Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
As someone who has been battling balcony barbecues for the past 20-odd years, my question would be, is it fair to subject your upstairs neighbours to the smoke and smell from burning meat?
However, taking a neutral stance, it may be possible to keep everyone happy, provided you can persuade the meat incinerators to behave with a little consideration for the people living above and around them.
With that in mind, you could suggest a by-law that allows barbecue use subject to conditions. It might read something like:
Residents may not use barbecues on their balconies without the written permission of the strata committee. That permission would be subject to the following conditions:
-
- The barbecue must be gas or electrically powered. Solid fuel barbecues are not permitted. Residents must make their barbecue available for inspection.
- The barbecue must not be cleaned by “burning off” the remnants of previous use.
- The barbecue must be cleaned between uses.
- Pungent foods such as seafood and unwrapped fish may not be cooked on the barbecue.
- The barbecue must not produce excessive smoke or smell.
- The resident must have a fire extinguisher or fire blanket available for emergencies.
- Permission may be withdrawn following any complaints from other residents about nuisance smoke or smell from the barbecue.
That would seem like a reasonable by-law to me – but I would probably still vote against it because people who are inconsiderate of their neighbours usually don’t read by-laws anyway.
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.
I still don’t know what a CLO is? Any thoughts, anyone.
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.
I have also had to really wind him up about declarations of conflict at the beginning of the meeting.
All he has to do is to put it at the top of every agenda, asking if there for any conflicts of interest relating to items on the agenda and reminding members that are substantial statutory fines for failure to do. Something like:
Members to declare conflicts of interest relating to items on the agenda. FYI: Failure to do so can result in substantial monetary fines. (NSW Strata Schemes Management ACT, Schedule 2, Part 3, Section 18)
Most people reading the agenda will assume the strata manager put it there.
Surely there must be a solution for this other than having a blanket delegated authority?
The simplest solution would be for the committee to temporarily elect a new chair until such times as the incumbent has raided the biscuit tin. Any strata committee member can have multiple office-bearer roles.
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.
Can Mr X insist that by a certain date (say 6 mths from now), he will draw a line. Whatever was found and handed in to him by that date will constitute the scheme’s library. Anything found by anyone after that date, even if it’s indisputably a true record, will not be considered in any decision making of the SC or OC.
A record is a record. Imagine how that cut-off would be greeted in a court of law? All he can really do is ask people to hunt out their various bits and bobs and he should suggest a reward, not threaten an unenforceable undertaking not accept records that they have forgotten about and no longer care about anyway.
As for payment, if he is asking for payment as a committee member, that’s not acceptable. If he is asking as an individual providing service to the scheme then he can’t participate in the relevant discussion.
Bad idea all round.
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.
But the act does not confer decision making power to the strata manager.
The Act says that the strata scheme can delegate all or any of the powers of the office-bearers to the strata manager. This is a standard “back-up” position. However, a strata scheme can – if they’re not engaged or unaware- vote to delegate all powers to the strata manager and the only way to rescind that is by holding another general meeting.
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.
I write a letter to the SC asking the Secretary to clarify whether he has assumed all the responsibilities associated with the role, or whether the manager still has legal responsibilities as a result of the delegated authority in the management agreement.
I think it’s a good tactic but you have to be quite specific becasue the duties and reponsiblities of the starta manager and strata secretary overlap. E.g. “In this scheme where a strata secretary has been elected and is in situ, who has prime responsibly for [whatever you think isn’t being done] in the first instance, under normal circumstances.”
I would add that condition because there are emergency situations where, under a normal back-up delegation of powers, the strata manager can to step in where the office-bearers are not able to function or are absent for whatever reason.
For instance, if the secretary (for example) turned out to be unfinancial or just not around, the strata manager could call any meetings required to clarify the situation. In you scheme the strata manager thought they would be running the show with their decisions rubber-stamped by the committee and that is far from standard practice.
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.
If it is not responded to, even when half the committee have pecuniary interests, the strata mgr or whoever is chairing the meeting goes on to the next agenda item.
Then you ask it to be recorded that you believe certain committee members do indeed have conflicts of interest and remind them that there is a maximum fine of $1100 for failure to notify the committee. This will come as a shock to a lot of committee members who probably don’t even realise the the laws has changed.
And if they still refuse to self-declare, go to Fair Trading and NCAT to seek penalties.
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.
To be fair, if there is no by-law or rule, then the committee has no say on who can move in or out at any time. And in that situation, you may find that lifts and driveways are clogged with people moving in and out every weekend, when the majority of reident just want to enjoy their homes. As you say, common sense and courtesy take a back seat in our “me first” culture.
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.
To be fair to strata managers, in a lot of schemes the owners either aren’t interested or lack the expertise to run their own show. The problem is when the strata managers get locked in a corporate culture where they expect to be left alone to make all the decisions and don’t know how to function any other way (as I have witnessed at close quarters recently).
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.
Why is there a need to have such a motion in the first place.
From the original post, it would seem that committee has not been forthcoming with information. A motion to a general meeting would compel them to do so. And don’t forget that committee members can be remove by a simple majority vote at a general meeting if they fail to compluy.
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.
if there is a discussion about STRA at a committee meeting anyone who is operating a STRA rental should exit the meeting entirely during that discussion,
I would think so … seems like the definition of a conflict of interest, although I can see situations that might benefit from a STRA operator being there to answer questions. However, even then they can’t vote.
does the Manager have to ensure that the authority granted as Secretary is performed to the letter of the law?
The standard strata manager agreement excuses them from any responsibility for errors or just bad decisions that they make where they should have known better, so it’s hard to know how you would enforce that except by raising a complaint at Fair Trading and seeking their enforced removal/replacement at NCAT. Removal and replacement by a compulsory manager seems like the only sanction – apart from getting rid of them at the first opportunity when their contract runs out.
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.
To my knowledge unless you are living in a prison no.. You can move whenever you want.
See my previous comment about by-laws. If there is a valid by-law in place, you can’t just move in or out when it suits you (and absolutely no one else in the building). OK, you may have to take half a day off work if you do it midweek , but then most of your neighbours will be out so it causes minimal disruption.
A community with rules isn’t a prison – it’s quite liberating, actually.
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.
I had hoped someone else would have jumped in on this, but here goes. I think you are fighting the wrong battles with the wrong people.
Firstly, this doesn’t sound like an insurance issue to me. It’s a failure of common property which is usually not covered by insurance.
So you have two parallel routes you might take.
You could seek orders at NCAT for your owners corporation to fix the problem – forget all the personal stuff. They have a responsibility under the law that’s as clear as day. You will have to go to mediation first and if they then say they’ll do it, don’t leave without a written undertaking to get it done in a certain time frame.
Then you could take a civil case against the OC for the loss of rent.
But before you do any of that you really should consider consulting an experienced strata lawyer.
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.
It just goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.
One of my favourite quotes – but what’s the good deed in this scenario/
And for the record, it’s a courtesy to let people know when you’ll be blocking the driveway and clogging up the lift so that they can, for instance, avoid having two moves in at the same time.
We have a by-law that says you can’t move in or out on the weekend – I’ve seen a young woman screaming dog’s abuse at the concierge when he refused to open the garage gate or lock off one of the lifts because she’d arrived on a Saturday moring – peak time for working people to come and go all day.
Either she or her real estate agent hadn’t read the by-laws or decided they didn’t apply to them. Neither an excuse nor a reason for getting hoity-toity.
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.
So the argument from our strata manager over a lengthy period of time about privacy seems to be total baloney!
I believe the vast majority of strata schemes are not covered by the Privacy Act. However, the strata Act says that contact details must be provided on the strata roll. The strata roll is part of the documentation owned by the Owners Corp and therefore it must be made available to the strata committee and, indeed, any owner who arranges to go the strata manager’s office and see and copy it.
I wouldn’t concern yourself unduly with why your strata manager is being obstructive in this regard. They are either doing their job properly, as per the law, or they aren’t. And if the latter is demonstrably and provably the case, make a complaint to Fair Trading (which you can do as an individual owner) then get rid of them.
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.
-