[Ongoing]

I’ve gone through something similar to the original poster, unit troubles, in the past 12 months in a small unit block in suburban Sydney.

The history of my situation arose from a small group of people organizing to artificially hold-down strata levies for 15 years, partly through farming proxies. The result was the Owners Corporation failed to adopt the capital works forecasts, failed to provide sufficient levies for capital works, and refused to carry-out repairs and maintenance.

The situation was complicated by the fact that there were only two people on the Strata Committee – me, and one other owner who was determined to obstruct repairs being carried out.

This is the sequence of events for me:

1. A resolution for certain repairs was submitted at two general meetings, which resolutions were both defeated.
2. I emailed the then strata manager setting out the issues and the dysfunctional nature of both the Strata Committee and the Owners Corporation, to which the strata manager could not offer a viable solution.
3. I engaged a strata lawyer to advise the Owners Corporation of its obligations under the Act, requesting a general meeting to authorise repairs and to avoid the matter being determined by the Tribunal.
4. The strata lawyer recommended I make application to the Tribunal at the same time, setting out the issues in dispute and providing photos.
5. Fair Trading scheduled a mediation which resulted in a mediation agreement. The agreement provided for the engagement of a structural engineer, the selection of a licensed builder, and the raising of special levies to fund the remedial work.
6. The then strata manager changed his mind about seeking a new strata management agreement, and the Owners Corporation engaged a new strata manager who happens to have building experience with remedial work.
7. A contract was signed with a licensed builder and special levies raised.

This has been a drawn-out process, however, the remedial work should be carried out in the next few months.

The lessons from this experience are:

1. Give the Owners Corporation written notice of the issues and allow the Owners Corporation the opportunity to call meetings, raise levies and carry-out the work.
2. If that approach fails, make application to the Tribunal through Fair Trading, setting out the issues, including photos.
3. Fair Trading is likely to be extremely helpful in the process, as they were in my case.
4. An experienced and competent strata manager is a major bonus in achieving an outcome.

Good luck to the original poster.

[Ongoing]

Please don’t think this is a situation unique to Victoria. I am currently going through a process in NSW which has similar difficulties, but on a smaller scale. Mediation has been scheduled in my matter and, depending on the outcome of the mediation, may proceed to a Tribunal hearing. It is not a cheap or straightforward process, even though the Fair Trading mediator has been extremely helpful.

[Ongoing]

We have receiving boxes on the landing area of the stairs in our block of units – three side-by-side on each level. Perhaps it requires someone with artistic flair to turn the boxes into something interesting. This is a link to a concept in Seattle which may be an interesting use for the boxes
https://www.instagram.com/free_little_art_gallery/?hl=en

[Ongoing]

The whirring sound of an instant hot water system is a bit of a giveaway, which makes it obvious that some people in a single water meter strata building thoroughly enjoy their half-hour showers. Those owners are only paying a small part of the water usage charges — the rest of the owners get to subsidise the psychological needs of the cleaner-than-clean owners. The prospect of separate water metering sounds like a great concept to me, as long as it is legally binding.

[Ongoing]

I can sympathise with the electricity and hot water situation. There is nothing good about an inequitable allocation of charges among unit owners that is other than user-pays. If this change has anything to do with introducing smart meters for electricity, my view is that those meters are designed to actually increase electricity charges . Unless people are going to live their waking lives in the 10pm to 7am timeslot, electricity consumers are going to be paying more with smart meters.

One thing that Flat Chat may wish to check-out, simply because it is not publicized, is whether there is a choice to maintain single tariff metering even though a smart meter is installed. A few years ago, an electricity supplier installed a smart meter in an elderly neighbour’s home. I contacted the electricity supplier and they agreed to allow the person to stay on single tariff billing. Maybe this option is available to all electricity consumers, however, none of the energy regulators seem to promote it. I wonder why!

A similar group billing situation is happening with Sydney Water, which is just as inequitable as the strata electricity and hot water situation. Let me know if you want details.

[Ongoing]

Does anyone else think it is strange that the shoes are apparently too dirty to go inside someone’s unit, but, somehow, the shoes are so clean that they will not soil common areas? I don’t know why it is such a problem for residents to use their own balconies, or tiled areas in their units, to store their dirty shoes.

[Ongoing]

I think you may find that it is easy for the Government to determine whether a unit is occupied or not, thanks to Geographic Information Systems and data matching. There is a huge quantity of data that can be associated with geographic locations just from Government registrations alone.

[Author]

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