Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
As an owner you are entitled to inspect all and any records of the Owners Corporation. Additionally you may appoint any person to do the same on your behalf.
So you can get your own auditor to go through the books.
Mind you , the strata manager may charge you for the privilege, but it’s $34 odd for the first hour.
In Nsw the strata management contract cannot be longer than three years. Before the three year period , or before the expiration date of the contract, the owners need to renew the contract by a resolution at a general meeting. At that time the contract can be voted to another manager.
However looking at the acronyms in your post, I suspect that what has been enacted is a contract for a building manager. Building management contracts are not subject to any time limits. However, whilst the developer can propose a building manager, usually his mate, the contract needs to be confirmed by way of a resolution at the first agm.
Check the minutes of the first agm to see whether the contract was correctly resolved.
Just Asking
The lot certificate of title says:
Lot x in strata plan yyyyy
As I said earlier, everything you need to know about the strata scheme is contained in the strata title certificate.
If they are proving difficult to interpret, get professional advice.
Ive seen some poorly drawn plans. One I have seen makes a specific note that the strata of a lot is the area enclosed by the building, yet the lot owners believe they own their courtyards.
Land Registry Services and its predecessors do not check the correctness of the plans. So it’s often a case of buyer beware.The legislation is The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and specifically a workplace is defined in Section 8.
Referring to the Work Safe website, it says WHS legislation concerns a business or employer. Whilst the ATO considers strata to be an enterprise , strata schemes are not a business.
Therefore the WHS legislation does not apply (unless the strata employs directly say a concierge or an on site building manager and then the workplace is considered to be their office and not the whole building)
And the reason that any tradie on site should have their own insurance is that the strata is not their employer. The tradie is independent or employed by a larger business. The tradie (as sole trader) or the business then is responsible for the WHS needs of the worker. (as well as being responsible for any damage they cause or other event that the strata suffers a loss. But thats another topic)
As a final discussion point, if every location where (say ) a tradie worked was considered a workplace, then every footpath, road, park, etc etc would be a workplace and the respective owner would have to provide a “safe” workplace. That is not the case because the footpath or park is not a place of business.
The strata certificate of title is not just common property. Its a plan of all the property on that block of land.
The certificate of title of the lot does not carry any information related to the strata plan (ie there is no drawing on it) The certificate of title of a lot makes a reference to the strata title documents.
Remember that the Owners Corporation owns all of the land and buildings and a lot owns airspace and some walls.
The lines compose (usually) of thick lines denoting the building outline, Thin lines which are usually denoting boundaries outside of a building. They are always drawn perpendicular to the building. Dotted lines, denoting some physical feature (ie a bend in a fence line) that is not a boundary of a lot.
If there is confusion about the boundaries of a lot, I would seek the services of a surveyor who has good knowledge of the requirements of strata subdivision. They will at least be able to interpret the plan and provide some guidance.
It is a requirement of Land Registry Services that the strata plan defines the area of each lot or part lot. Since it a requirement it has to be on the plan. (That’s not a new requirement as I have seen it on 1970s plans) The strata plans are available from Land Registry Services through one of its agents. Maybe you do not have the complete number of pages (a strata plan extends over a number of pages even for small developments)
A breach notice , technically a notice to comply, requires the nature of the infraction to be specifically identified. Obviously to save confusion as to what the issue is.
If the notice you received did not have this information, I’d argue you had little chance of rectifying the issue.
Similarly, the issue of the notice does not provide the OC the right to rectify the problem. Once a notice is issued, you have a certain time to fix the issue. The OC then has to apply to NCAT for further directions.
I can see that the SM has probably erred in these respects.
So to answer your questions
Yes
Yes.
I would not pay these charges. Let the OC chase you for these costs (probably too small to warrant legal action). You will not be barred from the right to vote at meetings, as you can only be barred if you owe levies.
The SM should have made more effort to tell you of the charges and the action they were taking.
An interesting question.
From my brief perusal of the web, anchors and testing pertain to workplaces.
Generally, strata schemes are not considered to be workplaces. ( yes people work from home in the building, and contractors work on the building, but under legislation, that does not class a strata building as a workplace).
Unless you have a building manager who can come up with the certificates, if I was a contractor I would consider the anchors uncertified and make my own safety arrangements.
I hope someone in the industry (and not a consultant trying to sell his services) can chime in and provide an answer.
The certificate of title of the strata , not the lot contains all the information you need.
The various lines drawn can be confusing.
The strata plan will have a table of all the area of the lots. The areas include the area of the residence, the garage and any courtyards that form part of the lot.
The prolongation you mention generally define the boundary between lots or between a lot and common property. These lines usually are where there is no building to define the boundary.More modern strata plans will have a vigiale (a little curly sign) between the internal lot property and external lot property. It indicates that the lot property continues into the other area.
.If the owner has encroached on common property by enclosing it, issue them with a notice to comply for breaching the common property by law. Alternatively have an exclusive use bylaw drawn up. Since this increases the value of the owners lot, make sure there is some compensation to the OC is paid (yearly rent).
If the enclosed area is common property, then the OC can enter this space at any time in order to do repairs. The lot owner is also in for a surprise, since this is common property, the OC is not responsible for restoring any damage to items the owner put in when effecting repairs.
You can get a strata plan from one of the LPI agents online, but you should have a copy attached to your contract of sale. The strata plan almost never changes so the one you have is good.
I’m not going to suggest that going to NCAT always requires a lawyer, but one needs to be careful when filing claims (in any court).
There is no one in the court scrutinising the claims, so mistakes like this case do occur.
The courts also want to know that a person is not acting off their own bat (rogues), but with the approval of the OC.If unsure, ask a lawyer. It’s probably a few hundred dollars worth spending. You don’t have to engage the lawyer to represent you.
The committee does not need the involvement of the SM to call a SC meeting, nor for that matter any other meeting.
You seem to have the gist of what’s required to call a meeting. I just add that you need to display the meeting notice on the notice board, OR you need to send a notice to all owners.
The minutes need to be taken and published. There is no prescribed form of the minutes, so as long as it’s an accurate record, it’s fine.
And the committee can only resolve matters that are contained in the notice of meeting. You can discuss anything else but not make resolutions.
The secretary is the person who should send out the notices, but anyone can do it provided the secretary puts their name at the bottom.
Normally the Chairman of the OC runs the meeting. In their absence the members present can elect a chair for the meeting.
What you are suggesting is not unusual, and you should be commended for taking such action particularly where the SM is dragging the chain.
And the final word, the SM is not required to be at the meeting. Sometimes they want to be there just to collect their attendance fee (depends on your management contract).
Jimmy is correct if it is an exclusive use bylaw.
However if it is just a bylaw approving certain modifications and embodying the usual clauses about who maintains the modifications, then the by law is valid as it stands.
In a case where a bylaw is registered that is not lawful, or the wrong bylaw is registered, its a bit of a trial to get it reversed.
One method is to hold a GM and revoke the wrong bylaw, and this requires the usual special resolution. You may not get 75% of votes. This method is required as LTI require that a GM has passed the bylaw or its modification.
Second method is to go to NCAT and prove that the bylaw is unlawful/not voted correctly etc and have NCAT issue a directive to change the bylaw, which you then take to LPI.
Joe50
I understand your frustration with the situation and the people involved. However as someone else pointed out demanding things to be done will only make it the other party try to frustrate you further.
Sure you have a right to peaceful enjoyment, but you are the complainant not the police nor the court. Its only the courts who can “Make” people do something.
If it’s a breach of a bylaw, ask the Owners Corporation to issue a breach notice to the tenant with a copy to the landlord. You will need to provide specific details of when these Breaches occurred. The breach notice is framed that way. If the OC refuses to issue the notice, you need to ask as to why. If it’s a lack of will on their part, then you can take the OC to the tribunal and
site section 132cite section 232(2), failure to act, and the ourt will make the OC issue the breach notice.NSW fairtrading is not a court. You can’t approach them to solve your issue. You need to approach NCAT. But be certain of what law you want to tackle the other party on. The courts don’t settle on moral grounds but rather in the law as written. Depending on which laws you claim have been broken, the court may recommand mediation. In cases of strata law that is usually the case.
If you want to try an informal mediation, the apply to your lo so Community Justice Centre. They can try to arrange mediation, but the other party is not obliged to accept.
You need to be prepared to play the long game here. If the troublemaker ignores your requests, then the legal route may be your only option. But be aware that it can get expensive if for example the other party engages lawyers to defend themselves. You stand little chance in a court running your own case against a lawyer (just because of the processes in courts).
And the legal route will take sometime. Due to Covid 19 the courts at the moment are only hearing urgent cases, and there is a large backlog to work through when the courts fully open. Don’t expect to be in a court till next year.
Maybe a more humble approach to the tenant/landlord will get them to reconsider your requests in the meantime.
A blanket law banning hard floors in non wet areas is too onerous. There are many situations ie townhouses and villas where the installation of hard floors generally causes no problems. For example in my daughters strata which consists of four villas, all the owners have taken up the 1970s carpet all either polished the timber floors or laid tiles.
A prescriptive bylaw also is doomed to fail. What if the owner installs the floor using the prescribed insulation and there is a noise transmission problem. The owner has complied with the directive so who’s going to pay for the rectification.
Additionally having the committee approve the insulation is problematic. Are the committee acoustic experts? Of course not. A refusal by the committee to anything proposed by a lot owner would probably be successfully challenged as being an unreasonable refusal.
In my opinion the best by law covers the peaceful enjoyment aspect. If an owner installs hard flooring and it turns out to be noisy, it’s relatively easy to have correct tests done (inside the affected lot) by a qualified acoustic practitioner. The courts will then make a ruling but its the offending lot owner who has to pay the rectification costs.
You want the bylaws to be such that they put owners on notice, and the offender has to deal and pay for the consequences.
So what do you want to achieve?
If the work is underway then the OC will have to pay the contractor what has already been completed, and maybe additional costs for cancellation of a contract.
So where is the saving?
How do other owners feel about the situation? If you are the only voice out there, then any meeting will be pointless if you can’t get a majority of owners to align with your view and vote on a motion. ( I’m not specifying a motion, that’s for you to decide what action you want to propose).
I always think that beautification work around a building adds value to the property.
Panamenke
What do you intend to achieve By looking at the detailed accounts?Whilst you can comMent on the magnitude of the amounts spent, the reality is that the horse has bolted. All your protests will not change the amounts spent.
You may be able to uncover fraudulent payments. You may be able to uncover payments to related parties. These are actionable but you need to be prepared to fight this through the courts. Unless you have deep pockets then forget it.
If you are concerned about the amount spent by the committee and the strata manager, then at your AGM when the motion for limiting the items that the committee can approve, have the motion set say $300. Of course you’ll need enough other owners to support that in order to pass.
Additionally, get on the committee and help the committee and the strata manager to find these cheap tradies that you know.
As others have pointed out, it is surprising how expensive a building can cost to run. And unlike your own property, because you live in a community the act says Repairs and maintenance MUST be done. They can’t be deferred.