[Jimmy-T]

AI wrote:

Do people visit strata manager and look at the records available at their offices, or do they just read the strata report provided, which is what I did?

Savvy purchasers pay for a forensic report by an experienced person who will dig through minutes to detect contetious issues and plans, for instance, to change by-laws.

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[Jimmy-T]

TrulEConcerned wrote:

Your concern about one owner “seemingly has a lot of power” is misplaced.

How do you know? Three votes out of 10 is an effective veto on by-law changes that the owner of the three units may not like.  That’s a lot of power for one owner.

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[Jimmy-T]

unit troubles wrote:

I am at a loss as to how to address these issues. It seems a massive task and I don’t know where to start. Am I taking on too much ?

First of all get soemone with some strata savvy to inspect the place and tell you what among these many faults is a dead-set common-property “failure to maintain” issue.

Then get quotes from local contractors on cleaning the place up and repairing broken stuff.

Then put a proposal, with quotes, to your committee or strata manager to clean up at the very least, the base-level stuff. You might even investigate how much it would cost to get a loan to pay for it all.

If the strata committee or strata manage refuse or don’t do anything within two months, start proceedings at Fair Trading with a view to seeking Tribunal orders compelling the committee/manager to look after the property.

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[Jimmy-T]

TrulEConcerned wrote:

If you want to print them later, often it helps if  convert the photos to PDF and then print.

A lot of modern smartphones have a scan function where you essentially take a picture of a document and the phone scans it as a pdf. In Androids it’s often an option on your live camera settings.

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[Jimmy-T]

Tony Montana wrote:

Should you be allowed to photograph such, when attending at to inspect?

You can in NSW. The Act says this:

(4) A person entitled to inspect a document may take extracts from, or make a copy of, the document but must not, without the consent of the owners corporation, remove the document from the custody of the owners corporation.

 

However in Victoria, it says this:

146 Availability of records

                (1)  The owners corporation, on request by a lot owner, a mortgagee of a lot, a purchaser of a lot or the representative of a lot owner or mortgagee or purchaser of a lot, must make the records of the owners corporation required to be kept under this Division available to that person for inspection at any reasonable time, free of charge.

                (2)  The owners corporation may at the request of a person entitled to inspect the records and on payment of a reasonable fee provide a copy of any record of the owners corporation.

                (3)  A fee determined by the owners corporation for the purposes of this section must not exceed the prescribed maximum fee.

Now, does “provide a copy” mean allow you to photograph or scan it? It would depend on the individual manager. As for a reasonable fee, again, it would depend a lot on the strata manager.  Use your phone if you can.

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[Jimmy-T]

unit troubles wrote:

I requested the Strata Roll from the Strata Manager, as per STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 182 & her reply was :  ” ….. In accordance with the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, the strata roll can only be requested/sent to the Committee ” Is she correct? .

Yes and no. She may choose only to SEND the strata roll to the committee but she must let you see it and copy it.

I’m having the same problem with our strata manager (let’s call them BigStrata) who are twisting themselves inside out to even prevent the committee from being given the strata roll for my investment unit on the South Coast.

They even tried to deceive my fellow office-bearers, implying that in these columns I had written that strata managers didn’t need to hand over the strata roll to the committee, when in fact I had written that they don’t need to hand it over to ordinary owners but they do have to make it available for inspection and copying.

Why would they not want the committee to have the mail addresses of strata owners? Could it be that they don’t want the committee to contact owners – which may well be an issue in your case?

Their excuses so far have been that we don’t need it, it’s private and we didn’t make a formal application under the terms of Section 61 of the Act (see below).

So for your purposes, here’s what you (and your strata manager) need to know:

We know there should be an electronic version of the strata roll so it would be possible to email it, if necessary:

176 Form of records
(1) The strata roll and other records required to be made or kept by an owners corporation must be made or kept in electronic form.

We know the strata roll has to be maintained and that it MUST have the postal addresses and email addresses of the owners:

178 Content of strata roll
(1) Information about lots The following information must be recorded in the strata roll in relation to a particular lot in the strata scheme—
(a) the name of the holder of the estate …
(b) an address for service of notices,
(c) an Australian postal address, and an email address if the holder has one, if not provided as the address for service,
(d) the name of the holder’s agent (if any) appointed in accordance with this Act and the agent’s address for service of notices.

Now, we come to the tricky bit.  As an owner you are entitled to inspect all the strata documents but the strata manager may choose not to SEND you a copy as that is not spelled out in the Act.

182 Requests for inspection of records of owners corporation
(1) Persons who may inspect

An owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee of a lot in a strata scheme, or a person authorised by the owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee, may request the owners corporation to allow an inspection to be carried out under this section.
(2) Form of request The request must be made by written notice given to the owners corporation and be accompanied by the fee prescribed by the regulations.
(3) Items to be made available for inspection
The owners corporation must make the  following items available for inspection by the person who makes the request or the person’s agent—
(a) the strata roll,
(b) any other records or documents required to be kept under this Part etc etc etc

But there is a clear process by which they must allow you to see and copy the documents:

183 Inspection of owners corporation documents
(1) An inspection under this Division is to take place at the time and place, or by the means, agreed on and, failing agreement, at the parcel at a time and on a date, or by the means, fixed by the owners corporation under this section.
(2) If an applicant and the owners corporation fail to reach an agreement within 3 days after the owners corporation receives the application, the owners corporation must immediately give the applicant a written notice fixing a specified time (between 9 am and 8 pm) on a specified date (not later than 10 days after the owners corporation receives the application), or a specified means, for the inspection to take place.
(3) The means for inspecting documents may be in person or through electronic access to the documents or any other means agreed on or fixed under this section.
(4) A person entitled to inspect a document may take extracts from, or make a copy of, the document but must not, without the consent of the owners corporation, remove the document from the custody of the owners corporation.

So, looking at that section, if the strata manager refuses to send you the strata roll then they have to make arrangements for you OR SOMEONE APPOINTED BY YOU to see the document and photocopy it or scan it into your phone.

Does that help?  More on your actual dilemma later.

61 Procedure for requiring information from strata managing agent
(1) An owners corporation is to require information from a strata managing agent under this Division by written notice given to the strata managing agent.
(2) The notice must specify a member of the strata committee to whom the information is to be delivered.
62 Offences
(1) A strata managing agent must comply with a notice to provide information under this Division by giving a written statement, containing the information required, within 14 days after the notice is given.
Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 No 50 [NSW]
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.
(2) A person is not guilty of failing to comply with the notice if reasonable cause for the failure is shown.
(3) A strata managing agent must not knowingly provide information that is false or misleading in a material particular in a statement given in response to a notice to provide information under this Division.
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.

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[Jimmy-T]

Strata Ken wrote:

I find the idea that different classes of owners will be treated differently a bit difficult.

I got the feeling that Mr Chandler shared that discomfort, but he has had to be ruthlessly pragmatic.

Strata Ken wrote:

What isn’t clear is how much the banks are going to receive from the sale of the property.

Well, they are just going to get back the money they lent.  I think they stopped charging interest some time ago (although I may be wrong). But if the Supreme Court hadn’t blocked the collective sale, and the owners had been able to walk away from all their debts, you can pretty much guarantee that would have been the end of unsecured strata loans in Australia for a long time to come.

Strata Ken wrote:

It seems that if a significant proportion of the owners decide that neither meets their expectations then they can just leave it sitting there.

Yes, but they would still be liable for ongoing levies and a share of the remediation costs (somewhere north of $25 million, I believe).

Strata Ken wrote:

Our strata has bylaws which specify what is to happen when unpaid levies exceed a threshold. May strata is in breach of theirs.

Not sure what you mean by the last sentence but it seems the owners who dutifully paid their levies will be financially worse off relative to those who didn’t because the latter’s debts will be forgiven while the paid levies won’t be refunded.  Have a listen to this week’s podcast (up later).

Strata Ken wrote:

This also shows a deficiency in strata law.

You seem to have forgotten the word “another”.

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[Jimmy-T]

Firstly, you can’t deny owners access to facilities, even when they are way behind in their levies.  So, while it’s unlikely that any scheme would link accounts to access in this way, I have two thoughts – Robodebt and Mr Bates Vs the Post Office.

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[Jimmy-T]

It was a recording of an interview with the Building Commissioner.  Were we supposed to run it past you first for your approval?  Or send you the tape so you could comment on it? You’re commenting on it now (but not in any way that adds to anyone’s understanding of the issues).

I would happily have lined up an interview with you so you could put your point of view but, you know, after this posting, your tone and your accusations I might deny myself that pleasure.

FYI, John Engeler is the head of Shelter NSW – the charity for homeless people.

Oh, and the government didn’t pay us and we didn’t pay them (strange idea!).  Maybe if you moderated your language and eased back on your wild accusations more people like me would give you more airtime.

And finally, I don’t think this is a great outcome for anyone, but my opinion counts for nothing.

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[Jimmy-T]

The Hood wrote:

I like it when the keymaster takes the SHAME stick to the system. Don’t agree with a lot of the keymaster solutions but still when it comes to the use of the shame stick there should be much more of it.

Appreciated. We tend to be on the same page more often than not – and it’s always fun and games when we’re not.

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[Jimmy-T]

Also, you can look at Airbnb’s page for your area but whether that’s a “true figure” is open to debate.

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[Jimmy-T]

Strata Ken wrote:

How does using a law firm, compare to doing it yourself.

How long is a piece of string? There are different kinds of lawyers offering different services and with different approaches.  Our sponsors  Sachs Gerache and Bannermans are among the most effective and experienced strata lawyers you are ever likely to encounter, but they have different approaches to issues.  Our good friend Amanda Farmer, who has her own podcasts, only represents individual owners, rather than owners corproations, these days.

Another good pal, Franceso Andreones – former top notch strata lawyer, now a consultant –   has a website you might want to visit. Or you could just Google “strata consultant” but be warned, some of the pages that pop up are thinly disguised portals for strata managers and lawyers.

As for doing it yourself, the Tribunal was supposed to be a lawyer-free zone and that lasted just as long as it took for the Members to realise they were spending more time explaining the law to the applicants and defendants than they were listening to the details of the cases. You can still do it yourself but be prepared for a situation where the other side has a lawyer who will run rings around you and the Tribunal member.

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[Jimmy-T]

If you dig around in Google and focus on local newspapers, these figures can pop out.  I’m trying to find access to the figures on the NSW STRA register but I’m not having much luck, so far.

 

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[Jimmy-T]

Strata Ken wrote:

It isn’t going to read a book on ethics and decide that we are killing the planet and should end humans existence.

I just spent two hours of my life that I won’t get back listening to a philosopher talking about the implications of AI.  Apparently among the first warnings were concerns voiced by Alan Turing (of Enigma Code fame), back in 1951 who warned that we might have to control super-intelligent machines some time in the future.

The fear may be exaggerated but it’s not irrational.  If you set machines to rid the planet of its greatest dangers, the logical answer would be to eradicate humans.

On a strata scale, imagine if you came home, you hadn’t paid your levies and, because of a “glitch”, the computer had cancelled your key fob.  Tell me you truly believe that has never happened.

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[Jimmy-T]

There are few misconceptions in this post – no criticism, you are not alone.

Firstly the “warning letter” is called a Notice To Comply and you will find the official (and only acceptable) form HERE.

The form, quite reasonably, asks you to state the by-law that is being breached.  If you don’t have a by-law (such as one about behaviour on common property) then you have a problem.

If you issue an NTC and it is ignored, your next step is to go to the tribunal (NCAT) to seek penalties and/or orders. With a properly issued NTC – agreed at a committee meeting or issued by a strata manager – you do not need to go through Fair Trading.

If you don’t have an appropriate by-law, then you probably do have to go through the Fair Trading mediation process before you can go to the tribunal.

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