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Oldmabb
Sadly to say that by not taking out contents insurance, you are deemed to be self insured.
That means that you carry the risk for all events to your lot not covered by the OC insurance . As Austman pointed out, you would have to prove negligence on the part of the OC in order to claim on their insurance.
Give it a try claiming on the OC insurance, but expect to be knocked back by the insurance company
Shirley B
Was your application declined and a reason given?
Any requests that you make to the OC have to be treated and considered with reasonableness. If there is no reason or the reason is trite, then you have a good chance of taking to OC to NCAT and winning your request because your request was not treated reasonably.
A help to you would also be to show that there are insects in the vicinity (are you near water for instance) or that you have a west facing unit that gets hot sun as its not shaded otherwise.
Hi Btulagan
I see that this is the second post you have made, and the problems seem the same.
You aid in your first post that you are new to real estate. I guess you mean to renting property.
The answer to this and your previous post is that you need to read your rental lease. I know in NSW , and I assume other states, that there is a standard rental lease that must be used.
Did you sign one? If you did not then you do not have a legally enforceable lease with the landlord and you can walk away at any time – no penalty.
But you said that you are engaged with a real estate agent. Then I assume you have a lease in place.
I regards to parking in your previous post, the lease will specify what parking you are entitled to. If there is no mention of a parking permit in the lease, then the landlord/agent is required to provide one for you.
When you rent a property you are assumed to have made all inspections and enquiries at the time of inspection, and the lease stes out what you are getting (ie if there was dirty paint in a room and you saw it and then rented the property, then you can’t go back and ask for the room to be repainted. You leased the property “as is”.
In respect of this post, the lease you signed will contain the penalties you pay for breaking a lease early. provided you pay these break fees, then your name will not go on a bad tenant list.
If you choose to break one of the lease conditions (ie not pay your rent) then most certainly your name will be placed on a bad tenant list.
If this place is as bad as you make it out to be, let the agent know that you want to get out. Pay the break fee and find another place.
For people new to the rental market it can be a confusing place to be.
Good luck with finding a new place
Hi Shackleton
First thing to do is to calm down
I’ll go agagain Austman and duggest that in tjth case there is no urgency
Installation of the windows in hardly likely to affect any structural integrity of the building.
The installation, or rather the approval for the Window installation is entirely at the lot owners risk.
The SSMA gives the power to the OC to have unapproved alterations to common property reversed and the costs born by the lot owner. The OC can contract to have the remediation done and charge the lot owner. The OC has the right to enter property in order to carry out remediation.
So on all counts, it’s the errant lot owner who faces the greatest financial risk.
The window installation is all reversible.
Your action in the interim should be to ask the errant owner if they have OC approval for the new windows. If not explain that they are breacing a number of bylaws and that you will inform the SM to take action through NCAT
If you have feral lot owners like this I am not surprised an SM was appointed by the court.
Never let a chance go by to have interested souls on the SC. In my previous investment property, I was chairman for a number of years. New tenant came along. Got a lot owners proxy. Was elected to SC and proceeded to do an amazing job. ( I got rolled).
I’m now chairman in my daughters strata (she is the owner not me). I have a good SC and I can impart my knowledge to the next generation. Its all working well. Previous SC ran the building into the ground.
Cosmo
This is pretty unusual
I was part of a small complex that self managed. When a lot was for sale, the potential buyer organized a specialist strata inspection company to come to the place where the records were kept and go through them.
They brought their own scanners and did the work themselves
I woild hesitate to dotheir bidding. Let them go through whatever theywant to see and sort it out themselves.
Being self managed, I would be certain that your books and records are not in a form that the strata management companies use. Thats ok as long as your strata holds the right records and you are able to manage from them.
By you doing the runaround you spend a lot of time. The strata inspectors have never spent more than an hour looking through my books.
What a mess.
Firstly the agent or landlord has a problem as they approved your dog. They should have made approval of the dog conditional on the OC approving the dog.
Get back on this point later.
If you move in with your dog without approval, you will be in breach of a bylaw. That also means you are in breach of your lease so the landlord can terminate your lease. You don’t want that.
Can you leave your dog with a friend for a short period? If that’s impossible then put it on the landlord to pay for temporary dog housing. Since the landlord approved your dog, it seems reasonable that he pays for the interim dog accomodation. OR they reduce your rent a similar amount to the dog accomodation because you expect to house your dog as part of the tenancy.
Your lease should have a copy of the bylaws attached. Find the pet clause and read it. Does it say that reasonable approval cannot be refused. If that is not in the bylaw it becomes a little trickier.
Next you need to apply to NCAT . The basis of your application is that reasonable approval has not been granted.
That a previous tenant had a nuisance dog is irrelevant in your application to the OC. It seems that someone just doesn’t like dogs.
Support your application to NCAT with references for your dog.
From what I have read NCAT is accepting that pets are part of everyday living and overturning unreasonable refusals for pets
Only after you get NCAT ruling in your favour can you move your dog in.
If you don’t get approval the landlord has a problem. He would be in breach of the lease and you may able to get some compensation to move. But that’s another forum.
Good luck
Dear Fromthenorth
You don’t actually tell us what your problem is, apart from the fact that some owner has the temerity to fo some work around your building.
There are only two trades, electrical POWER wiring and telecommunication wiring, and plumbing including gas, which require a licence. All other maintenance trades do not require a licence, though the trade may need to be registered with fair trading.
If the lot owner doing the work is suitably qualified, then let them do the work. They probably are cheaper than a tradie and can do it sooner. I can’t see that therewoild be any issue wiyh insurance or warranty unless they were proved to be negligent (but that argument applies to any trade doing work onyour property).
If there is an owner who is willing to do some work around your property, he is probably saving your strata money.
Having said the above, this arrangement probably works well for smaller complexes.
Maryjane
The OC have an absolute desponsibility to maintain ommon property, including the carpets. Speak to the SM anx ask them whatbthey will do to replace the carpets and advize him that if nothing is planned to be done in a reasonable time, you will go to NCAT to seek orders for the carpet to be replace.
See what happens then
How do I say this – its you as part of the OC that decides the levies
Every year the OC moves amotion at the AGM to approve the budget for the Admin fund and the Capital works fund and that sets the next year levies As a member of the OC you get to debate this and vote on it.
Is your SM or committee having yearly meetings and sending you a notice?
Are you reading the notice of the meeting ?
Are you going to the meetings?
Having been at some time, treasurer and chairman of a small complex of 8, the levies you are paying are within reason of what it costs to run a block.
Maintenance comes out of the Administrative funds and must be budgeted for each year. The amount set aside for the Capital works fund depends on tbe wishes of the OC but setting it too low will mean that you get hit with special levies regularly ( and unexpectedly)
If you say that you cant pay the higher levies today, how will you pay a speciall levy when it comes up? If you can’t pay a special levy, you lose voting rights; interest accrues on the outstanding amount at 10 %, and if the outstanding amount is suffi ient you can be bankrupted.
Jimmy is pretty spot on
Having been a landlord myself and managed my own property I want someone with some stability ( as Jimmy said)
Secondly if I received a letter from a prospective tenant, well I’d just chuck it in the bin. Sorry to be so harsh
As a landlord I was more interested in meeting in person a prospective tenant. I never refused to meet a prospective tenant.
Thirdly make sure you have solid references. Employer, minister of religion, doctor in fact anyone (except afriend) who has some standing and can vouch for you. I always called the referees so written references also go in the bin.
Real estate agents are good references for me. If I can call an agent and they tell me you pay rent on time and never damaged the property and were not evicted, you go to the top of my list
Make sure you can show a SOLID ability to pay rent.That means a steady source of income that you can show has been in process for some time.
Over some 30 years I had a lot of tenants. Never had a bad tenant ( ie trashed premises or unpaid rent).
I often chose tenants that other landlords would not take with great success ( for me and the tenant)
I believe that getting past the real estate agent is SHaaa biggest challenge.
Good luck
Dear potofgold
Do you knoo what action the SM is contemplating?
Initially the worst they can do is send yiu a breach of by law. What you do next determines their action.
If they serve you with a breach of bylaw just accept it. But make sure you do not do any action which can be cinstrued as a breach of the by law. The notice is effective for 12 months. That means if hou are alleged to breach the bylaw you have been notified of, the OC can take younto NCAT. But they have you prove the breaches.
A 30 second recording is not suffi ient evidence and is inadmissable as you did not agree to be recorded.
In regard to the levies. The prescribed penalty interest is 10% pa simple interest. Pretty easy to work out.
If you do not pay your levy wiyhin 30 days of them being due, the SM will automatically charge the interest to your account.
There ws a recent case where the court determined that only if you were in arrears on your levies did you lose the right to vote. So if you did not pay the interest you could not be called unfinacial. This just clarified the application of the Act.
However it seems to me that you have some enemies within your block. Perhaps one course of action you could take would be to attempt to make peace with whoever it is that is troubling you. You dont have to go to the extent of inviting then to dinner, but getting to the stage where they can exchange a “good day” with you may make all the difference.
Have the OC claim the repairs on the OC insurance.
Provide the insurance company with a copy of the police report and a statement that the tenant did the damage.
The insurance company can then chase the tenant for the costs (if it so chooses)
If there is an excess to pay, inform the lot owner that they are expected to pay the excess. Then let the lot owner chase up the tenant.
Dear spmanager
email addresses are not private, for the following reason
Any owner is entitled to inspect the records of the OC, and that includes all correspondence.
correspondence includes emails.
Therefore inspecting any of all emails will reveal the email addresses of the other owners and committee members ( ie anybody who chooses to use email to correspond with the SC or other committee members) .
The above is not to infer that email addresses can be demanded. The above only says that if people choose to correspond on OC business via email, their email address becomes public.
oh, and the SC cannot redact any of the correspondence, like blotting out email addresses.
Fear not. You don’t have to put up,with this.
But your SM should be more helpful. Sounds like they are one of the lesser quality SMs out there.
Firstly determine if the adjacent bathroom is an original one. If that is the case then the OC is responsible for repairing the waterproofing. The OC has an absolute responsibility to maintain the common property and can effect repairs despite the protestations of the owner.
Secondly if the bathroom has been renovated by way of new wall and floor tiles then check for a bylaw stating that responsibility for waterproofing is on the lot owner. If you find such a bylaw then ask the SM or your committee to issue a bylaw breach notice to the lot owner. He has to repair it or get a fine and can be directed by the court to effect a repair.
If a by law does not exist it is still up to the lot owner to fix the problem.
If the owner still does not want to cooperate, ask the SM or the committee to effect the repairs and to pass the cost onto the owner.
You don’t have to suffer because of the intransigence of the lot owner.
If the SM and the committee won’t help, just apply to NCAT to get an order to get the repairs done. The court can sort out whether it’s the lot owner or the OC who pays, but in any case you get your repairs