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I thought that amount might have been a typo. That is outrageously high levies for a complex without any of the fancy extras. That is the highest levies I have heard of – and that includes those i know who live in the high rise with pools, lifts, gyms, concierge and those who have grounds and country club facilities!
Good on you bodgie for taking this on.
Sorry, was that $5,300 per quarter?
Same thing in my complex. EC has a limit of $4,000. Then I found an amount of $6,000 spent on I don’t know what. Infact no one knows. And even if it was spent on a repair or maintenance we agreed to look at at a meeting, there was no amount that we agreed on or were made aware of.
Owners here just want to know what is spent on what. At AGM/EGM’s our EC wants us to agree to works that haven’t even been quoted on.
This is a garage door to a communal garaging area? Not a personal garage door servicing just one unit? If yes, I would have thought that the reference to motor and device actually refers to the mechanisms that open be close the garage door. I would think that the remote is like a security door key, needed to activate the locking mechanism and your own responsibility. The OC should make sure the garage doors machinery works in order to react to your personal remote/key.
Have read something about this in the past. I believe that some common property would remain common property and there would still be a kind of l levy paid to maintain it. For example, in a townhouse complex, the driveway would remain jointly owned and all owners would have to pay for maintenance. It woukd depend on your complex and what common areas there are around it. Areas that all would use or need access to would no doubt have to remain as common. Areas that are only accessible to one unit could, I would think, go on the title of that unit? Though not 100 percent sure how it would work. Not sure that “common property” is the correct term. Perhaps “right of way”? No doubt the lawyers drawing this up can point you in the right direction.
Our complex had turned a blind eye to residents occasionally having their laundry on view. However when one resident started to hang their laundry all day everyday in public view it started rumors that they had set up a commercial laundry such was the amount of washing. Then a notice came out notifying residents that they cannot have their laundry visible from common areas and to use their own clothes lines. A week after this notice the unit next to the laundromat went on the market. Prospective buyers would have had to stand at the front door of this property with the neighbours undies flapping in the breeze next to them if this notice didn’t come out. So did the sellers complain? Or was it finally one of the other owners whose visitors commented on the complexes resemblance to a third world country they had visited when the path leading to their front door became one temporary clothes line after another? Appearances count.
I recently visited a friend who has just moved in to a new apartment. This is complex has a rule of no washing what so ever. No communal lines, no balcony drying, no courtyard/garden drying. No buts about it. Luckily my friend has enough space to dry inside as well as using the dryer.
I have to say that this complex looked like a resort. It is strict on other rules too such as only one type/colour blinds to be seen from outside. Together with well kept grounds and nothing unsightly to be seen, it looked very neat and orderly. I don’t see how a little washing discreetly placed on a balcony or courtyard would affect the look of this complex. Though it’s when you allow people a little then they display commercial quantities of laundry that the look of a complex could be affected let alone the visual disturbance to neighbours.
Having bought a property new myself 10 years ago, I can honestly say that I would never do so again. These people who think they are getting a $35,000 gift to purchase a brand new home with nothing to do may be in for a surprise if they have to put their hands into their pockets to make “repairs” in their new building. If they couldn’t afford to buy without a discount can they afford to live there if money is needed to correct issues in the building?
Not that every new building will have something drastically wrong. But new doesn’t mean perfect. Faults do occur, problems arise and people think they are covered by a building warranty. We did. But there we were having to raise the money to rectify works that did not meet building codes in a newly built complex. We were lucky in that all the work was “affordable” but no one expected to have to pay anything in a new building.
Suddenly those red brick 1960’s apartment blocks don’t seem so unattractive, except for their exteriors that is. But if they have solid foundations, no concrete cancer, then I would prefer to get owners to put in some money and have the outside rendered. But then gain, why try to change a good thing.
I believe it was that price for a strata lawyer to draw it up and register the by law. And a word of caution to anyone having a by law drawn up – read, read then re-read the drawn up by law before approving. Your strata lawyer does not live in your complex. Make sure the right terminology is used. The wrong wording or description could dramatically change the by law and require it being drawn up again.
Our by law was covered in the model by laws but the OC wanted to make sure there was no interpretation ithe future and had it defined further. The cost was minimal compared to the cost of an individual owners definition of the model by law.
That’s one he’ll of a Reno. I can see there would need to be extensive plans drawn up, engineers reports supplied, council codes referred to, building codes. Not to mention an exclusive use special by law.
You want to change things not only within your space but items generally considered common property ie the front door and the plumbing into/out of the unit, gas line, balcony door, floor tiles, changing window.
Do not forget that many people move into strata not just for the cost but for the added convenience of believing that a lot of the repairs/maintenance are the responsibility of the owners corporation. Making massive changes will make you and any future owners responsible for the areas you have changed. In fact looking at your list there wouldn’t be much left to be covered by the EC, as you also mentioned a subtube through the roof!