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Your best bet is to contact NSW Tenants Union via its website and they will advise you on your best tactics moving forward. But I would think as a general principle, it would probably be accepted that anything that hasn’t been repaired when it should have been is going to deteriorate faster, and that is on the landlord, not you.
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AI is partly right. There is a clause in strata law that says common property must be repaired and maintained – by the owners, not the strata manager.
Section 106 says:
(1) An owners corporation for a strata scheme must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
That section also allows some exclusions, but only if it would be inappropriate to undertake the repairs (whatever that means) and inaction wouldn’t affect the safety or appearance of the building.
The strata manager can pretty much only do what the strata scheme asks them to do, so expecting them to be proactive is a little misdirected. They should, however, be offering advice on what you can do to resolve this.
If the owner refuses to allow the work to be done, the OC could seek mediation and Tribunal orders under section 122 which can lead to the lot owner being required to allow access for work that needs to be done under the terms of the Act.
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So you have to make your case in the agenda, by submitting a detailed motion to the SC. Then at the meeting, make your case and vote in favour.
Good idea but the secretary is not legally obliged to include any owner’s motion on the agenda of a strata committee meeting, and the chair is not obliged to allow owners to speak at the meeting unless a majority on the committee vote otherwise. If, as in the OP’s case, the owner is “at loggerheads” with the committee and its officers, that may make any such approach futile. You can’t get turkeys to vote for Christmas. The situation for strata general meetings is different – the secretary IS obliged to include any motions and explanatory material (with a limit of 300 words) but the chair can rule the motion out of order, an action which should be recorded.
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Sorry, I meant to write more but I’m overseas and my internet service crashed. Strictly speaking, depending on local council rules, you shouldn’t be living permanently in a serviced apartment. It all has to do with the size of the windows and other things like corridor widths (honest!).
But how eould anyone in authority know? There will be people who own in or service the building who are making money from obeying the rules. They might be inclined to alert the authorities out of civic duty or spite. Or you might do it for years and no one knows or cares. The thing is, are you prepared to risk being dobbed in and having to move and sell so you can buy somewhere else.
I bet there are people doing it. I just wouldn’t be one of them.
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If the secretary is part of the problem then do realize the secretary has no obligation to include such a motion on the agenda.
No legal obligation, perhaps, but it would be part of an accumulation of evidence that secretary on any other office bearer or the whole damned committee is not acting in good faith or in the best interests of the strata scheme. You build a case by showing a pattern of behaviour, that way no single incident is judged in isolation, where the letter of the law prevails over action and intent.
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It’s risky
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There are two lawyers who sponsor this website – Bannermans and Sachs Gerace. I would recommend both of them. They are both really good (or they wouldn’t be on this site) and they hate me saying this but if you want a fight, go to Bannermans but if you want a mediated resolution, maybe Sach Gerace.
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Depends what she’s throwing.
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You are entitled to see a floor plan because the changes to the layout could affect the amenity of adjacent flats (especially the one below). The floor plan changes will also have to be approved by your local council via a DA. Even if the annexures aren’t required as part of the by-law, they should be provided before the by-law is approved. The Tribunal will only overturn refusal of permission if the grounds are unreasonable. The renovator needs to provide all the information you want or face the prospect of refusal.
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Strata committees are very much left to run their meetings and votes as they see fit, but there a plenty of ways to force them to change if they’re not doing the right thing.
The most obvious option is to present a motion to the committee itself, saying that all votes, including who voted for what, should be notified to the committee members.
If that fails, you put the same motion on the agenda of your next AGM. If the secretary and or chair baulks at that, there are mechanisms available for removing them from the committee either by a majority vote of owners or via the Tribunal.
Meanwhile, you might consider putting a motion to your next AGM that the committee reveals the number of outstanding issues with water leaks and declare what they plan to do about them.
You won’t make yourself very popular but it sounds like that ship may already have sailed.
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In the meantime, if she physically assaults someone or their property, that’s a Police matter. If her behaviour is sufficiently out of line that you suspect a serious mental health issue, you could ask the Police to do a welfare check.
That seems to be a bit over the top. This sounds like a self-important busibody rather than a physical assault risk. The law allows a majority of owners to vote to remove a committee member from the committee at an EGM. Just proposing and seeking support for such an action may be enough to curb her more excessive behaviour. Have a look at this from our sponsors Bannerman Lawyers.
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If the first repair didn’t fix the problem, they have to move onto the second repair.
The problem was that the first repair didn’t correctly identify the problem, not so much that it didn’t fix it.
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