[Merrick N Sniper]

I have unsuccessfully attempted to sue for defamation and also to get an Apprehended Personal Violence Order in a strata situation and would counsel anyone against doing either.

The only APVO that has any chance of working is if you convince the police to do one and even then, they usually don’t completely work. Police are only interested if there is ‘violence’ and sometimes ‘the threat of violence’. You’ll need witnesses and / or damning evidence physical which is really only conclusive video or written threats.

As for defamation, as a barrister said to me, “defamation is for millionaires and media personalities”.

You will waste a lot of time and money and get nowhere I’m sad to say. You will have many sleepless nights and get unhealthy.

However, keep any correspondence or recordings, video or audio, voicemails, anonymous notes… everything. You may need to be able to prove something “On the balance pf probability” not necessarily “Beyond reasonable doubt”.

Your neighbour almost certainly has an Anti-Social Personality Disorder. Get the book “The Sociopath Next Door: the ruthless versus the rest of us” by Martha Stout PhD out of the library. You’ll learn what makes your neighbour tick. The only things she probably fears are being exposed and losing control. The best revenge is to ignore them and ‘live well’.

[Merrick N Sniper]

Thank you for the suggestions.

I have discovered (by phoning NCAT and being flicked to the OFT) to seek an Interim Order I need to make two applications at the same time; one to NCAT seeking the Order and one seeking mediation at the OFT. Two fees also, that’s a total cost of just under $200.

An NCAT Adjudicator would look at the application for the Order and decide one way or the other, only if the OFT application for mediation is lodged.

An expensive and onerous process for an individual, even if I have support amongst other owners.

[Merrick N Sniper]

After reading everything I can get my hands on about bullying including corporate bullying and bullying in the work place, and seeing oft-repeated phrases about the fiduciary duties of Executive Committees, probity, transparency etc. And phoning various organisations… I still can’t discover how an Executive Committee member can be held ‘personally liable’ for not acting on obvious and documented bullying by an Executive Committee member, in fact two acting in cahoots.

Our Strata Manager says, of the paragraph below (which also appears in my original post above), “Oh, that’s just very general advice. Ring Lifeline or Beyond Blue. 

“If you’re on an executive committee and someone reports an incidence of bullying to you it must be taken seriously. Bullying creates a risk for the health and safety of the person or group of people it’s affecting. As a committee member you may also be held personally liable if you are aware of certain behaviour but did nothing to address the issue.”

[Merrick N Sniper]

Thanks JimmyT and Scotland. My example was truly made-up and hypothetical. But these things happen here all the time and are seldom linked to a by-law or the Act. Just bad governance such as non-descriptive agendas and minutes, things done on a nod-and-a-wink with no vote or paperwork. I reckon it must be similar in heaps of other stratas.

[Merrick N Sniper]

But all the guff about an Owners Corporation being similar to a company and the Executive Committee being the company’s board with ‘fiduciary’ duties and that they need to act with ‘probity’ and not in their own interests… there just doesn’t seem to be a mechanism to do something concrete to stop ’em doing the wrong thing and make things right. Nothing the Strata Manager will do or the Office of Fair Trading or NCAT. Just seems to be empty words.

[Merrick N Sniper]

Thanks Whale and PeterC, that’s comforting.

Though I can’t find it now, I thought there was something in the NSW Strata Titles Act saying owners had to keep keep their own windows clean and in most of our cases, it’s nigh on impossible or at the least dangerous, especially with the top of these sash-cord windows stuck. Every unit of 36 is off the ground here, with 12 on top as I said. (Of course cleaning the inside is easy, it’s the outside I’m talking about.)

[Merrick N Sniper]

Thanks very much Whale, will give it a go.  

[Merrick N Sniper]

Well, cut off me legs and call me shorty, Whale, they are members. Who would have thought!

What do you suggest?

[Merrick N Sniper]

“…  but the conduit for communications is the strata manager” Scotlandx said and therein lies the problem at our place and I suspect many others.

My household has been without an Owners Corporation provided smoke alarm after ten weeks, eight emails and three calls since our 2008 model went bung. Our friend here waited five months to get guttering repaired which was backing-up and leaking into his ceiling!

If the strata manager is ‘the conduit’ ours needs to be taken-to with a large plunger. The EC says everything must be done through him; they are no help. The reason we want a list of owners and their contact details is as obvious as the reason SM doesn’t want to give it to us.

[Merrick N Sniper]

 But doesn’t she say the By-Law would be invalid? I don’t get it.

“An exclusive‐use by‐law that fails to do so is invalid.”

[Merrick N Sniper]

Hi all in this topic thread. Just found this.

Senior Lecturer in Law, University of NSW, Cathy Sherry said in article about the current Strata Titles Act (NSW) entitled ‘How Indefeasible is Your Strata Title? Unresolved Problems in Strata and Community Title’:

Section 52, SSMA provides that an owner’s corporation may make, repeal or amend an exclusive‐use or special privileges by-law with a special resolution and ‘the written consent of the owner or owners of the lot or lots concerned’. Section 54 SSMA stipulates that such a by‐law must provide for the maintenance of the area by specifying if the owner’s corporation will continue to be liable for its maintenance and repair or imposing that obligation on the lot owners concerned. An exclusive‐use by‐law that fails to do so is invalid.

This article appeared in 2010 is on the web and easy to find: Bond Law Review, Volume 21, Issue 2, Special Property Law Edition, 8 December 2010.

[Merrick N Sniper]

BLACK fans???

[Merrick N Sniper]

The line I got recently from our Strata Manager was: “Under the privacy Act you are not permitted to have a listing of the owner contacts and addresses”.

I have been told this is not true and is a notion peddled by Strata Managers, who think they know which side their bread is buttered on, to help protect their OWN turf; it’s not entirely for the benefit of the Executive Committee.

One may need to… hmmm… ‘discover’ the names and addresses though, when inspecting the records at the Strata Manager’s office and those records must contain the strata role under the NSW Act.

[Merrick N Sniper]

Thanks very much, your help is invaluable and very much appreciated.

[Merrick N Sniper]

Thank you PeterC and Whale. I am pursuing suggested avenues and it looks promising but have another question please.

On the AGM agenda there are two motions requiring money to be spent on Common Property projects. Both are worthy and both each is worth many thousands of dollars. (I’m talking about 30k each, going by conversations I’ve had.)

Neither of these two motions has any plans, quotes or paperwork accompanying them and I gather the expectation is, whoever is there on the night at the meeting, will simply vote ’em in after a quick gander some scant paperwork. (I have asked for details, have as yet received none and don’t expect to.)

I think this is wrong, nobody will have had a chance to properly consider things. Is there a motion I could raise on the night at the AGM to stop these improper motions being voted on please? Might they be ‘out of order’ or something like that, for example?

[Author]

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