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I get the feeling that a lawyer’s letter, from an experienced strata lawyer, reminding the committee of their legal obligations, might work wonders here. Shouldn’t be too expensive and would make them realise the seriousness of their situation.
Failing that, if you could get something in writing out of Fair Trading, that might do the trick.
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Has this bathroom ever been accessible to everyone in the building (including workers)? I seems like a very arcane argument unless someone has previously had access but that has been taken away. FYI, there are many areas in strata schemes that are designated common property but to which not everyone has access. Your balcony, in NSW, for a start.
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You could send them a letter asking by what authority they are harassing your tenants and warning them that unless they stop, you will take action at NCAT.
If this person is claiming to be the strata manager and, especially if they are taking payments as strata manager, but they are not licensed strata managers, they are breaking the law.
If they have sent any emails claiming to be strata manager, reply asking them to show who appointed them, what qualifications they possess and how much they are charging the scheme for their services.
In the meantime you could apply to Fair Trading for mediation. And ask to see the strata roll which should list the names of all owners. If they haven’t provided that name, they are in breach of strata law and can be fined.
It sounds like someone who doesn’t know even the basics of strata law has appointed themselves to a position to which they are not entitled, not realising that they could get into a lot of trouble for having done so.
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We are in a self-managed strata and in a small complex of three.
Self-managed, but you have a strata manager? Is this person in another role with a different title?
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Any conversation comparing levies or using rules of thumb runs the risk of owners becoming comfortable with a building’s financial position when there is no reason at all to be comfortable.
There are just too many variables to average out a common levy.
All true. But how does a newcomer to strata even begin to work out if their levies are off the scale as either too high or too low. The answer is that they ask the question and search the records and discover all the variables mentioned in the previous two posts. Or maybe they just discover that the levies were set at a level to suit parsimonious committee members or deceptive developers AFTER they have bought in.
Guesstimates and benchmarks are not definitive, by definition, but they are a better clue to the reality than saying “how long is a piece of string.”
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the same by-law can force a Lot owner (sole occupancy unit) to provide access (keys) to every other lot owner and the strata manager for unrestricted access to their private locked lot?
Why would they feel they need that access?
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I may be wrong but I believe the law on recording others’ conversations is that you can’t do it without their knowledge, but that doesn’t require their permission. Permission is effectively granted if the person being recorded continues speaking after being told they are being recorded.
Turns out I was kind of wrong, but every state has their own version of laws on recording voices, which you can find HERE. You need everyone being recorded’s permission in some states, and one person’s permission, if they are participating in the conversation, in others.
However, I think you could still argue that someone continuing to speak, after you have told them you are recording, may be considered de facto permission.
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Strata law is subservient to all other relevant laws so a by-law that stood to breach building laws would be invalid However, a by-law could be created that sought to do that and might stand until someone challenged it. Whoever, created the by-law is responsible for ensuring it is legally valid.
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This is called a common property by-law and it has a condition that ongoing responsibility for maintenance must be ascribed to the lot owner otherwise it defaults to the OC. Thus the OC can make it a condition of the by-law that the lot owner (and all subsequent owners of that lot) accept responsibility for maintenance and repairs. If the lot owner refuses, then the OC is entitled to refuse to allow the installation. In some circumstances the OC could even ask the lot owner to pay for taking over common property. And who pays the electricity bill for the chair lift? A strata lawyer really should be consulted on this (at the lot owner’s expense).
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I know I have said this many times before but it would help greatly if the strata committee had a reasonable set of standing orders established by a by-law, to make them enforceable. Then the committee could issue a note to the owners saying the meeting had been adjourned because [named owner] had refused to abide by the by-laws.
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Another suggestion: get a copy of the strata roll from your strata manager (and yes, the law requires them to give it to you) and write to other owners pointing out this is unlawful.
Expect to be told that since the strata manager is also the secretary (under certain circumstances) then the strata roll has already been provided. Also expect to be told that because of privacy concerns, you will not be given the email addresses of owners, even though they are an essential part of the roll.
Both of these arguments are total BS.
I had a huge fight with Netstrata over this at our investment property and, by the way. the strata commissioner declined to say who was right and wrong in this fight.
If the committee members are already playing fast and loose with the law, I would expect them to go to the barricades on this too. Apply for mediation at Fair Trading, seek an interim order and then see what falls out when you shake them up.
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Now, this is of little use to you except to say that the levies can vary quite dramatically between strata complexes.
I’m beginning to get a picture in which the level of facilities is matched by the value of the properties which means that calculating the cost of levies as a comparison is surprisingly valid. The range of 0.4% to 0.6% seems a reasonable benchmark (so far).
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I may be wrong but I believe the law on recording others’ conversations is that you can’t do it without their knowledge, but that doesn’t require their permission. Permission is effectively granted if the person being recorded continues speaking after being told they are being recorded.
I can see circumstances where a strata committee might want to record meetings, especially where there is a disruptive member or guest. The question of intellectual property rights is irrelevant unless the person doing the recording was planning to distort and misuse or commercialise the recording.
If I am correct on the permission/information question, the guest at the meeting who declined to say whether or not they were recording was sailing close to the wind if they then continued to record, as they haven’t informed those present that they were being recorded.
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our levies average about $3000/unit/year.
And how does that compare with the average value of the units, if you can hazard a guess?
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Have you had reason to review recently?
Not until I received this post. I struggled to find the article to which you’re referring (although I remember writing it) but all I can say is that apartment prices and costs have both shot up so things may have changed.
A quick search established that the median price of apartment in Sydney is about $850,000 and the average levies are about $850 a quarter. This boils down to about 0.4 per cent of the property value per annum. The big property websites don’t list the levies (except in Queensland) – you have to email the real estate agents (and go on their databases).
Also I suspect these figures are swayed by the proposed levies for off-the-plan blocks which will always be set lower than they would be in reality. There are mechanisms for getting compensation from developers who do this deliberately, but I have yet to hear of an owners corp that has successfully taken such a case to the Tribunal.
If I recall correctly, my rule of thumb back then was that the levies would be between 0.7 and 1.4 per cent of the property value. The reasonably well-managed 20-year-old block in which I live has four lifts, a heated swimming pool, gym, building manager and 24-hour concierges and the levies are about 6 per cent of the property values – suggesting that the property price rises have outstripped increases in running costs.
Our investment property has no pool, concierge or gym and a part-time building manager but multiple three-level lifts. The current levies (based on the developer and strata managers’ estimates) is 0.4 per cent which is already proving to be woefully inadequate and might be worth challenging at the Tribunal, depending on what the actual cost of running the block turns out to be.
I’d be really interested to hear from other Flatchatters what their levies are compared to their property values and the facilities that they are funding.
I also think Fair Trading should insist that real estate websites list the levies (fees) for apartments on sale, rather than allowing agents to withhold this essential information and use it to harvest email addresses for their databases.
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