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Strata Community Association (the strata managers’ professional body) says this in its “Who’s responsible …” document:
Any pipe, cable, telephone, television, internet wires, ducting, plugs, electrical wiring, light fitting, power point sockets or the like that is for the exclusive use of the lot, then if it breaks within the lot it is an Owners responsibility to repair.
Any pipe, cable, telephone, television or internet wiring, ducting, plugs, electrical wiring, light fitting, power point sockets or the like that services more than one lot, if it breaks outside the lot or in a wall, floor or ceiling that abuts to either common property or another lot it is an Owners Corporations responsibility to repair.The strata manager’s the one whose got it wrong. Although it doesn’t spell that out succinctly, if the cabling is in the common property ceiling/floor, then it’s not in the lot. If it’s not in the lot, it’s not the owner’s responsibility.
The part of the cable that’s in common property is owners corp responsibility, until the point that it enters lot property, regardless of how many lots it services. The same principle applies to water pipes.
By the way, there’s an electrical and fire safety issue here and that alone should tell you that the perished cabling can’t be lot owner’s responsibility.
If the strata manager still disagrees, arrange a mediation at Fair Trading with a view to a Section 232 order at NCAT for failure to fulfil a responsibility. That should sort them out.
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It would be interesting to know exactly why the strata manager issued this ultimatum but, given as I am to being allergic to threats, I would ask them why they did so and then politely invite them to take the door marked “exit”. Even if they are 100 per cent right, that is no way to run a business or a strata scheme.
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Perhaps Flat-Chat could inform the incoming Minister for Fair Trading just what needs to be done.
Way ahead of you. Have a listen (or read) of this week’s podcast.
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The Owners Corporation (body corproate) can’t do anything without the OK from VCAT (unless it’s a dire emergency requiring immediate action).
The best thing you can do now is call an experienced strata lawyer and you might also inform the upstairs neighbour that that’s what you intend to do and you will be seeking all costs as well as remediation.
The issue with the store room seems complex. Call a strata lawyer.
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There is another possible action – a Section 232 order compelling the strata committee to fulfill their duties. This can be triggered by an official request from you which is either denied or ignored for two months.
If they deny or ignore past the threshold, you commence proceedings asking for mediation at Fair Trading. If you fail to get a written agreement to do the work within a certain time, then you proceed to NCAT.
By the way, I would love to hear from anyone who has pursued a section 232, either successfully or otherwise.
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My first thought is to find out why a motion that was compiled in consultation with your strata manager was then ruled out of order on the advice of the same strata manager or their representative.
That aside, the language is a bit woolly. “That consideration be given to look into …” does not require any action. It’s asking the committee to think about having a think about doing something.
A stronger motion would be something like: “That a sub-committee be formed to investigate the processes and costs involved in converting the SEPP55 Development Approval of the scheme to a standard strata scheme, and to gauge the level of support for such a plan, with the strata committee to report back to a general meeting within [insert reasonable time frame here].”
By the way, I’m not sure of the legalities here but the easiest way may be to dissolve the strata scheme, using the processes of Part 10 of the Strata Schemes Development Act which, initially at least, only requires that you make a proposal to the committee to which they must respond within 30 days.
Consulting a strata lawyer would be a good idea – getting the committee to do it and pay for it would be even better.
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A good place to start would be our friends at Wattblock who help owners corps to do exactly what you want and with other advice such as how to save energy in the first place.
You might also contact the Owners Corporation Network where you are pretty much guaranteed to find other owners who have faced similar issues – and then you can campaign to get things improved.
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only a registered energy provider can charge for electricity. So the OC cant put an electricty meter on a power point and charge a lot owner.
Not so. Reading the Australian Energy Regulator’s information on exempt networks, owners corporations are deemed exempt from those legal provisions, both generally and specifically for EV charging, provided they are not adding a surcharge to the costs.
Also how do they know it was that lot owner who used the electricty. etc etc
At a very basic level, you can have a padlock on the powerpoint. It’s not rocket science.
Until an EV charging system is installed you have to consider the situation as this.
No, you really don’t. We need to stop placing imaginary obstacles in the way of providing clean energy for current and future car owners. One minute it’s exploding batteries, the next it’s non-existent regulations. You should read what horse and carriage owners used to say about cars when they first became popular.
No different if its electricity.
If electricity supply is no different from water, that kind of blows your whole argument out of the … um … water. But it is different and it has different regulations and they allow owners corps to charge costs of individuals’ use of OC power, provided the OC isn’t making a profit on the electricity that’s on-sold.
Any other systems will require an augmented supply. In this case, a whole of strata approach should be taken as its likely in the future more users will want this capability.
Many schemes, particulary small ones, are taking an incremental approach to this.
Stage one: let owners use overnight charging or install their own charging system at their own expense, with metered costs charged back to the car owner.
Stage two: If there is enough demand, install the infrastructure for a supply and charging system.
Stage three: If prospective demand is high enough, explore the possibilites of an embedded network which includes supply, distribution and charging.
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There is no need for a General meeting, at the next committee meeting just let the committee decide on the positions.
All true but I think the vacation of the chair and election of a new one would have to be on the agenda for the committee meeting. And yes, one person can hold multiple offices.
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could they put power usage meter on the powerpoint in their car space they use to record : date, time & power used to charge their Tesla and reimburse the OC for the electricity used till the bylaws are passed in 8 months time ?
Absolutely. And make sure they know that you can seal off the power supply if they just try to “steal” the electricity. There’s a lot of info about EV charging here on the website so have a look around.
And think about contacting our strata law sponsors who will be able to offer you an off-the-peg by-law that may be more reliable than a second-hand one for a different building.
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Section 26 of the Victorian Residential Tenancy Act sets out what rems there should and shouldn’t be tenancy contracts. At the end it says this:
(3) A failure to comply with this section does not make the residential rental agreement illegal, invalid or unenforceable.
Section 29 details the landlords’ obligations to provide a signed copy of the tenancy agreement to the tenant. Failure to do so could result in a $4623 fine.
I don’t think your landlord would be wise to breach basic tenancy law when they could be fined for not adhering to it in the first place.
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