Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
If there was no general meeting at which the special levy was agreed, then the special levy is invalid. If there was a general meeting then there should be a copy of the agenda and the minutes. Strata searches – turning up at the strata manager’s office and looking through the files – costs $30 or thereabouts.
If you don’t have a strata manager and the strata committee can’t produce a copy of the agenda and minutes, go to Fair Trading and ask for mediation.
If you feel the building is seriously dysfunctional, or there is clear evidence that fraud is involved, apply to NCAT for the appointment of a compulsory manager (but be careful what you wish for).
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.
OK, it’s hardly whitecollar crime, especially when you consider that a lot of these dodgy deals are done with and by tradies.
If you have a genuine concern, identify the payments for work that you think were illicit and send a letter to the strata committee and strata manager asking them to verify that these were legitimate payments.
If you get no reply withing two months, a rejection, or an unsatisfactory response, commence proceedings for mediation at Fair Trading with a view to taking the matter to NCAT. Fair Trading mediation is free but it is a prerequisite for Tribunal action.
If there have been dodgy deals, then those responsible may just refund the amounts rather than have their reputations trashed by exposure at Fair Trading and NCAT hearings.
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.
In what time frame such mediation can be realised? And if the committee continues to ignore the mediator, what can be done?
Section 282 of the Act allows for two months for strata committees to respond to a complaint, so you could take that as a guideline.
If the committee refuses to act or runs down the clock, you can then take action at NCAT, seeking orders (which you couldn’t do before you’d attempted mediation.
By the way, Fair Trading mediators can’t issue orders or instructions – all they can do is facilitate agreements between owners.
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 was wondering if it was possible at an AGM to Table a comment DURING the meeting?
If the item isn’t on the agenda, it shouldn’t be discussed. If it is on the agenda, you can ask that your report should be accepted and minuted, albeit as one side of the story. The other owners may object as they may want to put their point of view too.
That said, it is unlikely that the strata manager or chair would want to air a dispute between two or three owners unless the OC was directly involved.
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.
From the clip you mention, it reinforces the knowledge that most journalists – TV or otherwise – have no idea how strata works.
Putting this simply, so even tabloid TV journos can understand it, if there is a valid by-law in place and residents or their offspring are breaching them, then they could and probably should be issued with notices to comply.
But to be clear:
- Strata schemes can’t fine anybody for anything. A $250 fine from the owners corporation would be unenforceable. It would have to come from the Tribunal (NCAT).
- The OC can only issue notices to comply. A notice to comply is a warning that there are by-laws and residents need to abide by them. If they choose not to, then they can be taken to the Tribunal which may issue fines.
- If the kids are causing a noise nuisance, then the parents could be issued with a notice to comply.
- Same applies to dogs barking and doors slamming.
All of the above behaviour can be moderated. If the residents can’t do that, they can be fined – but only by the Tribunal – for breaking the rules.
If the fundamental rules for living in a high-rise are too onerous, residents should find a house to live in. If they can’t afford to live in a house, they should respect the rules of the shared space where they can afford to live.
It really is as simple as that. Otherwise, the rules or by-laws of strata can be altered by a majority of people who own and live in the community. If you don’t like their rules, try to have them changed or go somewhere else.
If the rules of the strata are being unfairly imposed, then you can argue that at the Tribunal and, if the Member agrees, you shouldn’t be fined.
If the Owners Corp is issuing its own fines, that is illegal. However, as it says at the end of this clip, they are following the law so that is unlikely.
It’s a shame that there’s no strata law to prevent lazy journalists from trotting out half-baked stories based on ignorance and misinformation for the sake of a headline. Do some research, for pity’s sake.
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.
The reply I received from the OC claims they have legal advice supporting their position. How can I dispute this? I suspect that getting a lawyer might cost more than just paying for the rewiring.
Legal advice from whom? The strata manager? The bloke at the chip shop? As a member of the owners corp you are entitled to see all correspondence to and from the OC and the committee, so ask them to send you a copy of the “legal advice”. If it’s from anyone less qualified than an experienced strata lawyer, then you can file it in the “highly dubious” basket.
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’s not the wiring, it’s the fact that it’s embedded in common property. If every owner was left to fix this themselves, then common property ceilings (which are also floors) could be seriously compromised. Your strata committee needs to stop acting like a group of self-interested individuals and start taking responsibility for the whole 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.
I have just noticed that you asked about removing a unit from a strata scheme. If you are talking about one unit in a block, I don’t think that is possible.
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 you are talking about NSW, the 2015 Strata Schemes Management, Regulations and Development acts – which in combination created the mechanisms by which a super-majority in a scheme could vote to dissolve or radically alter the strata plan – became law in 2016.
These are all accessible online through government portals.
Despite the processes being in place, the opportunities for dissent and effective veto are so extensive that very few strata schemes have gone down this road, instead allowing market forces and generous financial compensation to get the backsliders over the line. However, the threat of employing the collective sales laws is hovering in the background if a small minority tries to hold out for selfish gain.
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.
You might be able to sell them on this by mentioning insurers reduce premiums on rewired buildings!
This might get them over the line but the simple fact that they have a legally enforceable duty to maintain and repair common property should be enough. They know this, you’d think, which is why they are arguing that it’s lot property.
You just have to tell them they’re wrong and they can either waste money on lawyers and then fix it anyway, or just fix it.
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.
A dropped ceiling isn’t a common wall …
Didn’t say it was …
The wiring the OC has declined to repair is in a metal conduit embedded in a concrete ceiling (which is also the floor of the unit above, I think).
Then it is common property unless there has been a by-law created (during renovations, for instance) to state otherwise. Start mediation proceedings at Fair Trading – that will sort them out and costs nothing.
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.
Fair Trading’s much-quoted “Who’s responsible …?” document is ambiguous on this as it says that wiring in a ceiling is common property but wiring in a wall that services only one unit isn’t. Complicating the issue is that many apartments have false or dropped ceilings which, according to my block’s lawyers, are technically a wall.
So I would say that if the wiring is embedded in a concrete ceiling, then it is common property but if it is above a dropped ceiling and only serves that unit, then it is lot property. Make sense?
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.
You can’t decline. And the OC has a right of entry to your unit for the purpose of maintaining common property although not for the purpose of stealing your valuables.
If an owner refuses entry, the OC can seek orders granting them entry from NCAT. They can’t just barge in. If the owner still refuses entry in defiance of NCAT orders, then they are in breach of Tribunal orders and can be fined.
The OC or its employees can’t force their way into a unit unless it is a genuine emergency where personal safety or damage to property is immediately at risk.
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.