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Stratafied said
“Full stop”. What does that mean even? This is a discussion board. Happy to debate opinion and put up ideas however that is not really an effective way to have a conversation as it comes across as slightly rude. I will assume however you didn’t intend that.
No offense intended Stratafied. Merely stating that the issue should be very black & white. Either it is allowed (and all owners therefore would be purchasing with this in mind) or it isn’t (and the multitudes of owners commenting in these pages against short term letting of their apartments are rightly aggrieved and should expect councils to take action).
I agree with Overit.
Australian wildlife experts would not suggest you do not feed the wildlife if they though this was “helping correct this imbalance” KP.
Yes, degradation of habitat is a huge issue but this is definitely not the solution.
Hi Stratafied,
If the principle of a managing agency have misappropriated the owners corps funds then they should be held accountable. I think there are government assurances in place also which will cover any losses per the Property Stock and Business Owners Act.
Remember that it is not the strata engineers and strata managers whose shoddy building practices caused the defects however you should expect a good manager to provide advice regarding processes in place to follow up and rectify defects in a timely manner. Unfortunately owners corporations sometimes ignore this advice and elect not to engage lawyers / engineers / consultants etc to adequately address the issues as it appears costly at the time.
Check previous minutes of committee and general meetings as the OC may have elected to not follow the legal pathway.
If the OC was not provided with advice from the agent then they may not necessarily be negligent, just a poor agent…
If you believe that short term rentals will fix your issues with poor tenants and unpaid levies you could apply to council for modification of building consent. If zoning and/or development approval does not allow it then the practice is illegal. Full stop.
The owners corporation will have authority to select tiles as they are considered common property. They should select tiles to match as close as possible. The quote they have approved for the works should specify this.
If you wish to have different tiles, then offer to pay the difference in price. It is unlikely there will be any objection from the other owners.
BTW – if you want to insist on access via scaffold on the outside you could also offer to pay for the scaffold hire but this is likely to be more expensive than the tiling works.
KP & PC – does Qld or ACT legislation say anything about if no owners turn up for an AGM at all? Happens sometimes with smaller blocks & investment owners.
So guys, there is clearly circumstances where it is preferable to get works done now rather than later.
The issue remains to be – if you want or need the works done now, you have two options. Special Levy or Strata Finance.
Strata Finance works for some however an owners corporation must demonstrate to the loan company that they have raised levies sufficiently to budget for the repayments including interest. This will be a condition of approval for the loan facility. Given that these loans are unsecured you will often see interest rates of over 12% (not sure what Lannock et. al. are currently offering). All owners will need to contribute to the repayments including the interest component by way of increased levies according to their unit of entitlement.
On the other hand many owners corporations will prefer to raise a special levy to carry out works now. If some owners do not have cash up front, a secured loan or extension on their mortgage to pay the special levy will cost them a lot less in interest repayments over the course of their loan.
The other issue is the heightened confusion and uncertainty added to prospective purchasers when they see strata loans disclosed as opposed to special levy payments.
Andy – s117 is the3 appropriate clause of the Act whereby you can take action against owners for the behaviour of their tenants however the first point of call will be enforcement of by-laws. Only when there is an ongoing pattern of complaints to the tenants and owners with the owners failing to take action will you be able to go after the owners.
Whale – Whitlam v. Hannah may be relevant in some ways but was not about s.117. The case was re a Noise Abatement Order against the owners who demonstrated a very long and ongoing failure to reduce noise by a long line of short term, over crowded tenants. It was found that the way the lot owners advertised and leased their unit had a considerable impact on the cause of the ongoing noise issues.
Hi Jimmy,
NCTI, IST, OCV ect. now all come under the bannerof Strata Communities Australia so there is now a focused Australia wide group. There are owners chapters also so they are not only for Strata Managers…
What right does an executive committee have to authorise an addition to common property?
If there is an MDU Agreement in place I don’t think it would be worth the paper it was written on unless approved by a special resolution at a general meeting.
IMO the short answer to your question is, unless any of the installations were approved via a special resolution, the owners corporation would have the right to reinstate common property to its former state (i.e. remove any unauthorised installations on common property).
As an owner you have a right to carry out a search of the books and records of the owners corporation including copies of reports and correspondence received and sent on behalf of the owners corporation. You need to book the inspection with the strata manager (if you have one) or the secretary and pay the fee prescribed by the regulations. If no email correspondence is included in the files, insist that it is printed for you to read.
Also, as an owner you have a right (as long as you have no outstanding levies) to request any motion you wish to be placed on the agenda of the next general meeting. If you provide the written request to the secretary (or strata manager if they have this function) prior to the agenda being posted and they are obliged to add the motion to the agenda.
In general terms though the best way to ensure you are constructively participating in the process is to nominate for the EC. At the very least you have a right to attend and observe EC meetings (and if allowed to by the chairperson, participate in the discussions).
(In NSW) Section 65B only allows an OWNER to be granted license to use common property. This is an important distinction.
An owners corporation can LEASE an area of common property as per section 25 of the Strata Schemes (Freehold Development) Act 1973 pursuant to a special resolution being passed. A lease can be with an owner, a tenant, or an unrelated 3rd party (such as a Telco company wanting to place a tower on your roof). The lease can contain condition including termination and payment of rent.
A lease will also be registered on the common property title such as to disclose the arrangement.
It is also worth considering that any income an owners corporation receives from a third party such as a lease arrangement (not levy income) is treated as taxable income in the individual owners hands. Individual owners are required to disclose their portion of the lease income on the annual tax return statement despite the fact that the income is not being paid to them individually.
Thank for the update Whale. I agree with Jimmy’s stance that you would still require a proxy form appointing someone physically attending the meeting for the votes to be counted.
Another thought is, how would you deal with a motion that is amended at the meeting? If the owners at a meeting agree to the wording of a motion being changed then this could easily affect the voting intention of those who have filled out on-line voting forms prior to the meeting.
In my view, if I was the holder of a proxy form with clearly set out voting instructions I would likely abstain from voting on an emended motion (whilst exercising proxy voting).
Could Kanga or anyone else out there advise how this is dealt with in Qld legislation?
JT – I assume Slap Shot’s first comment is referring to the “topic” being “EC and Strata Manager decided not to attend mediation”. I am pretty sure I have seen previous posts from Slap Shot possibly referring to the same issues (specifically the “insurance claim”.
Slap Shot – there is no reason for the OC to pay the strata manager hourly rates to attend a mediation session where the parties do not believe any common ground exists OR if there is already a process in place to bring about a resolution to the issue in dispute.
I treasurer can not claim categorically that there will be no expenditure from the sinking fund. Perhaps they did not expect any expenditure but this is different.
Voting rights have no correlation to unpaid miscellaneous invoices only unpaid/overdue levies. If you are making levy payments, ensure that you specify that the payments are for levies only and NOT the miscellaneous invoice.
If the OC believes that the gate was damaged by an impact from a vehicle they should lodge a claim with the insurance company for accidental impact damage. Feel free to give them the details of the removalist company and both parties insurance companies can fight it out. No reason for you or the EC to get involved any further. Unless you intentionally damaged the gate personally there is no reason for you to be held liable.
If the water penetration can be rectified with an outlay of around $3k this is likely to be more cost effective than lodging and fighting over a builders warranty claim. It will undoubtable fix the issue much sooner than following the insurance claim/litigation path. Ultimately the OC are responsible to maintain common property and if the easiest, quickest and most commercially viable option to do this is to pay for the repairs themselves then there is not reason to lodge builders warranty claims.
As for asking for a compulsory appointment of a strata manager, be careful what you wish for. The strata manager will be given ALL powers of the OC with NO voting rights by ANY owners. This only ever results in special levies…
Although sending communications and serving notices via email makes perfect sense these days it is currently not supported by the NSW legislation. s236 of the Act sets out the manner in which an owners corporation may serve notice on others. This section does not include email communication.
It is somewhat curious then that our legislators chose to include by law 22 in the 2010 Regulations when it is not consistent with the Act.
I am sure that his will be addressed when a new Act comes before parliament (which we have now all been discussing for years – next year maybe?).
In practical terms though if owners agree in writing to receive notices by email, an email address is provided and you choose to adopt by-law 22 of the 2010 regulations there would seem to be no risk involved in following this path.
A couple of further points to consider though…
- Your strata managing agent will need to have a system which easily allows them to email notices. There system will be set up for the current provisions in the Act however many agents are forward thinking enough to have the facilities in place at present. If yours don’t then find one who does.
- This may not necessarily save the owners corporation a lot of money as many agents charge disbursements for sending emails (per email) so even though you are not paying for printing & postage they may still get you in the end anyway.
Lets hope that the new Act will be consistent with the 21st century!