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Maybe one answer is to tell all owners before any of them get into debt that there could be serious consequences for falling too far behind in their levies.
In that case, they can talk about a payment plan before things get too serious
OR
- Be hit with 10 per cent mandatory penalty interest rates, as dictated by strata law.
- Face having to pay what they owe plus ALL the costs of debt recovery (and there are specialist strata debt recovery firms out there who will do that for you).
- Possibly have their rent income garnisheed (diverted to the strata scheme) until the debt is paid off.
- Possibly have to sell their property as a “distressed” sale if they can’t meet all their financial commitments.
This may sound like a threat but it’s only fair to all owners – including those who pay on time – that everyone knows that not paying your levies is not the free ride that it may seem.
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Apologies for misinformation provided in an earlier post; the owners corp has two weeks in which to publish the minutes of a meeting (which should include the results of a vote).
Section 22 of Schedule 1 of the Strata Schemes Management Act sets out the time frame in which general meetings minutes must be published and votes must be declared.
If possible, the chair should declare the result at the meeting at which the vote has taken place.
Otherwise it would be included in the minutes of the meeting which must be published, one way or another, within 14 days of the meeting taking place.
That means in a scheme of fewer than 100 lots, every owner should be given a copy of the minutes. In a large scheme (>100 lots) they should be given to any owner on request.
The maximum fine for failure to do so is $1100.(1) Records to be kept
The owners corporation must keep full and accurate minutes of its meetings that include minutes of all motions passed at its meetings.
(2) Distribution of minutes and records of motions
Within 14 days after a meeting, the owners corporation must provide copies of the minutes of the meeting in the following manner—
(a) by giving each member of the strata committee a copy,
(b) by giving each owner a copy, if the strata scheme is not a large strata scheme,
(c) by giving an owner a copy, if the strata scheme is a large strata scheme and the owner requests a copy within the period of 14 days.
Maximum penalty—5 penalty units.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 read to change the colour ‘from, and to’ and not as a motion with alternatives ‘A leave it, B change to new”
The alternative to leave it be – the status quo – is implied in a vote to accept or reject a colour change. Vote no to a change to whatever colour that’s been suggested implies a vote against any colour change – at least until a new vote is proposed on a preferred colour change.
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If you don’t attend general meetings in person or by proxy, you won’t get much sympathy on this website
Depends on the reason for non-attendance. People have jobs or are away. Strata managers have been known to schedule general meetings to suit their office hours, not the availability of owners to attend.
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Security cameras (real or fake) and a prominent notice warning “you may be filmed” at most-used access points would provide deterrence. The problem isn’t the sex-workers, it’s their clients.
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I can just see an OC in the Supreme Court. The OC, “but your Honour no one has established it is common property and we have no idea where the common property is”.
And this would only happen if someone was disputing it. Simple logic. How much information do you require the members of your committee to have to hand at any given time? All they need to know is how to access it, if and when required.
I really can’t see the problem here, unless all records of the building have disappeared from every location where they might be held.
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vote results have been provided to the Strata Committee, yet the owners are not able to see these results.
If the document exists then you can apply to your strata manager to go and see it. There’s a statutory fee of about $35 for doing so, so club together with other concerned owners to pay it.
This post has been edited in light of new information – see below.
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The OC via the strata mgr replied threatening me with a costs order at NCAT. (I did not mention NCAT).
The strata manager may have quite reasonably assumed you were planning to go to NCAT since, as you point out yourself, there is no other reason for applying for mediation in a case like this, especially where the two parties are highly unlikely to agree to a compromise.
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See new answer below.
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How can I show that I have exhausted all my options?
If you are in NSW and they have failed or refused to act for two months or more, then seek mediation at Fair Trading with a view to taking action at NCAT, seeking orders under a section 232 “failure to fulfil statutory duties”.
You might also suggest that if the strata manager doesn’t explain the facts of strata life to the chair, then you will also seek the appointment of a statutory manager under Section 238.
That should get their attention, at least.
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I see no reason that NCAT could possibly award the opaque, unresponsive and secretive OC a farthing, let alone what they insinuate they will seek.
If the OC can show that you have no case, and that you knew you had no case but, for instance, merely held a grudge because of behaviour you found unacceptable, that could turn out to be quite a lot of farthings in your debit column. You need to be very sure of your grounds before they “lawyer up” and those billable hours start adding up to your disadvantage. Talk to a lawyer.
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I can’t see where the forum keymaster got the idea you have initiated mediation but if you haven’t then do that for fun.
Your comment is unwarranted. The OP said he’d referred the matter to Fair Trading. What else would he have applied to Fair Trading for? A bus pass? People approach Fair Trading for advice and get none, then they apply for mediation as it is a mandatory prerequisite for action at NCAT (where he clearly intends to take it). Also, this is not this particular poster’s first rodeo, trust me.
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Generally, it’s up to the person or body that’s disputing the status quo to prove that it is erroneous. Otherwise you’d have every man and his dog claiming bits of property that weren’t theirs. You would expect the OC check the facts when they were challenged before they started hiring lawyers to defend something that might be indefensible.
On the other hand, if they had information that contradicted accepted views, you’d expect them to pursue that issue and for the individual owner concerned to start looking for evidence to the contrary.
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(a) Am I correct to read the reply as a threat? If so, what are my options?
It certainly sounds like a threat and your options are varied:
- ignore it and press on;
- abandon your request for mediation (all you can ask from Fair Trading);
- moderate your claim so that it doesn’t fall foul of the “costs” conditions at NCAT, should it ever get that far
(b) If the OC does “seek costs”, I assume they will have to prove that my actions are “spurious” and lodge an application with NCAT for costs? True?
If this is about seeking legal costs for responding to a request for mediation at Fair Trading, that feels like a step too far, since the OC is not required to participate in a mediation that it hasn’t initiated.
If you are referring to subsequent action at NCAT, as this factsheet from Legalvision explains, the bases for NCAT awarding costs are limited and discretionary, however, one of the conditions is that the case was “hopeless, frivolous, vexatious or misconceived”.
On the other hand, if the case does go to NCAT and the OC loses, you should not be charged for any share of the legal expenses through your levies.
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