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I tend to agree, Peter, but Flat Chat is a broad church and we try to accommodate all views. Interesting, when I was researching my answer I came across an attempt to ban electric dryers from one council area. And I believe some councils are insisting on communal drying lines on the roof (for instance) so at least there is an alternative.
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Yes, Quincy, and that applies just as much to free-standing homes as it does to strata blocks. It’s time to stop kidding ourselves that everything is sweet and lovely in quarter-acre block country while strata blocks are seething sinks of discontent. I know people in free-standing homes who have been threatened, abused and persecuted by selfish and antisocial neighbours who refuse to observe even the basic decencies.
And the problem in stand-alone houses is that you literally do stand alone. There’s no building manager, strata manager or Executive Committee to back you up when your neighbours turn nasty.
Of all the bashings and even shootings that have happened when neighbourhood disputes got out of hand, I can’t think of one that occurred in an apartment block. So can we stop this myth right here? The problem isn’t where people live, it’s how people live.
Live in a strata block and you might increase the chances of having an antisocial neighbour simply because you have more of them – but you also have plenty of ways of dealing with them. Live in a house and you’re on your own … in every sense. I hope you are never unlucky enough to have a nasty neighbour move in next door – then you’ll find out here’s another side to this coin.
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Even if you discovered there was a by-law about laundry, your neighboring EC is not compelled to enforce it. And since a duplex has only two owners, your chances of getting anyone to change their habits are slightly less than zero. I doubt your local council will take a position on this so there’s not really very much you can do.
There may be a remote chance of taking legal action on the grounds that the ‘visual pollution’ of their washing is lowering the value of your property but I wouldn’t recommend it. In fact I suspect this is one of those cases where the misery associated with getting a result outweighs the slight benefit of whatever result you might get.
In other words, if you can, learn to live with it
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With you on that, Struggler. I had to weather the usual contemptuous dismissal from our building’s chair at an AGM to prevent them from accidentally banning portable air coolers in a by-law aimed to clear up where air-conditioning could be installed. People need to realise that by-laws are a lot harder to undo than they are to create so ultra-diligence is required.
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It’s normal, but it’s not necessarily right. I’d be asking how this new person is going to serve you better than the existing guy in key areas such as:
- Length of contract
- Cost of services
- Additional fees and what they would be for (meeting attendance, letters etc)
- Performance guarantees
- Exit clauses
- Accessibility
- Insurance commissions
- Experience
- Professional standing
Often strata plans get a new strata manager on the basis of nothing more than they are not the old one. You need some indication that the new person has both the intention and the contractual obligation to offer you better service – otherwise you may find yourself in exactly the same situation further down the track. If they can tick most if not all of the above boxes, then there may be no need to look at a second option – but it would be better if you had a choice.
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To be honest I have no idea but that’s partly because every lawyer has their own scale of fees. Why not drop an email to Suzie Broome at Makinson & D’Apice (who are about to become sponsors of this website) and ask what she charges. Suzie’s email address is sbroome@makdap.com.au. There are other lawyers listed on the ‘essential links’ page linked at the top of this page so you can compare like for like. Let us know how you get on.
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The non-owner proxy has all the rights and responsibilities of a committee member but only if they were nominated for election at the AGM by an owner. My reading of Schedule 3 of the Act seems to suggest they have to be an owner to be a ‘casual’ proxy on a meeting by meeting basis.
3 Acting members of the executive committee
(1) A member of the executive committee may, with the consent of the executive committee, appoint an owner or company nominee of a corporation which is an owner to act in his or her place as a member at any meeting of the executive committee.
(2) The owner or company nominee so appointed is, while so acting as a member, taken to be a member.
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For a project this size, you might want to consider employing an experienced strata project manager to guide your through the various twists and turns.
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The strata manger and EC aren’t even under any obligation to reply to their owners, let alone the people next door( although their tenure may not last to long if they ignore the former too much). Usually a lawyer’s letter gets people’s attention, though.
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Most of the strata schemes in NSW are non-compliant in some way or another. Your problem will only arise if someone challenges decisions that have or haven’t been made.
I wonder, however, if in the meantime your EC members are covered by EC Insurance (if in fact you have it). But all you have to do to put this right is hold your AGM and elect your committee.
One way to get round the personal conflict problem is to hire a strata manager and delegate EC powers to them. It’s more expensive than doing it yourself but a lot less stressful.
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Changes to Common Property usually are allowed on the basis that you take over responsibility for the bits you have changed. That means they have to be covered by your insurance, unless they have reverted to Owners Corp ownership under the terms of the special resolution that allows you to change the CP. That’s the key – whoever owns the CP after the work is done should logically have to insure it (or pay the bills if it fails and is uninsured).
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There’s not set procedure for this but you should be aware that the Council is very unlikely to give you a DA without strata approval. Also there are aspects of the changes to common property that require Owners Corp approval and their support in the passing of by-laws.
So, in short, the place to start is with the Executive Committee and/or the strata manager, with a broadstroke plan of what you want to do.
What you then need to establish is which bits of the plan require OC and Council approval, and which merely need to be notified. At this point is is also worth talking to council about the DAs they might require.
Once you have established which parts require Special resolution by-laws, if any, you should talk to the EC to make sure they are generally on-side and then talk to a strata lawyer about drawing up the necessary by-laws.
At some point you should also talk to the EC about a work schedule, the delivery of materials and the removal of rubbish to minimise the disruption to other residents.
Finally, put together your whole package, hopefully with EC support, and present it to an EGM for approval. Don’t forget, the Owners Corp doesn’t have to allow you to change common property so you need your neighbours on-side from the start.
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There is no law on lift repairs, per se, but there are laws about responsibility to repair and maintain common property as well as a landlord’s responsibility to provide basic services.
Basically you need to contact your landlord to tell them to put pressure on the Owners Corporation and/or strata manager to get this fixed as soon as possible.
You might also say that you need them to make an arrangement to help get your father out of the house, at least on occasion, or reduce his rent so you can afford to make the arrangements yourself.
Contact the Tenants Union on tenants.org.au for more advice.
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This topic is going round and round in circles and is becoming pointless. So, for anyone who wants to know, here is what we have established so far.
1. There is nothing in strata law that specifically says when penalty interest kicks in — the due date or the end of the grace period.
2. The simplest way to avoid trouble is, as many strata managers do, to err on the side of safety and start calculating interest at the end of the grace period.
3. Some strata managers calculate the interest from the due date – that fact that they do this and no one seems to care is an indication of how relatively unimportant this is.
4. By not charging penalty interest for the grace period of an overdue levy payment of, say, $1000, the strata manager is ‘costing’ the owners corp approximately $8.50. How much the owners corp would have to pay in additional fees if an owner challenged paying interest from the due date at the CTTT could be 100 times that or more.
5. Therefore even if logic suggests otherwise, and the law is unclear, common sense dictates that you are better off charging penalty interest from after the end of the grace period.
THIS TOPIC IS NOW CLOSED
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I agree with all of this but it’s a wee bit more complicated thatn that. Foxtel has to be installed to the building before individual owners decide whether they want the service or not. That’s an expense all owners would bear. After that, it’s up to individuals whether or not they subscribe, meaning there is an expense to owners even if they don’t want the service. And, by the way I think the required change to common property would need a special resolution and if, say, only 20 percent of owners were against it. they would still have to pay for the basic upgrade and installation.
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