privacy law reasons but for Work Health and Safety issues. Obviously your security camera should not be recording audio too.
The blog privatei.com.au has a very handy rundown of the laws in different states HERE. In an extract from the section on NSW, it says:
“If you’re listening to anything other than a private conversation the use of a listening device is not prohibited.”
By listening device, it also means a recording device of any kind. On the question of overheard conversations, the item says:If the conversation is loud enough for you to hear it, in a place where you or other people may hear it, then it’s not a private conversation and use of a Listening Device is not restricted.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.
In overly simplistic terms, this is what you need to know.
The Owners Corporation – that’s you and your fellow owners – are legally obliged to maintain and repair common property.
The builder or developer has an obligation to rectify defects if they are told about them within the statutory period – currently six years.
If you stop paying your levies, all it means is you will get 10 percent penalty interest charged, plus the cost of employing debt collectors, plus you will lose your vote at general meetings.
So, in the first instance, you Owners Corp should have paid for the respray of the car – they should then seek redress from the builder as part of a larger defect claim.
Most importantly, it sounds like your builder is a cowboy. The damp problem is a building defect – plain and simple – and he is just running down the clock so there can be no defect claim against him.
Right now your Executive Committee should be employing someone like our sponsors IBC to do a thorough assessment of all your building defects – there will be more – and present a case for rectification. If your EC is not already doing this, they are either ignorant or possibly too close to the developer and they need to be voted out.
You need to get involved and get a grip of who is supposed to be doing what in your building.I am assuming the building has hasfd its first AGM and you have anb executive committee in place.
Firstly, you need to write to the Executive Committee and ask them what they are doing about defects. You should copy this the the strata manager.
If you get no response, take an action at the CTTT to at least force them to address the issues. The action would be against the Owners Corp for failure is in its statutory duty to maintain and repair common property.
You should also be communicating with other owners – asking them if they realise that a) the developer needs to fix these problems and b) if they don’t force them to, THEY will have to pay for it themselves. In six yerars time, all it will take is for one owner to say these defectes need to be fixed and the Owners Corp – you and your neighbours – will have to fix them at your own expense.
But whatever you do, don’t go on a one-man levies strike. That’s a last resort and you do that when a large number of owners can’t get the EC to listen to sense and everyone does it at the same time. Not a highly recommended action.
Better to get a group of owners to club together to pay for an expert like a building consultant or a specialised strata lawyer to come in and take control of the problem.
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There’s a big difference between attaching an attic bench to a wall (which shouldn’t have been done without permission) an annexing roof space to expand your apartment. Your neighbour should not have paved common property without permission either but two wrongs don’t make it right.
If nothing else, there is an established formula by which you have to compensate the Owners Corp for the loss of common property. Basically it’s the increase in value of your home thanks to the extra room minus the cost of construction. All of the balance goes to the Owners Corp. Even with that formula, which was established in a High Court ruling, you can’t assume that the other owners will allow you to do it. I would be taking a much more conciliatory attitude to this and I’d let the BBQ bench slide for now. If you want your attic room you’re going to need the support of 75 percent of owners to pass the exclusive use by-law required.
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