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It is important to confirm which state you are in. Who is responsible for what varies with different state legislation. In the ACT, what you describes would probably be ‘class B’ (but confirm that) and you would be responsible for repair and maintenance of your townhouse unit. However, it is possible for the OC to resolve to make the OC responsible for specified maintenance that would usually be yours to deal with. Possibly similar elsewhere. I would get that verbal agreement formalised by a proper resolution, if that is consistent with your state’s legislation.
From memory 2.4m wide is the minimum in the Australian Standards on parking spaces. That would be an impediment to changing the status of the space formally to a parking space. However, a ‘storage space’ is for storing stuff you own when you are not using it elsewhere. You own your small car. Why not ‘store’ it there when you are not ‘using’ it elsewhere?
I assume the ‘storage’ space can be readily driven into and it is adjacent to designated parking spaces so it would not look odd to have a car there?
@FrustratedLNS said:
…As soon as it is clear they have been breaching the legislation for years I am going to make submissions that owners are entitled to an audit of the finances and all decisions affecting the common property (I worry the necessary paperwork doesn’t exist if I try sell my place) since we have been denied due process and transparency in the decisions and we are entitled to know exactly what he has been up to and I am not paying for it!Why not arrange to visit the managing agent’s office and ask for a copy of the ‘Account Payments’ for (say) the past 12 months? If they use software anything like the software our managing agent has, they should be able to produce a complete list of every payment from any date to any other date, and do so almost instantly. Then work through that till you have a list of questions for the treasurer.
If possible, ask to arrange a time with the treasurer to work through it face to face. Much of it will be routine eg. 85% of the expenses of our OC are for three items: our managing agent’s monthly fee, our grounds maintenance guys monthly bill and the annual insurance. All the rest is relatively small beer such as some plants, some mulch, some repairs to a bin enclosure, printing a newsletter, replacement light globes, an electrician call out to repair a light etc. You might find there is a reasonable explanation for everything or you might find the smoking gun you should focus your attention on.
@Gus Kernot said:
Looking at your basic question about maintenance I wonder if there is any obligation to have any Committee member attend the tradesman’s inspection.If the tradesperson is doing work on the common property then yes, there should be a committee member attending to discuss the scope of the work etc. The entry to a unit should be done by reasonable negotiation with the resident and unit owner.
Of course it is then crucial that the committee member knows what is common property and what isn’t and the original poster said the committee chair fails at that task, which does complicate matters!
If insurance is your biggest concern, then one thing to do is to notify your insurer and ask if they are concerned. If they want a higher premium the NSW Act might have a provision for passing on the cost to the unit owner.
Yes to JT’s advice too.
If some aspect of running the business is causing nuisance, then it is likely that you could apply the general by-law that most places have on nuisance. This prohibits anything that causes an unreasonable or substantial nuisance, or words along those lines. I expect the owner and the tenant of the property would usually be held to be jointly and separately liable in Qld as in the ACT and elsewhere.
On the other hand, if the conduct of the hairdressing business is not causing any substantial nuisance, why worry about it? In that case, just deal with the smoking directly via the by-law on that. You could require the tenant to notify the clients that it is a non-smoking site.
Another possibility is that the business would be contrary to local council rules in a residential area but that might be drawing a long bow. Lots of people conduct small businesses from home.
The strata manager would be wise to cover his own arse by having it in writing that they advised the committee appropriately if the committee is acting contrary to the law.
It seems to me that the chair is your target, not the strata manager. Ultimately, the buck stops with the committee.
My suggestions about putting the motion with a seconder applies anywhere as standard meeting procedure but I don’t think it is set down in strata-specific legislation anywhere. Some OCs might have adopted a set of meeting procedure rules. Ours adopted a particular well-known textbook on meeting law and conventions to be the rules for our meetings.
I would send the text of your motion signed by you as the proposer and signed by another owner explicitly as the seconder. ie. Type: “Seconded – Josephine Bloggs (lot no. XX)” and have them sign next to that. The seconder could be the person who appointed you as their proxy. If your motion requires some background or explanation about why it should be supported you could also provide the text of a background paper for inclusion in the meeting papers.
The text I am consulting (Joske’s Law and Procedure at Meetings in Australia 11th Ed.) says in its strata section: “In New South Wales, members have a statutory right to place a matter on the agenda for a meeting to be summoned.” I am not sure what that means. Perhaps the Strata Act says your motion can’t be refused if given to the committee in sufficient time to be put on the agenda?
Here is some more advice from Joske:
“Motions and amendments should not be vague or ambiguous;2 they should be couched in precise and definite language and should comply with any regulations as to form and notice; otherwise the chair should refuse to allow them to be put. In particular, a motion should be affirmative in form. Certain provisions are frequently found in rules and bylaws governing the form of motions that are acceptable… Where a motion has been seconded, it cannot be withdrawn without the seconder’s permission.3 Subject to the rules of a body, a resolution may be put to a meeting by the chair even if it has not been otherwise proposed or seconded.4 The chair may, however, exercise discretion to refuse to put a motion that has not been seconded. The decision to second a motion does not imply that the seconder supports the motion. A member who believes that the meeting should consider the matter may second a motion in order that the meeting can reject it.5
Before the motion is stated for the meeting by the chair, another member may suggest a modification to the motion. If the member proposing the motion accepts the modification, it takes the modified form. In these circumstances, the member suggesting the modification is taken to have seconded the motion.“In general, a chair can refuse to put a motion if it is ‘out of order’. A motion would be out of order if it asks the meeting to resolve something that is beyond the power of the owners corporation to decide – you cannot decide to permit something that is illegal or decide a matter that can only be decided by the local council or state government. The chair might also refuse to put a motion that is poorly worded so it would not be clear what had been resolved. However, some unfortunately ambiguous wording could be fixed at the meeting by first resolving to amend the motion.
“It is the chair’s duty to put motions and amendments to the vote and thus to ascertain the sense of the meeting. The chair is not entitled to rule a motion out of order if it is within the competence of the meeting and all the conditions incidental to submitting the matter to the meeting have been observed.13
For the purposeof ascertaining the meeting’s sense, the chair has the power to rule on the forms of the motion and any amendments, on the conduct of the debate and on the manner of taking the vote. If the individual in the chair is a member of the assembly, the individual has the right to speak in the debate and to vote on any motion. However, the necessity of maintaining impartiality in order to ascertain the intention of the meeting suggests that the chair should refrain from speaking in the debate and from voting, except in a poll. If the person in the chair wishes to take part in the debate it is appropriate to surrender the chair temporarily.““Even if a motion has been properly notified, moved and seconded, there may be circumstances in which it is desirable that the motion should not be put to the vote. This may be because the question is one that for some reason should not be considered by the meeting, for example if debate has indicated that further information is needed; if other business is more pressing; or if one or more members believe that the meeting is likely to reach an unacceptable conclusion. Members may deal with the first situation by moving an objection to consideration of the question.Depending on the circumstances, the fact that the meeting’s deliberations have not yet reached a point of decision can be dealt with by postponing the matter to a specified time, causing the matter to lie on the table, or referring it to a committee. The matter may also be postponed indefinitely. The meeting may resolve to proceed to the next business or that the previous question should not now be put.”I would start informally by talking to other EC members. Stay calm and reasonable but firm and clearly stating that you are angry and that this is not acceptable behaviour. Then, depending how that goes, write a letter to the EC as a whole. If directed via the managing agent that puts another person in the loop and may have the correspondence on file. This might be enough to have the EC member pull his head in.
As important as dealing with the EC member’s inappropriate behaviour is, it is also important is that your son sees you go in to bat for him.
You would improve your chances if your motion has a seconder and you address the chair as well as secretary. A chair of a meeting is entitled to only accept a motion if someone is prepared to second it. The purpose of seconding is to show that at least one other person supports the motion or wants to see it put to a vote. [A seconder usually supports a motion but occasionally someone might just second to see the motion put so it can be lost resoundingly and a proposal they don’t support can be finally put to rest.]
It is conceivable that a defect of the common property might affect only one or a few units. For example, at our set of townhouses, there were two carports whose walls on the unit boundary also served as retaining walls for the adjacent common property. Over the years, the soil level of the adjacent common property had been allowed to build up higher than the level the walls were designed to retain and the common property also lacked sub-soil drainage. Those two defects of the common property caused the walls to crack and bow inwards to the point of becoming unstable and risking the collapse of the units’ carport roofs. The OC recognised that the damage to private property had been caused by defects of the common property and we made the necessary repairs, paid by the OC. We checked other units. We did some precautionary work next to two units but none of the rest had this sort of problem.
Yes. Just do what JT said.
Can the lot owner identify the building defect that he claims has caused damage? If not, and since the OC has a plausible alternative explanation, it sounds like you have a reasonable case. You could offer the owner a chance to make the repairs and say the OC will make the repairs and bill the lot owner if they are not made by a certain time. Take lots of photos, have an expert report (say, from a structural engineer) showing that there is no defect which would have caused the damage and suggesting that leaving windows open is a more likely cause of the damage. You might need the photos, expert opinion and paper trail if you go to the tribunal to recoup the OC’s costs for the repairs.
Call the strata manager or contact your management committee (or both). The key thing to determine is whether the pipe and/or wall are common property and an owners corporation responsibility to investigate and repair or part of your lot/unit and your responsibility. Even if it turns out to be your responsibility, it will be appreciated as a courtesy that you checked and notified the owners corp.