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This is going to be an even bigger issue in NSW with the new limit of two years for claiming against non-structural defects. Non-structural means that it's not involved in actually holding the building up – leaking balconies slip through the net. Some lawyers are advising new apartment owners to plug their balcony drains, flood them and see if they leak before it's too late to clam.
Re Home Insurance Warranty, in NSW it's not required by builders for structures over three storeys high.
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Monique
If the pull-down blind sounds like an awning and you will a) be changing common property and b) changing the external appearance of the building, both of which will require permission.
But regarding the shutters, on what basis have you been told to get permission? Which of your bylaws requires you to conform to a standard and what is that standard?
If you have asked for permission in writing and they can't be bothered to reply, you can assume it's not a big issue. Send them a letter telling them what you plan to do then do it.
Regarding the “old bag” – she is just one voice and one vote on the Executive
Committee. You can assume that you're not the only person she's frustrated over the years so get yourself some allies then let her have her rant … then outvote her.
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bpositive said:
JimmyT said:
Fined $1.85 million for what and by whom?
Not disputing your assertion but we need more details – a reference to a wesbite would be great.
https://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/newsroom/Pages/companyfinedafterworkercrushed.aspx
https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/view/inforce/subordleg+648+2001+cd+0+N
https://www.nationalohsreview.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/C600AB52-C983-49DD-9EDA-4C9E781B1B8D/0/198ISTM.pdf
/archives/237
are all interesting reading. So you may have to get legal advice if you want an owner to do property maintenance. Sorry I did not have the time to read all this information but I believe it is all relevant the OHS regulation in NSW at least,
How funny to find myself quoted when I asked for a reference.
This is an excellent set of documents amd I might find a separate home for these for easy reference. Well done BP!
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pmoore72 said:
I recently received a letter from my strata mentioning I was in breach of Bylaw 17 schedule 1 …
… I wrote back to the strata asking for more details …
… I received a call from the real-estate …
Just to clarify, by ‘the strata’ do you mean the Strata Manager, the Executive Committee or the Building Manager?
And by ‘real estate’ do you mean rental agent.
The answers to both questions are relevant.
JimmyT
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Sarah said:
The first thing I would say is make sure that the by-laws are created via the strata management. In some cases if the by-laws are not chosen a default one will be selected, particulary when it comes to pets…
I'm not arguing with the sense of anything that Sarah is saying – in fact the rest of her advice is spot on – but at the risk of being picky, Strata Management doesn't “create” by-laws. What you need to do is check the by-laws that are registered for your building.
Also, there are no circumstances under which by-laws can be used by “default” except in the very rare occasion in which no by-laws at all were adopted at the first AGM of a strata plan – then Fair Trading's “model” by-laws would apply (but only the ones that were in effect when the strata plan was created).
Anyone who says, for instance, “we don't have a by-law on pets so we'll use the one in Fair Trading's model by-laws” is doing the wrong thing.
By-laws have no effect unless they have been adopted by the Owners Corporation at a General Meeting – if you don't have a by-law on pets or anything else, you can't just pluck one off the shelf and start using it.
Unless the Strata Manager has been empowered to act on the OC's behalf in these matters, breaches of by-laws have to be discussed and minuted at an Executive Committee meeting before a Notice To Comply can be issued. The NTC has to state which by-law has been breached. Again, that's YOUR building's bylaws … nobody else's (even though the chances are most of your by-laws may be identical to other buildings').
Yes, I know I'm being pedantic but if you start pursuing people with non-existent by-laws, you will end up worse off than you started.
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Fined $1.85 million for what and by whom?
Not disputing your assertion but we need more details – a reference to a wesbite would be great.
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peterepete said:
An owner in our block of 4 units has put his property on the market and as you’d expect the Agent erected a For Sale sign on the Common Property.
The ‘issue’ is that after 3 months the Unit remains unsold … How long is it reasonable to allow it to stay? …he didn’t bother to obtain E.C approval for the signs location.
The EC can decide where, when and how long these signs go up for. Many buildings ban them altogether (although you lose the 'benefit' when you come to sell your own home).
Two things you need to do: tell the estate agent to get rid of the sign pronto or you will tear it down yourselves (it's on common property without permission).
And then establish a protocol of where the signs can be, how long they can stay (if at all) and get it written into a by-law before your next AGM. meanwhile, refuse permission to any signage that doesn't comply with the new protocol. It's your common property and the estate agents' and vendors' 'rights' to put signage on it are somewhere south of zero.
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I think Owners Corporation insurance IS a form of public liability insurance. The problem here is that the people running the Owners Corp had no idea of their responsibilities and came up with all sorts of excuses for not doing what they should have done on Day One: fixed the problem then claimed on their insurance.
Considering the size of the building (28 storeys) it's alarming that the people running it are just making up the rules as they go along when a phone call to their strata manager could and should have sorted this out immediately.
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Your builder may not be insured because Home Warranty Insurance isn't required for buildings over three storeys high. Tell your strata manager to be ready for that one then hand-pass it to him or her.
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Not my area of expertise but I would have thought it was the builder who was required to carry the insurance. However, if you are carrying the insurance yourself, it sounds like a different contract which may require different insurance. Talk to your insurance provider or broker.
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I take your point, which is why I suggested total transparency and an easy way of having the employment terminated. If an EC member is playing favourites, then the Owners Corporation can overturn the decision at an AGM.
And yes, I know that these things can be manipulated by block proxy voting etc etc. But in my experience nothing quite pulls out the vote like telling owners they are being ripped off.
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kentstreet said:
The executive committee meeting … advised they would direct me to try and claim through their insurance however this seems a “cop out” as we had already been advised previously their insurance would not be responsible for my carpet as it was not a fixture and would only be responsible for the skirting boards which are a fixture and have very slightly buckled.
To replace them however would mean repainting which apparently again would be at my own expense so I would rather they remained.
… the executive committee chairman was sympathetic but basically seems to think if they compensated me it may only make the other owners reluctant to get contents insurance and did not seem to understand the body corporate would be liable.
Whoever you are dealing with in your Owners Corporation seems to have very little knowledge of strata law. They have to pay for the paintwork that is required after they have repaired the skirting. Whatever they damage, directly or indirectly, they have to repair – they are confusing responsibility for wear and tear with responsibility for damage.
Talk to a lawyer about sending a letter of demand. You don’t have to claim through their insurance – the Owners Corp do … after they have fixed your apartment which should be their priority.
And send a motion to the next EC meeting demanding that the office-bearers either undertake some basic strata training (there’s plenty around) or get their strata manager to advise them on the correct procedure before they start giving incorrect and costly advice to owners.
You are 100% in the right on this and they are 100% liable. To quote the Urban Spaceman 'go them' if only to teach them a lesson about getting things right rather than coming up with bullcrap about who's responsible and who isn't.
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Austman said:
So OCs and OC's insurers often seem to initially say “we do not cover internal lot carpets or paintwork etc”.
For some it's ignorance, for others it's a deliberate cop-out. But if a failure in common property causes damage in anothe property it is the OC's responsibility.
It doesn't make any difference if a) wear and tear on paintwork and carpets are the lot owner's responsibility; b) the OC is inadequately insured. The OC can't throw the cost back on the lot owners and say “sorry, we weren't insured so we're not paying.”
It's a double fault for not maintaining common property properly and for not being adequately insured.
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Sarahs said:
I have been an owner here for 6 years, and have NEVER had an inspection. Our SM assures me that we have always had compliance certificates issued.
My immediate response is that it's good that you are finally geting fire safety checks rather than just having compliance signed off based on outdated paperwork. Your home may be fire safe but what about the flats all around you. Just last week a block of units had to be evacuated because of a fire started by a dropped cigarette.
Austman said:
How has the OC arranged access to all the lots? That in itself is nearly mission impossible for our OC!
We have annual fire checks and the OC gets everyone to comply by telling them if they don't make arrangement for access via the building manager then they have to ring the fire saftey people themselves and pay additional costs for an individual check. Seems to work
The new (NSW) memorandum on who is responsible for what suggests that hard-wired internal fire alarms that go back to a central board for the building are the OC's responsibility while self-contained systems within the lot are the lot owners'.
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Here's all you need to know. The Owners Corp is liable – end of story.
Your EC/building manager needs a serious wake-up call. This is their problem and they have to fix it pronto. How dare they say you have to pay for this yourself? When a similar thing happened in the Horizon building a few years age they rehoused all affected owners in a luxury hotel and did an industrial clean of their apartments.
Now, your building manager can either do this the easy way or the hard way. They can get on to this pronto – no arguments, no delays and no compromises – or you can take them to the Supreme Court (forget the CTTT) and demand damages for the repair and replacement and the cost of a proper clean-up, plus damages for the stress they have subjected you to (which is rising the more they delay), and all court costs.
In fact, I would get a lawyer to draft a letter saying exactly that (and include their legal fees in the demand).
This is a disgusting (in so many ways) abrogation of the owners corporation's responsibilities and they should be grateful you aren't a more demanding owner.
When they're done cleaning up your apartment, they should take a course in strata law and OC responsibilities. Let us know how you go.
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