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Why did the cupboard fall off the wall? Not clear on what the owner’s insurer means by the incident not being related to a specific event, but anyway.
If as you say the insurer has paid out, and this covers the damaged appliances, then it is certainly illegal to hang on to that money. The money was paid out to cover the damage, you can’t just hang on to it.
I suggest the Committee tells the strata manager that ultimately it is their decision. It certainly isn’t illegal. If the manager thinks it is illegal then he/she needs to direct the Committee to the provision that they will be breaching – there isn’t one.
What is hybrid flooring? If you are installing flooring throughout I believe you will have to ensure you meet insulation requirements to prevent noise transmission.
In terms of the works – a lot will depend on whether it affects common property – for example if you are renovating the kitchen you may be changing pipes or electrics that are common property. If that is the case then you will need a by-law. It is not a good idea to draft a by-law yourself.
Perhaps you should ask the strata manager why a by-law is required.
If it is illegal there are a lot of people breaking the law right now, including me.
There is a distinction between working from home in an apartment and running a business from an apartment. That is – you can’t run Zumba classes in an apartment, or have a business that has numerous clients coming and going from the apartment (there are degrees there). A range of considerations apply to running a business including council regulations and liability insurance. Bear in mind that a tenancy agreement may specifically prohibit running a business from an apartment (or a house).
But if you are just sitting in an apartment working on a computer and having Zoom meetings, you are not doing anything illegal. That is working from home, not running a business.
There certainly wasn’t a quorum, so essentially there was no meeting. Note that you can’t use proxies for a Committee meeting. The strata manager may claim they held proxies but that doesn’t help.
Any purported resolution at the purported Committee meeting is not valid, so any “election” of office bearers is not valid. That is because there was no quorum.
As Jimmy says, it’s not unusual for office bearer roles to be delegated to the Strata Manager. That might be in the agreement and/or agreed by the owners or the Committee.
Section 125 of the Strata Schemes Management Act and Regulation 32 deal with items left on common property.
The Regulation sets out the requirements that have to be met to dispose of an item left on common property. In this context that would mean putting a disposal notice on the item setting out certain things including the date and time of the issue of the notice and description of the item, and that the item will be removed and disposed of not earlier than 5 days from the date of the notice.
Para 4 of the Regulation deals with an item that is blocking an entrance or exit:
If the goods are so placed that they block an entrance or exit, the owners corporation may move the goods to another place on the common property before placing a disposal notice on or near the goods, and for that purpose the owners corporation is taken to be the owner of the goods.
An owner should not store or keep items on common property. It might be a bicycle or a pram, same principle. The common property isn’t an extension of an owner’s property.
So tell her to stop it. Note it can be a hazard if someone trips on it.
As Jimmy has set out, it’s not that simple. We have one owner who wants a six month levy holiday to be applied across the board, that is just not feasible – I am not sure what they think will happen if urgent works are required.
The levies are determined at the AGM, by reference to the budget, i.e. the projected outgoings for the year. So for example if the OC knows that its projected expenses over the coming year are going to be $10K, it can’t say we we will only raise $5K.
Mixed into that is the OC’s overall obligation to maintain the common property – if you don’t have enough money for that then you are in breach of the Act.
One thing you can do is call a general meeting and ask the owners to agree to a payment plan for your payment of levies, this would give you a degree of certainty and mean that while you still owe the money you won’t pay interest or be subject to recovery action.
In answer to your question – you can hold a general meeting or vote on a resolution by electronic or other means if the owners vote to adopt that method.
I am not sure how this could occur if proper conveyancing practices are followed. When settlement occurs there are adjustments made to reflect a range of things including rates and if applicable strata levies. There is a settlement adjustment sheet for that purpose. In our scheme the strata manager is always contacted to provide the figures.
And if a conveyancer or solicitor is so slack that they don’t notify the scheme of a new owner, that is the new owner’s problem that they should take up with their conveyancer or solicitor.
So – the systems are in place, and they don’t need attention.
What a weird case. It sounds like NCAT have been hopeless.
As you have proof you paid the money, tell them to show you proof it was not received into the account, i.e a bank statement. There is no need to muck around with the Banking Ombudsman, tell them to show you the ( missing) money!
The first step is there was no notice, which may invalidate the change, but that depends on the circumstances. You are required to put any proposed resolution on a notice of meeting.
Ask for the minutes of the AGM and check the resolution for the by-law, if it wasn’t on the agenda, who moved the motion? What was the vote on it? (this should be recorded)
A change to a by-law or a new by-law requires a special resolution, i.e. 75% of those voting at the meeting either in person or by proxy. The thing is, if someone gave a proxy and there was no notice of the proposed by-law change, how could a person giving the proxy give instructions?
Finally – has the by-law been registered. If not it has no effect.
#2 is really dodgy.
I don’t see an issue with #1, and no, you would have almost no chance of disputing it.
The meeting has been held, the motion was put and voted on and was approved. That is the resolution, you can’t “rescind” it in that way.
If the other owner wants to reverse it, they will have to call a general meeting with a proposed resolution to reverse the previous one. On the basis of the information provided, that resolution won’t get up, because there is no majority. That is what happens when you have one vote for and one against.
Perhaps you need to ask the owner what they hope to achieve, as they should pay the cost of any attempt to reverse the resolution. In any event, if they continue to attempt to block your renovation, the next step is NCAT, where assuming you are not doing anything outrageous, the OC will be told you can go ahead.
So I would start on your renovations now.
If you can prove that a fault in the common property caused the damage, then you should be able to claim from the strata. So if you have the proof, give it to the strata manager and tell him/her to claim on strata insurance.
However, it may be simpler to claim on your insurance, and if they want they can deal with the strata insurance company.
Whatever, the person can still move. Anything like that would have to meet pretty stringent health and safety requirements, so it would not be cheap.
Golly – it must be an amazing by-law.