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Principle does not equal lawful.
Remember, despite the fact you bought the cooktop, what you are doing is replacing the LANDLORDS property.
As a tenant you are protected from mischievous claims by the landlord. This means you are can’t be charged for fair wear and tear on items.
If I recall , earlier posts suggested to negotiate with the landlord about the replacement cost of the cooktop. The cooktop had already served some of its useful life, so it’s not worth it’s full replacement value.But you were advised that that route was probably going to not end well for you, and an alternative was to just replace the cooktop.
Our tenants laws favour landlords, and landlords can play hardball, because they know that if they don’t renew you, or you decide to leave, there are many more like you willing to rent the property.
One can make a claim if one proves negligence.
The onus is on the claimant to prove thst.
You are correct thst tenants should have their own insurance. If they have none they are considered to be self insured. Thst means they accept all the risk.
If you are forced into a court, my best advice is to negotiate a settlement. Even if you are right it’s cheaper than going to court.
if you make a reasonable offer and it’s rejected, at the end of your court case you can bring this up and at least try and get your costs back, even if you lost.
Unless you have missed out some detail, the current contract is void.
A building manager contract requires a vote by the owners corporation. The strata manager alone can’t extend the contract.
Check the minutes from 2021 AGM to see if a vote was taken.
Since the strata manager has acted without authority, it’s their problem to sort it out with the building manager.
I believe building defects period is 7 years.
But it would be hard to attribute a burst pipe as a building defect. Pipes burst all the time for any and no reason.
And who are you going to point the finger at – the builder; the plumber; the pipe manufacturer?
And you,re going to have to convince the OC to take up your case, because you as an individual can’t take the action. Are the OC going to stump up the money to fight this action when the outcome is questionable.
I can see that you are not pleased with paying for this incident. Your best bet may be to claim on your lot contents insurance, as generally insurance policies cover burst pipes.
It’s important to remember the definition of your lot. It’s the cubic space within the dark lines on the strata plan. And it’s between the floor surface and the bottom of the ceiling.
Therefore if the pipes or meter are in the cubic space, it’s lot owner responsibility.If the pipes are embedded in the common property walls or floors or ceilings, they are OC responsibility.
Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, but the definitions have to be framed somehow so thst owners and OC aren’t going to court for the court to decide who is responsible for what.
Whenever you contact a lawyer working for you, the charge clock starts. They bill in six minute blocks.
If you get a whole bunch of owners just calling the lawyer for a chat, or to tell the lawyer how to do their job, you can see that the bill is going to rack up pretty quickly.
It doesn’t have to be the strata manager thst the lawyer takes instructions from. Any person nominated by the committee or owners can be the lead. In the absence of a nominated person, it’s logical for the strata manager to instruct the lawyers.
As I understand it, the appointment of a compulsory strata manager is at the petition of an owner. Remember there are no such thing as strata cops.
The petitioning owner nominates the strata manager to be appointed. The other owners will usually oppose the appointment of a compulsory strata manager, and would not come prepared with an alternate.
So the disaffected owner gets to choose the compulsory strata manager. If it was me, I’d make sure thst manager was responsible.
Having said thst, I spoke to a strata manager about compulsory appointment. He said thst firstly, their fees for such an appointment were several times the normal fee due to the amount of work and responsibilities.
Secondly, he says that they do things “ by the book”. That means that any maintenance is done.
Anecdotally I have heard that since the strata manager is now god, he looks to get the maintenance jobs done, but not necessarily at the lowest cost ie the work goes to their roster of tradies.I don’t believe that a compulsory strata manager would line their pockets, but since there is no committee to question them, the owners don’t get the cheapest prices.
Unless you have good reason, asking for an engineer report is probably a step too far.
You describe that the common property wall has cracked tiles. Request the OC to replace th3 tiles. They then have to do it within a reasonable time.
If the committee is on the ball they will also find out why the tiles are cracking and whilst the tiles are being replaced check the waterproofing.
Dont replace the tiles yourself. By doing thst you are damaging common property, and you could then be responsible for any further rectification required.
As I am in NSW I am unfamiliar with the Victorian legislation, though I am guessing it’s similar to NSW in concept.
The “rules” of a strata are the bylaws. If it’s enshrined in a bylaw, then the OC has the power to have the bylaw enforced. In the case where a perpetrator does not heed a notice to comply, the OC can ask a court to impose fines or directions.
”Rules” drawn up by an OC and not a bylaw, are unenforceable in any way. You could act counter to the rules and the strata has no weight to force one to be compliant.
However, many strata set up rules to help run the building. For example, circulate the car park in a clockwise direction. It makes traffic management easier, but if someone wants to go the other way, the OC can’t do anything about it.
86 strata
in NSW we have the same as you describe.
But this is not a strata report. A strata report, as we understand it in NSW , is not a mandatory part of purchase. It’s ordered by a purchaser to look at the finances, the minutes, the correspondence and any other records. It usually tells the story of the strata.
I see many properties for sale which have a strata report supplied by the owner. The question I pose is, if you were the vendor, would you commission a report that paints an adverse picture of that strata?.
Thats why a purchaser should always get their own independent examination of the strata records.
Once a breach of by law is issued, the miscreants are on notice for the next year. If there is a subsequent breach the OC should take the miscreant to court to get an order and/ or get a fine applied
I don’t understand why st least two and possibly three breach notices have been sent. It either indicates an uninformed strata manager or a spineless committee.
Dont worry about the consequences. If people do the action, then they have to accept the consequences as well.
Truleconcerned,
the information you have provided applies before a fence is replaced.
if you read further on the website, the notice to fence can’t be retrospective.
Whilst the dividing fences act is the governing law, it will require a visit to the courts to sort this out as the othe strata has already declined to chip in.
This is an unusual situation and could be easily solved if the other strata had agreed to chip in.
Yes they can.
Your best forum is the AGM.
Also be careful about challenging payments. Committee members generally cannot be paid for doing committee work. However let’s say the treasurer does gardening work. Provided the arrangement is at arms length, payment for such services is proper.
NCAT is not the correct forum for this issue.
Fences are covered by the dividing fences act, so according to 233(1)(b) that’s the forum. I think it goes to the local court. There is a whole website about solving these disputes.
Firstly I understand NCAT awards costs in exceptional circumstances.
In all other courts, costs are awarded without exception on application of the winning party. So firstly you will need to establish to NCAT thst you have exceptional circumstances.
The awarding of costs is governed by some common law principle. I’m not sure of the act or guideline that regulates this.
Your requests for costs can include any reasonable and agreed conditions.
Finally costs usually cover costs of court costs. From my knowledge, expenses for mediation are excluded as it’s usually expected parties engage in mediation before going to court. It’s when you start the court process that costs rack up.
And costs does not include every cent you spent. And if you are self represented, you can’t recover the cost of your time.