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I’m assuming the owner who owns 70% of the lots is NOT the developer because if so different rules apply (and these are even more restrictive).
When the development was approved by the local council they would have specified a certain no of Visitor Parking Bays before granting approval of the development. Do any of your plans show the Visitor Parking Bays labelled as such.
No one can change the use of these Visitor Parking Bays without the written approval of the local council. If you took this to adjudication I believe you would win.
These parking bays can only be used by genuine visitors and not by residents or for storage of other items.
Even if everyone voted to allow residents to use the Visitor Bays any new tenant or owner who objected would be able to have the decision overturned because changing the use of the visitor parking bays is NOT within the power of the OC.
You just need to make sure the visitor parking bays are denoted on the plans of the development.
A bylaw granting residents use of the visitor bay would be meaningless as it conflicts with a higher law, that of the council which is the relevant law.
I don’t believe it would be legal to only levy fees on certain lots, unless all the lot owners affected (unit holders) agreed to it. Then once it’s installed who is going to maintain it / monitor it (as I doubt the townhouse owners will want to contribute as it’s no benefit to them).
Raising a special levy requires just a simple majority at a General Meeting but using this levy for an improvement requires a SR (75% in favor).
Got to agree with Whale improving security and dummy cameras seem the best bet.
Por is in control of this situation he has a 9 month tenancy remaining and the new (potential) owners can do nothing about it except wait the 9 months or buy him out.
He should request at the very least 2 months rent to be paid to him on him vacating the property and full reimbursement of any reasonable expenses he incurs due to him having to move.
The selling agent is not going to want to risk loosing the approx $10,000 agency selling commission especially as the seller will have to cough up the 2 months rent if he wants the sale to go through so he will be putting pressure on the seller to agree.
Por just needs to sit back and let the buyer, seller and agent negotiate a price that Por can live with (or move with).
I don’t see the need for a meeting because:
Currently, a strata scheme can only be terminated by two methods:
- by order of the Supreme Court; or
- by application to the Registrar General, which must be supported by a unanimous resolution of the owners corporation.
The current owners don’t want to terminate the scheme, the developer needs to purchase each unit and once this is done he can terminate the scheme because he has all the votes.
Any vote the current owners make is irrelevant, as they won’t own the units when scheme is terminated.
The important point is the contracts for sale need to specify that each individual sale is dependent on all the other sales proceeding, and so you are going to need a very on the ball solicitor to arrange this. Just needs one seller to have doubts (or get greedy) for the whole thing to collapse.
The OC have a duty of care to maintain the property, which they are obviously not doing. If it is possible to repair the leaking just for your unit get a written quote from a trades person to repair your unit.
Send a copy of this quote to the SM and the Secretary of the OC telling them unless they approve the quote (or they organize their own quote within the same time frame) within 14 days and instruct the trades person to proceed you will start legal proceeding against the OC at CTTT.
CTTT involves conciliation and then adjudication (takes about 3 months) but the result should be in your favor (costs about $150)
An alternative if the OC don’t proceed after the 14 days is to go ahead with the repairs yourself and pay but then go to CTTT to recover the costs.
Take plenty of photos of the leak and damage caused to reenforce your case at CTTT and keep copies of all correspondence.
Are we talking about a company or individual because
The Owners Corporation may issue a Statutory Demand to recover unpaid strata levies from a company lot owner, instead of issuing a Statement of Claim at the Local Court, District Court or Supreme Court. However, the Statutory Demand cannot be issued if the lot owner is not a company.
I’d assume an individual (most common) so do what Jimmy suggests Google “strata debt collection” and speak to them about your situation as they will be able to handle everything AND add their costs to the bill the owners WILL have to pay. Just chose the debit collection agency you feel most comfortable with and put a motion to the AGM to let company x pursue lot x,y and z for undue levies, then sit back and wait for the money to roll in (don’t forget the 10% penalty)
As formerrenter says the debit is against the lot and so even if the owners sells the new owner becomes responsible for the unpaid dues (buyers sol should pick this up and withhold money from seller).
@JimmyT said:
It may only amount to a few dollars here or there but if your insurance didn’t kick in or you weren’t insured, I’d raise a small claims case at your District Court, rather than going through the CTTT’s extremely unpredictable processes.
I’ve got to disagree with you here Jimmy the paint and skirting boards are part of the fixtures and fitting and so they are Strata’s insurance responsibility, NOT the contents policy. The carpets and curtain are contents, and so would be covered by the contents policy.
What the memorandum says is irreverent if it is an insurance claim.
Strata insurance covers the whole property not just the common property.
So it basically depends on whether the Strata accepts responsibility or passes it to it’s strata insurance company.
Don’t know much (anything) about community title but one thing that strikes me is that a Special General Meeting is being organized (not an EC meeting) and general meeting are open to ALL owners.
So ask Chairperson (Manager) where in the act it says owners cannot attend a general meeting and vote.
@wingattack said:
I’ve just gotten the “please do not contact the Executive Committee directly, you must go through the Strata Manager” treatment.
That’s garbage as the SM works for the OC and the EC and only if the EC or OC voted this is how it should work would the SM be correct.
An alternative is to grant the users who have the space in front of their garage (or elsewhere) permission to park their, subject to them paying a fee to the Admin fund (maybe $100 / month). This allows you to control the situation and reduce the admin fees for everyone.
If you have a majority of owners who are rogue parkers this is a non starter as you would never get the motion passed at an general meeting as I believe it would just require a simple majority to implement.
Most bylaws have something similar to this
2. VEHICLES
(l) The occupier of a lot must not, without the body Corporate’s written approval:-
(a) park a vehicle, allow a vehicle to stand on the common property; or
To start with terminating your fixed term tenancy without your approval is impossible for your landlord. They can sell the property whilst you are a tenant, but all that means is that you change owners and continue paying your rent to the new owner until 12/12/13.
You could negotiate a deal whereby you are prepared to vacate early provided they pay YOU compensation (1 or 2 months rent would be reasonable).
As for open homes they are entitled to do this but again they should compensate you for the disruption (especially if you agreed to tidy the place up prior to inspection and be away during the inspection. Some reduce the rent during the sale period by say 10% (again negotiable).
I hear what you are saying Jimmy and if this was a one off I would agree with you. But this SCAM as been going on for approx 10 years against a no of lot owners who are generally ignorant of the rules. The current self managed Strata Management have in effect changed the UE to their benefit (I would assume).
A conciliator hasn’t the knowledge or powers and cannot negotiate the UE. If the OP goes to conciliation (I doubt a conciliator would touch this with a barge pole) regarding her claims and come to a settlement on just her claim, she could in the future be accused of complicity in the scam.
An adjudicator has the power to appoint a professional SM to resolve the issues affecting all the owners and to prevent any of the offenders selling their properties before they have repaid all amounts due (or at least make a note in the Strata Roll that lots x,y & z have strata fees and penalty interest owing of unknown amounts).
Also if they have manipulated the system such that they pay lower fees then they would not be allowed to vote at the AGM or other OC meeting until these debts were cleared.
I consider these reasons I have put forward more than enough to satisfy an adjudicator that conciliation is not applicable.
According to my reading of the law you can skip mediation and go straight to Adjudication IF the Strata Roll (or other legal document) shows unit entiltlements are different from what she has been paying, because a mediator has no jurisdiction in this case.
If it becomes clear the officiers of the self managed Strata complex have manipulated the strata fees to reduce their fees and increase the fees others pay it is a clear case of corruption and could involve the police. Suggest you imply this is the action you will take if adjudication goes in your favour.
You need to be sure the strata fees you are paying are NOT in line with the Strata fees you should be paying based on unit entitlement.
From NSW Strata living
What disputes are excluded?
The following disputes are excluded from mediation:
• appointment of a compulsory strata managing agent
• compensation
• allocation of unit entitlements
• penalty disputes.The secretary or SM has to give 7 days notice of the AGM, and a copy of the agenda with the motions to be voted.
Most reasonable SM will send out a notice approx 2 months before the AGM with a request for motions to be submitted at the AGM to be returned no later than 1 month before the AGM date.
If yours dosn’t do this just send in a request to have these motions added to the AGM agenda. Make sure you do this at least 1 month before AGM due.
As for proxies if YOU go around after the proxy collector has obtained his proxies and get the lot owners to name you as the new proxy for their vote, the newest proxy form by date is the valid one, and so you would trump any earlier dated proxy.
@scotlandx said:
I don’t think there is anything preventing a non-financial owner who is a member of the EC from voting at an EC meeting. They can’t vote at a general meeting, but Committee matters are a separate issue.Scotlandx I believe you are correct in NSW.
Seems strange that as the committee speaks for the OC a non financial member can vote but if it was a general meeting he could not.
In QLD it’s different and a lot who is in debt their representative is not entitled to vote at a general OR committee meeting.