[oldandtired]

Hi Strata Survivor you are not alone.

We tried to remove 3 committee members as two were bullies taking turns at being the chairperson and one was the non transparent secretary.  It all started with abuse from a chair person, and another committee member (my husband) and at the A.G.M other owners were told to vote my husband off and used 12 proxies.  The secretary never posted on the agenda the letter concerning the abuse and we were then abused by 9 committee members and 10 other owners.  After near 3 years and 8 lawyers letters, $8,000. mediation, we were told by a directions hearing officer to find a lawyer as some of our claims were not on point, so we did, $3,000.  At the N.C.A.T hearing we were told that because the committee did not issue the by law breach to the abusive committee member the judge could not dismiss the abuser.  The N.C.A.T Judge determined that we were to be treated in the same manner as other owners of the high rise and two weeks after the determination the abusive committee member tried to issue a breach of bylaw on me and his wife set an AVO on me.  The husband and wife then had to withdraw the vexatious AVO and pay for my lawyer, I still had to pay $600.

Finally the committee tried to push the owners into leasing the top of the building and the owners rejected the decision and 5 committee members resigned we now have a few good committee members and the secretary is transparent and we were told at the N.C.A.T that not all correspondence has to be noted or filed.

N.C.A.T does not deal with bullies, next time this happens to us we will be going to civil court.

[oldandtired]

NSW. At the AGM the owners will determine how many committee members that they want then all names nominated will be placed on a board and the owners at the meeting will vote not more than the determined amount and can vote in less than the determined amount.  When all the votes are counted the persons with the least votes do not become committee members.

[oldandtired]

Strata Schemes Management Act. 2015 no 50.

Division 5 Financial functions generally. 102

Our Chairman usually goes unlimited spending and no restrictions on strata committee decisions.  If we want to discuss he takes the vote and goes onto the next AGM agenda our AGM lasts 30 minutes.

[oldandtired]

Our strata committee again ignored our correspondence from our lawyer, the chairman resigned in March, and mid May another committee members wife verbally abused my husband then wrote a letter and a list of lies claiming that she was the victim.  The verbal abuse was also on common property and the committee did not ask my husband for any evidence and made a resolution.  All would have gone well for her except that my husband had his phone on record.

Other owners have been verbally abused or received abusive letters and some will come forward as witnesses.

We have been to mediation and the two committee members that were present that day only wanted to deal with the last abuse.

After two years, four months and over $4,000, we are now proceeding onto NCAT. and hopefully the strata committee will be told that they cannot ignore abused owners.

[oldandtired]

Would like to know if when having a ballot, and say the owners decide to determine at 7 strata members, do I have to write 7 names on the paper or can I write 4 or 5 names, would this make my vote invalid?

[oldandtired]

We are using our lawyer to correspond with the strata committee and the strata committee has told our lawyer that he is not qualified to ask them to implement a behavior by law.  The strata committee have told us that we should have a strata lawyer.  The reason we engaged our lawyer is because we do not know the law and have never been bullied/verbally abused.

[oldandtired]

My husband did forgive the abusive chairman even though the chairman used 12 proxies to vote him off the strata committee, then 5 months later the chairman’s wife verbally abused my husband with committee members watching.  Again my husband tried to forget about it, then on Christmas day 2016 the wife abused both of us separately as we were trying to use main foyer to leave the building.  Cameras and other owners on this occasion.  We engaged a lawyer to send a letter to the SC as both times we were on common property, our SC ignored our lawyers letter so we let it go again.  Then December, 2017 the wife abused my husband and we have sent another letter from our lawyer to the Strata Committee.  Question should we go to the NCAT …? 

[oldandtired]

Ten years of air keys and after two years of asking for change, we still have a strata committee that like to drive into the garage on the right hand side. Listed below (a to g) is why the committee thinks we should keep to the right. My suggestions (MS) 

Do I let it go or do I get 40 signatures?

3. Traffic flow report – The report identified that:

a. If the flow is changed then all access including golf buggies and other vehicles such as scooters, push bikes etc. would be by Air key.

MS.   Leave swiper post where it is but reprogram to open left garage gate and erect another one in the garden on the west side of garage entry.

b. There are 8 units that have not purchased Air keys.

MS.   Fine, some of them probably do not have cars.

c. If the decision for all access by Air key was made, allocation to these units would cost $520.

MS.  Irrelevant, just like when you tore down 30 of our free afternoon coffee/tea notices.

d. There may then be a request from some unit owners who have paid for Air keys to be reimbursed for their costs – an unknown quantity.

MS.   Say No.  owners paid out over $20,000 for camera equipment and then they were told that there would be one security camera streaming to their apartments, we had ten!

e. There would have to be Air keys purchased and provided for regular contractors who access the building (estimated at 13 such keys – cost $845).

MS.  Tradies usually make an appointment with the committee member in charge of the mobile phone or they can use the newly erected swiper post.

f. The estimated cost to repaint the 6 arrows including a black bitumen based paint over the existing ones would be $600.

MS.  If we are driving on the legal side of the driveway we would not have to repaint arrows, we have volunteers that could paint the pointy end of the arrows out?

g. Relocation of the swiper post would have to be considered. Logically it should stay where it is. This could create an unsafe situation for those residents who access the building using shopping trolleys or walkers as they would be walking into oncoming traffic. At present they are going with the traffic (a safer option).

MS.  If you were concerned about residents safety, you would have included a ramp to the front entry when Foyer was being renovated/ refurbished.

RESOLVED to accept the report recommendation that no change is indicated at present.    

NOT RESOLVED Did you ask the owners?  It is not up to the committee to change the traffic conditions, it is the owners decision and 9 votes from the committee does not make a majority vote.

From our balcony we see cars entering the parking area on the west side of the driveway and residents leaving on the west side of the driveway, potentially leading to a head on collision.

[oldandtired]

The web site domain information will help immensely and affordable. 

It is the EC that are taking the notices down.

The ladies that posted on the notice board are 85 and 75 they do not write offensive notices.

thanks again

[oldandtired]

Our EC finds communication between the owners offensive so most notices are removed within hours.  thank you great web site.

[oldandtired]

there is a by law for the notice board;

by law 22. The owners notice board will maintain the existing notice boards on the common property for formal and informal purposes.  An owner, occupier or invitees of a lot must not post material that could reasonably be expected to cause offense or embarrassment to any owner, occupier or to any person lawfully using common property.

[oldandtired]

yes the notice board is for owners use and the EC has a locked glass noticeboard

[oldandtired]

@King said:
Dear ‘oldandtired’,

If the meeting is only having your letter ‘read’ then there is no need for the Chair to be altered. If a vote on a related motion is to occur then the Chair would have to abstain from voting but can still function in administering the meeting.

Abuse is never reasonable but you don’t say what led to the altercation. It is difficult to say if your husband contributed to the difficulty (eg: Mowing at 7am on Sunday – I think I could overreact to something like this in the spur of the moment).

 

We all make mistakes in personal dealings. Unless there is a pattern of abusive behaviour by the Chair, I recommend you forgive and forget. It is likely that the Chair has a wide support base to have that role. You will have to live side by side so why place yourself at the centre of a unhappy situation and risk the ire of other occupants?

Best regards.

The chairman in question is often verbally abusive.  The last chairman lasted 2 years and was verbally abusive as well seems to be a trend going on.

Thank you for your help, much appreciated.

[oldandtired]

@JimmyT said:
Normally correspondence would be dealt with by the secretary – or is the chairman in a dual role?

Otherwise, why don’t you ask if you can address the meeting yourself?

I have been told that the committee will read the correspondence then discuss it and we do not get to speak unless asked and I doubt that the chairman in question would be asking me to speak.  It will be hard to address the meeting as he starts to yell and being chairman I have to shut up so end of discussion.  Would be better for me to have a proxy chairman.

[Author]

Replies