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@scotlandx said:
That may be, but if the damage is due to the negligence or some other act or omission of the owner, then the strata insurer has a claim against that owner. If that were not the case you could go around damaging common property willy nilly. Insurance costs money, every claim you make pushes your premium up. So check with your insurer what their position is, and then deal with the owner and their insurer.Thanks scotlanx,
this is exactly what I did after I received another email ( yesterday ) from the insurance agent saying that Strata is now responsible for the damage to the skirting boards, gyprock and everything else caused by a leaky spigot in the owner’s toilet. It was merely wear and tear, nothing negligent, malicious or criminal.
There is the law, there is commonsense and then there is insurance – the latter having nothing to do with the former !Thanks Jimmy
I am sure that all sane people recognise the evils of passive smoking. I gave up smoking over 20 years ago and I know it is hard to give up but, if you must smoke, do so inside your own home, not outside my bedroom/study.Hi Jimmy,
Thought you must have a spy camera on our units ( lol ). We have a new owner who smokes out the front of our block, stinks up the lift and also smokes on his balcony which adjoins our bedroom.
He is completely thoughtless – for the first few month he ashed over the balcony, letting ash settle on the neighbours balconys and fly screens. A polite letter from one of these owners earned an apology from the wife, albeit to the wrong owners !
My husband asked him if he wouldn’t mind moving to the other end of his balcony, which he did for a short time but some days I can smell the smoke halfway down our hallway. We get a lovely breeze from our front doorway, along our hallway and out the back windows and I do not believe we should have to shut up our house and use fans and A/C for ventilation.
We have a lovely lot of owners here ( 80% owner occupied and we self manage ) but most are elderly and just ” want Everyone to get on “. Nice but they aren’t getting cigarette smells in their places. Our units are extremely well built and if he smoked inside the smell would stay in his unit.
What can I do ?Our letterboxes were vandalised twice before Christmas. Nothing taken, they were just popped open ( as were an adjoining block’s mailboxes ). On police advice, EC have now installed an extra camera but the difficulty remains that the post lady must still have access week days. The letterboxes are between the first front door and the security entry. This area is also where the intercom is located, so sealing it off in the evenings is not feasible. The police said the same vandals had also broken into a so called ” high tech ” letterboxs, so changing the locks will not work.
Hi Jimmy,
Thought you must have a spy camera on our units ( lol ). We have a new owner who smokes out the front of our block, stinks up the lift and also smokes on his balcony which adjoins our bedroom.
He is completely thoughtless – for the first few month he ashed over the balcony, letting ash settle on the neighbours balconys and fly screens. A polite letter from one of these owners earned an apology from the wife, albeit to the wrong owners !
My husband asked him if he wouldn’t mind moving to the other end of his balcony, which he did for a short time but some days I can smell the smoke halfway down our hallway. We get a lovely breeze from our front doorway, along our hallway and out the back windows and I do not believe we should have to shut up our house and use fans and A/C for ventilation.
We have a lovely lot of owners here ( 80% owner occupied and we self manage ) but most are elderly and just ” want Everyone to get on “. Nice but they aren’t getting cigarette smells in their places. Our units are extremely well built and if he smoked inside the smell would stay in his unit.
What can I do ?Hurrah! People who live in apartment buildings will soon be forbidden from smoking outside their buildings’ entrances. A sight we see … um … errr … never because, unlike office workers, they can smoke in their flats or on their balconies, right under the noses of their neighbours.
The much-trumpeted NSW Tobacco Strategy 2012, which was flicked like a spent ciggie into the public health debate a couple of weeks ago, has ducked the issue of ‘fireflies’ who puff their toxic fumes into neighbours homes.
The best it promises is a five-year campaign to “support the implementation of smoke-free multi-unit residential dwellings by strata organisations through the promotion of guidelines.”
Oooh. Guidelines … wowee!
Were we entitled to think there might be more? Well, yes, in fact. The discussion document on which this policy was based quoted a landmark US Surgeon General report on secondary or passive smoking which said second hand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke.
Concentrations of many cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are higher in second hand smoke than in the smoke inhaled by smokers. Most critically for strata dwellers, the evidence is that there is no risk-free level of exposure to second hand smoke which causes heart disease, lung cancer and exacerbates asthma.
So if you have a chain-smoking neighbour in your block, you could be safer leaving your own home and going to a park, a cafe, a pub, a bus stop, an open air swimming pool or a sports stadium where smoking is or will be banned. Oh, and let’s not forget the entrances to buildings.
Yes, some apartment blocks are drifting towards complete smoking bans. But increasingly units are being aggressively marketted in South-East Asia where acceptance of smoking is much higher. In those buildings, non-smokers will be outvoted, guidelines or no.
The answer? Make all new apartment blocks non-smoking by default and let the 17 percent of the population who still smoke go and live in houses where they’re only killing themselves.
UPDATE: More than a week before this went to press I contacted the Health Minister’s office and asked why apartment balconies – which are common property – are not considered public places when it comes to smoking in the same way, say, sports stadiums are. I’m still waiting for a response.
Is the discussion all smoke and mirrors? Have your say here.
Flatchatter is correct. Keep everyone in the loop and at our meeting I did up a handout – entitled ” why we want to change the Strata Management “, that people could take away with them. We also asked people for questions beforehand, so we could be prepared on the night. This saved the same question being asked and answered multiple times.
We had 90% representation at our meeting – either in person or by proxy and the vote to change was unanimous.
The mood after the meeting was positive and now we have 80% owner occupiers in our block everyone is taking an interest.
Our strata is just going through the same issue at present. The EC did all the legwork first so we could write a letter to the owners and offer it as an alternative, especially for hot water, once our huge ( individual ) electric hot water services break down and cannot be replaced ( after 2012 ).
We spoke to the gas company and got a gas fitter to write up a plan as to how the gas would ( or could ) be installed. As we are are mix of townhouses ( easy to install a gas connection ) a multi-storey block and 2 commercial properties – 23 units in total, this was rather complicated. We then polled the owners by mail and asked if anyone objected. Two of us are having the gas installed as I write this and we will then have a costing for other owners. We voted at an EC Meeting to have one gas fitter to do all the work, one plumber = one callout.
This is all part of our larger plan to make our units more efficient. We have installed solar to power all the common areas, lift, etc and gas was another option that we wanted in place. In other words we are trying to be pro-active rather than reactive. Gas was just one option and what swayed some people was the option to have a gas connection for their BBQ's, instead of bulky and potentially dangerous gas bottles.
May I suggest that you do the same – get the quotes, poll the other owners via mail and suggest that connection in the future is an option.
You could also mention that the potential to have gas is a good selling point for any future sale. Two of the recent purchasers in our block both asked about gas hot water and gas cooktops before they bought their units.
Hi,
I think the 20% insurance kickback is a levy by stealth – how many people actually look at the fine print. Last year our Executive shopped around, got our own quotes and now arrange our own insurance. I don't understand the reasoning that if they don't get the kickback that Strata fees would rise, to me that would be a corrupt practice.
Incidentally, it was difficult to get quotes initially as our Strata firm had made nearly 40 claims in an 8 year period for amounts as small as $100 – who does this ? No home owner I know would do this on their own insurance.