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Yep the tenants from hell
Firstly who vetted these tenants. As a landlord who self manages, I personally interview the last few landlords. If the feedback I get is not solid then the prospective tenant does not get in. The old saying a leopard cant change its spots applies. People’s behaviour is constant no matter how hard they try to hide their real self.
In your situation ,this is what I would do TODAY.
Ignore all and any complaints these people make. You will never satisfy them no matter what you do.
Since the lease probably runs out in a few months, just give them notice that the lease will not continue. If they currently have jobs, they are not covered by the government anti throw out laws.
If they ask a reason why you will not renew, tell them you are moving in yourself. No further discussion required or necessary.
In any case do not fight fire with fire. They have done this a few times before and have the system gamed.
Sir Humphrey is suggesrib8two different approaches
Th e first is to have an exclusive use by law passed
The second is to acquire the land in question.
The first option is the cheapest and simplest. You may be able to acquire the use of the land for no consideration, or the strata may ask for a yearly rental.
The second option requires valuation of the land, a new strata plan and a payment to the strata for the value of the land you acquire.
Because in both cases you are enhancing the value of your lot, the other owners are entitled to a share .
You will need legal advice in both cases, and you are likely to have to pay the OC costs as well.
Make sure the value of what you are acquiring exceeds the costs, unless of course this is a vanity purchase
I hold a new electrical contractors licence so can answer this with confidence
The common garden variety electrician is a level one electrician. They can work on anything after the house fuses and meters.
You need a level two electrician to pull the house fuses.
Having said that, what many level one electrician do is get a level two electrician to pull the fuses. The level one then does the work and the level two comes and reconnect and seals the fuses. They also check that it’s safe to connect the house to the system.
There are also some electrians which will do domestic work who also have a level two qualification.
Your electrician will sort all this out, so no need for you to engage two electricians.
With the blessing of the current strata manager, you could have a GM before their term expires in order to appoint a new strata manager. There is little point in the current strata manager frustrating you as its a forgone conclusion that they won’t be renewed.
There of course is a notice period for calling a GM. The strata manager can help you on this.
How did you elect a strata committee?. That requires a general meeting. If it’s an informal agreement , then it will need a motion at a general meeting to elect the committee.
You’re in uncharted waters here.
The government has not yet outlined what the terms of their non eviction for renters means.
Technically sending a notice of termination is an eviction notice. You are depriving a person of a roof over their head.
If you do not send the termination notice, then as you know, the lease becomes continuing. That means the rent stays the same unless there is an agreement between you and the tenant. What changes is the notice period. 21 days for the tenant, 60 days for you.
I have heard that the rules for tenant rent relief will include that the tenant is on jobseeker or other social welfare.
So unless the tenant relies on social security, you may be able to evict them. But as I said times have changed and it’s all untested.
To evict a tenant you have to have a court order. Since the local courts are only dealing with urgent matters at the moment, the tenant could be there a long time.
What have you got to lose by making it a continuing lease? The tenant has to still pay the same rent.
You will have to wait till the government releases its rules about evictions in the current environment to see what the new rules are.
Maybe wait a few days to see the government rules.
In my opinion, there will be pain for landlords.
There will be some tenants who will try to game the system.
Why is the landlord or property manager playing these games?
Or is this just a hypothetical question.
If you are issued a termination notice, then you have to act on it. In other words, take it as being true and look for a new place.
Not withstanding what follow up email the landlord sends, he may never sign a new contract with you, and so the eviction notice stands.
As for the landlord, he does not diminish his rights and can reasonably sign a new contract with you, between the issue of the eviction notice and the end of the contract. He doesn’t need to withdraw the eviction notice because it pertains to the previous contract and not the new one you sign.
The saving grace for you is that if you overstay your lease, the landlord has to get a court order to evict you. You’ll lose but you have some time to find a new place.
Having been a landlord, I fail to understand why a landlord would not want to keep a good tenant, particularly in these times.
Perhaps there is some other reason for him being difficult .
By all means go to the tribunal. However now is not a good time to depend on the local courts. All unimportant matters are on hold till about September and after that you have to get a hearing date, amongst all the other matters that have been held over.
See how you can assist the committee to get your application through.
Consider also that building works will be delayed because of covid19. I don’t know how but expect it.
I understand that the government has said that any evictions due to covid19 will not be allowed.
Jumping ahead a little here, if you did evict them, them it’s up to you yo prove they were not affected by covid 19. I dont think the courts will be sympathetic with the landlord under any circumstances.
In any case, in NSW, all local court nonessential business is on hold till about September. You can’t evict a tenant without a court order, so your tenants will sit there till the court can schedule a hearing. That could be months away(even into next year).
The loss of income is going to affect all of us. The government has said as much.
It’s up to the landlord as to how to treat each tenant. This is uncharted territory.
In my humble opinion, work out some arrangement with your tenant, even if it’s to receive a token rent payment.
Tenants To me sometimes are smarter than the landlords and hence are able to exploit them. Be seen as compromising and they may respect you for it.
Easy answers first.
If the special levies were passed at a general meeting, then yes you have to pay them. Failure to pay will usually incur interest payments and you lose your voting rights.
If this is maintenance work, then the OC has an obligation to effect repairs irrespective of the circumstances.
If this is not repairs, find some other owners who would like the levies and works deferred.
Notify the secretary that you want to put a motion to defer the non repairs and levies.
You need a minimum number of owners to support this in order to call an egm.
It’s then only a matter of having a majority at the meeting to approve your motion.
Surveyors are engaged by many people and organisations for varying purposes. Perhaps a neighbour wants to establish their property border in order to place a fence on its correct line.
Whilst a surveyor generally can’t come onto your land without your permission, someone would have engaged these people and given them permission (rightly or wrongly)
It’s up to the person or organization that engaged these surveyors to pay them. If your strata say they didn’t engage them, then someone else will pay.
Maybe you are reading too much into this event.
In NSW your conveyancer should have asked the OC for. Sect 184 certificate. It’s the only official statement of what’s owing on a lot.
If the Sect 184 shows no money owing, then it’s the OC problem. They can’t collect any money from you because they made the mistake.
If you are relying on strata search or the vendor for a report on any arrears, then that’s your problem and the OC is entitled to their money.
I have personally had a situation where my solicitor got it wrong. Fortunately for me I was able to rectify the mistake.
Generally the vendor is responsible for all levies until settlement date.
At the time of settlement the adjustments are determined. If the levies have been paid past the settlement date, the vendor receives money back from the buyer. If there are outstanding levies at the time of settlement, the vendors conveyancer will make a cheque payable to the OC, so bring the levies paid up to the settlement date.
As far as not being notified of the new owner, that’s the responsibility of the buyers conveyancer. The conveyancer can let the OC know within hours of the settlement.
So I have no sympathy that the new owner gets charged interest. They can take it up with their conveyancer.
There is a two edged sword in here.
NBN installation will apply to all lot owners. Whatever they deem suitable for you, the other owners will need to also comply with.
I can understand how the other lot owners feel, and maybe you have contravened the by laws.
The correspondence concerning NBN installations that I have seen does make it clear that OC permission may be needed in some cases. NBN is being upfront about this.
Perhaps a meeting of all owners to discuss how NBN is to be installed could be first call. All owners will probably need a by law so why not agree on one bylaw covering all lots rather than having 8 separate bylaws.
Consider also that an NBN is pretty much mandated as your regular phone lines will disappear.
I think the writer has been issued with a breach notice.
The breach notice must include dates and times of the offence.
If you can prove you were not there when the offence occurred, ignore the notice (till the OC takes you to the tribunal for a follow up offence and you prove the notice was issued incorrectly) or go to the committee/ strata manager and prove that you weren’t there when the offence occurred and ask them to rescind the notice.
Just my humble opinion.
I recognise that you are in ACT, and I can only speak with respect to NSW . But I think my comments apply equally.
The legislation does not specify any qualifications for the auditor. The auditor for a strata also is not signing off on the correctness of the accounts as is done for a company. The strata auditor is checking that the accounts are a reasonable representation of the financial state of the strata.
So any person who can prove that they have suitable training could do your audit.
Strata accounts can be extensive, but they are not complicated because of the simple accounting method used. It’s generally a cash accounting system. Ie count the money in and the money out. Make sure receipts for match the payments.
Heck you could do it yourself if you can add.