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FACT: No NSW strata manager has ever lost their licence just for being really, really bad at their job. No SCA member has ever been bumped from that self-serving organisation for the same reason. It’s an body created and maintained to protect strata managers and their service providers, regardless of what other services it may provide.
And that’s fine, until they start telling people (usually via naive journalists) that they represent owners. If that’s the case, how can they justify 20 per cent commissions on mandatory insurance premiums? The SCA-NSW could end that with the stroke of a pen.
And how about embedded networks – a way of transferring the cost of infrastructure from the developers to the off-the-plan purchasers? What do some (but not all) strata managers do? The SCA-NSW’s hierachy issues statements saying they support reviews of the system, at the same time as the companies they own are loading up agendas for the initial AGMs with contracts that the majority of purchasers – especially first-timers – can’t read and wouldn’t understand if they could.
It’s utterly shameful and if you want to test if the SCA-NSW represents owners, take a complaint against a strata manager to them and see whose side they are on.
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I did read somewhere that the current owner has to accept liabilities of previous ownership and thrash it out themselves.
This is true – that’s why these agreements are enshrined in by-laws, so that they survive transfer of ownership. However, there are avenues available to the new purchaser to pursue the vendor for non-disclosure that a liability existed that they knew about or should have known about.
You could even turn this back on the OC and threaten to take it to NCAT for failure to fulfil its responsibilities – i.e. pursue debts incurred by the previous owners. That’s a long shot but it might get them to back down if there is no evidence that they previously sought the payments from the owner.
Either way, you should at least chat to an experienced strata lawyer to discover what your options are and find out if the cost of putting things right would be more than just paying the bill.
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I have been reading up on by laws and understand they CAN be amended retrospectively by the OC.
Yes, but with common property by-laws (which this appears to be) usually this is only with the written consent of all parties – including the lot owner to whom it applies – or by an order from NCAT to correct a clear anomaly.
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I am still deeply confused. Could you provide a timeline on what happened when in terms of this studio – forget all the extraneous tuff about what other people did aor said.
When and where was it constructed? Was permission sought, given or refused, and if given, under what terms? What has triggered this dispute now? And what is the claim being made and by whom?
Keep it simple and we are more likely to be able to advice. Bullet points would be best.
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I wonder how your committee would react if you asked them to remove the bins permanently or you will charge them back rent for the proportion of your car space that they have been using without your permission.
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It is not our desire to take formal proceedings, how do we prod the OC into taking action?
Why would anyone do anything if you tell them you aren’t going to exercise your legal rights?have a think about what your options are, ranging from a collective decision to engage a project manager (for instance) or direct the strata manager to work out a remediation plan.
If the strata committee/OC balks at that, then you really have to consider action at VCAT to force their hand. But before that happens, you can give them the choice – save yourself the legal costs and just fix it, or fight this and still have to fix it anyway.
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We’ve just been told that NSW has new rules that state only cars can be our personal car spaces.
This is a new one on me. Anyone else heard about this new “rule”? Sounds unlikely.
Supposedly we can no longer store bikes, surfboards, boxes of anything etc. Is this true? Can we get around it? AFter all we own our own spaces so as long as there’s nothing flamable or dangerous shouldn’t we be able to use it as we like?
Not really. If the stuff in your parking spot is a fire risk or makes the car park look unsightly, the owners corp can enforce by-laws requiring you to clear it up. What’s unsightly? Whatever the strata committee or ultimately the majority of owners decide.
This is the standard or model by-law but your scheme may have its own variation:
12 Appearance of lot
(1) The owner or occupier of a lot must not, without the prior written approval of the owners corporation, maintain within the lot anything visible from outside the lot that, viewed from outside the lot, is not in keeping with the rest of the building.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.
Is your car space actually your lot or is it an allocated area of common property?
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Just to clarify, what kind of stuios is this – a flat or an art studio. And on what legal basis is the OC demanding insurance premiums retrospectively? Sounds to me as if it may be personal.
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The word I have from on high is that this provision was never intended to be enacted in the first swathe of reforms and there’s a bit of to-ing and fro-ing still to be done between Fair Trading and the A-g’s department (which looks after Tribunals) to lock down the precise wording on the new regulation.
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As I am constantly telling readers of this website, there are no stratakops. However, yo do this, no one from Fair Trading is going to come along and demand that the upstairs neighbours restore the old carpet or refund money. You could push this through as a simple accounting exercise. Owners A want to replace the carpet. The OC will pay for replacement, up to a certain value, but will only do so at a flexible date in the future which will be triggered by the recarpetting of the other lift lobbies.
Upstairs neighbours recarpet and pay for it. Share of agreed recarpetting (or part of it) is recorded as a debt by the OC to the people upstairs. Two years later, rest of building is recarpetted, Upstairs neighbours’ levies are reduced by their share of total recarpetting, established earlier, because the OC effectively owes them that money.
Complicated but actually simple. Is it totally legal? Who cares? There are no StrataKops. Your only problem is if the upstairs owners sell in the interim and the new owner wants their floor recarpetted at the same time as the others.
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Your situation is not a strata matter, but related to commercial leases. I’d advise consulting a lawyer for the reason that it’s a complicated situation you are in.
Roger, that!
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The whole question of splitting costs is coming up more and more. The law says that all common property costs must be charged to owners according to their unit entitlements. But my investment property has some apartments not serviced by lifts and so only those that are pay for maintenance, under a special contract with the OC.
I’d like to see a situation where, for expensive essential works, they could be split between those who can pay special levies up front a(and therefor don’t pay interest) and those who need a strata loan to avoid having to sell their homes.
In this case, all you need is an agreement that the upstairs owners will be allowed to carpet at their own expense and it will only become common property after a reasonable time set out in the contract. But then, I’m no lawyer.
My other question is, how was the landlord of the flat able to walk away without compensating for the damage caused by their tenants?
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other places say they only get to vote if there is a tie
That’s a new one on me. As far as I know, the chair in NSW has a vote, which they can cast at any time, but only one.
It doesn’t make a lot of difference unless the chair’s vote would create a tie which, in NSW would effectively be a veto since a tied vote means the status quo prevails (one good reason for having odd numbers on the committee).
In Victoria, the chair has an extra vote, but only in the event of a tie. For instance, if the vote is 3 v 4 the chair can’t use their extra vote to make it 4 v4 and block the motion. But if the vote is 3 v 3 with their vote, they can use their casting vote for or against the motion.
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