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Whale said:
Whilst I'm not sure that you need a Special By-Law as Jimmy T suggests …
Didn't actually suggest that – just said it was what our OC did. Maybe it's being over-cautious but better safe than sorry in these cases.
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Just to back up Mr Strata's remarks, there are several avenues you can take personally (and this is probably what the Fair Trading person was hinting at).
You can go to Fair Trading for a binding and enforceable mediation.
If (when) that fails you can ask the CTTT for an adjudication.
Or, entirely separately, you can go to your District Court to ask for a noise abatement order.
You can even go to the Supreme Court (if you can afford it) if you want damages (the Supreme Court will only hear strata cases before they have gone to the CTTT if damages are claimed, because the CTTT can't award damages or costs).
And you may even have grounds to sue for defamation if the vilification you spoke about can be proved and can be shown to be malicious.
If things don't improve, it may be time to talk to an experienced strata lawyer.
Finally, do everything you can at the next AGM to get this person voted off the EC. It sounds like you won't be the first person to have crossed swords with this obnoxious individual.
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If the repair is your responsibility you can find a licensed tradesperson in the yellow pages, surely. But I think we have established elsewhere that it's probably the Owners' Corporation's responsibility so tell them to either prove it's down to you or back off and hire the workman themselves.
In fact, it's time this matter was taken to Fair Trading for them to sort out. All you need to do is refuse to do anything and let the EC take you to Fair Trading at their expense.
It sounds as if it's getting very petty and personal there. Don't let them bully you.
By the way, I'm not sure why you've started this as a new topic. It's all part of the same conversation.
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Forget the threat of legal action. Take a look at this previous column here. Your Owners Corporation boss (is it the chairman of the executive committee or the strata manager?) needs to get this straight with an experienced strata lawyer right now. If there is no special resolution allowing the work to go ahead and apportioning the cost of repairs and maintenance then it falls to the OC to fix the common property and any damage caused by its failutre. Futhermore, if in doing so they damage your tiles, they have to pay for that too.
And somewhere at the back of my brain there's a thought that if the OC takes legal action against an owner and the action fails, the owner doesn't have to pay their share of the cost. Has anyone else heard of that one? Or was I dreaming?
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Assuming you are in NSW, it seems the Owners Corporation is liable for all repairs to common property, even if the damage was caused by a previous owner. This is the great danger of OCs allowing improvements on a nod and a wink. It would be a different story if the person who caused the damage was still there but they are clearly long gone.
There is no obligation on your part to pay any of this however, if you are considering renovations anyway, you might consider getting the OC to pay for the repairs while you pay for any subsequent retiling. And that should make things easier for you when you are getting their approval for planned renovations.
By the way, depending on the extent of the renovations, you may not need OC approval but it helps a lot if you can get their OK.
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My understanding is that the sinking fund is there precisely for that purpose – to maintain and repair common property. Strange as it may seem, there are some SPs where the sinking fund is held on to tightly as some sort of disaster relief emergency measure which doesn't make any sense at all, considerinmg you are probably also paying insurance premiums.
In fact, I know buildings where the sinking fund has been used to upgrade the building way beyond basic repairs. Is that wrong? Perhaps, in a strict interpretation of the Act. Is it bad? I'd say not, unless the work was frivolous and the money spent was needed elsewhere.
Sounds like your EC office bearers would benefit from some of the strata management courses which, I think, most if not all of this website's sponsors provide in some form.
Meanwhile, the money 'missing' from the admin fund to legitimately pay for repairs could be a considered a loan to the sinking fund which it can now repay. Creative accountancy is a wonderful thing.
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Section 71 of the strata Act allows a sinking fund to lend money to the admin fiund provided it is repaid in three months. This is a recognition that every organisation can have cash-flow problems from time to time and basically allows the money to be lent for the duration of one levies collection cycle.
That's one reason OCs have to keep on top of levies payments – the sinking fund is not a well you can go to too often.
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That would because many strata management contracts give them the right to do so (it's a good fallback for when the office-bearers are not available).
Also, often the strata manager will be asked to chair a general meeting when the actual chair is seen to be on one side or another of a contentious issue (and their contract allows them to do that).
The problems arise when the strata manager assumes the responsibility and no one has the nerve or the knowledge to challenge them but these situations are pretty rare and, in any case, often flow from frustration at an SP's inability to make decisions and move forward.
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Is it a “policy” or a by-law. If it's only the former, the laundry monitors can take a running jump.
If it's a by-law, all they can do is issue a warning then have a meeting and issue a Notice To Comply.
Taking someone's property and putting it in a bin is an act of theft and vandalism.
Now, copy and paste this conversation, blow up the type size to fill an A4 page, print it and peg it to the washing line for everyone to see.
Headline? How about: 'Keep your grubby hands off my clean clothes'?
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Not sure about the full legal picture but I do know our OC recently passed new by-laws allowing common property to be videoed and recorded. I don't know exactly why they did that but clearly they felt they had to formalise a situation that was already in place.
Here is what I think the general situation is:
If you are planning to record video images of common property, possibly to use in legal action of some sort, you have to put up signs warning people they are being filmed.
You may not, however, record audio without the person you're recording's clear permission.
And, bizarrely, you shouldn't put up signs saying you are video-taping common property when you're not (this stems from a case where a woman was raped in a lift that only had dummy cameras).
I hasten to add that this is just bits and pieces I have picked up. If anyone has a clear and concise guide to what can and can't be done (no endless quotes from incomprehensible laws and regulations, please), then let's have 'em. I don't mind being proved wrong as long as we get to the plain and simple facts.
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Fair enough … but there are renters out there for whom that doesn't work and landlords for whom a little bit of extra effort does make a difference. If what you do works for you, that's great. Maybe you just present exceptionally well without making the extra effort.
But that's no reason to slam something that works for other people. It's a tactic that works for tenants and landlords (and, yes, I too have been on both sides of that fence).
Like I said, if it doesn't do your chances any harm and it might do them some good, why not make a little bit of extra effort? Just making an effort – rather than feeling 'entitled' – sets you apart from the crowd these days.
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Just a quick note on defamation … the exchange of information necessary for the proper operation of an owner’s corporation will allow a certain amount of ‘privilege’ under fair comment. And letters written to the CTTT in support of one side of a case or another certainly come under that umbrella.
However, if there is a clear perception of malice behind criticisms made in minutes, agendas, circulars and notices on your noticeboard … maybe a series of snide comments directed at an individual or a group of owners, for instance … your legal protection may fly out of the window, taking your EC members’ insurance cover with it.
There is no Bill of Rights protecting freedom of speech in this country. But there are laws protecting people from having their reputations unfairly damaged by negative comments made in public. All it takes is one owner with the resources and determination to object to the way they have been characterised and you could be entering an expensive world of pain.
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You might laugh, Drew, but would you reject an application solely because the applicants had made an extra effort?
I'd still say, if it's not likely to do the applicant any harm and it might do them considerable good, why not do it.
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Just because their insurance doesn’t cover cars doesn’t mean that they’re not liable – it just means they are under-insured. They are probably responsible for damage cause by their negligence (ie, failure to repair the leaks).
I think you may have left your run a bit late … I am pretty sure you won’t be able to to raise a claim under another jurisdiction (every state has its own strata laws, for a start).
But talk to a solicitor in Darwin about their equivalent of the small claims court and make sure you have a reasonable chance of having costs awarded in your favour. Then get them to send a letter to the EC claiming the money (plus the costs of their time). That might be all it takes to get them to pay up.
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You don't have to change the TV – a set-top box will feed digital signals into even an old Cathode Ray Tube TV (and give you a better picture).
Your problem in a high rise is all the splitters, resistors and boosters required to make sure everyone in the building gets a fair share of the signal.
And that, folks, is the limit of my technical knowledge. Ask an expert now before everybody is doing it at the same time and the rates go through the roof.
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