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The minutes from our last AGM states that should someone be elected to the EC during the year it would have to be approved by 2 EC members. As we only have one EC member on the committee, not much chance of this happening is there.
With all the past actions of government to make homes “greener” (insulation batts and solar panels) I wonder why government doesn't step in and offer a financial hand to have individual meters installed. Even a partial payment would help OCs to fund such changes. And by having each and every owner responsible for their own water usage is the only way to teach them good habits.
I am so grateful that I have my own meter. In this household, water usage is half that of the average (for no. of occupants). That is with an ancient washing machine and garden. And I have not noticed much change in the amount I am charged each quarter – minimum amount. I have no doubt that should we have a shared water meter here that I would be paying 3 times the amount. Why would you consider your water usuage if someone else was paying for it? The thought of having a 30 minute shower with the guy next door with his 5 min shower chipping in for my water usuage is even appealing to me!
With more and more medium and high density living expected in our cities and with government departments looking at ways to preserve/conserve/make water for use, I believe that the matter of shared water meters has been overlooked at a way at reducing the misuse of this precious and necessary commodity.
We set up an email address for the EC. We advised owners/residents that general requests could be sent to this email address however but it was not a vehicle to give permission for any changes. Residents were advised that the SM was the main contact point. They were there 5 days a week, 9-5 whereas the members of the EC worked and were not contactable as often. Should an emergency occur, the SM had contact details to get an EC member (or two) immediately. We stressed to all owners the importance of communicating any problems that need attention in writing so as to have a record on which to act.
I was interested to read Broncos17's post were the EC were “attacked”. At each and every AGM owners complain that our EC didn't do this or that. However, there is no record that anyone has ever mentioned these problems to either the EC or the SM. One owner cornered me in the driveway to complain about an issue that had not been addressed. I asked when they had notified the SM or EC about it. They hadn't told anyone except me that day. Apparently those on the EC need to possess powers of ESP.
If our EC has to have their details “published” for all to see, then we definitely wouldn't have an EC at all (we only have one person on it these days). I would not like my phone number or email given out. It was bad enough that owners knew my unit number when I was on the EC. I had people coming to my door and wanting me to personally give them permission for work there and then (without consultation of knowledge to any other EC members, SM or checking that it was indeed an OC issue). So phone numbers and email as well! No thanks! And I would fully support anyone who, in the future, puts their hand up to be on the EC.
I believe going through the SM leaves a “official” paper trail. I have had owners put notes under my door (that went under the mat and were not found until another note asking why I hadn't replied!). Our SM follows up on whether we have made a decision on a matter that they have passed on to EC.
We have only had once instance of a special levy for repairs to our complex (when our insurer informed us that areas of the common property did not meet building code standards and needed attention). The repairs were not urgent ie the complex was not falling apart, but money needed to be spent. We divided our special levy over a number of months to ease the burden on owners.
Perhaps you could do that too. Owners could put in an extra amount every quarter for the special levy and that money could start to be used. Even getting reports done costs money. Then you can look at how much to raise the levies.
We have quite low levies in our complex. However, our complex is not very old. And levies have gradually increased over the years (now almost double). Though I do fear that owners believe that levies will never have to go up much in the future. Owners here have indicated that they would prefer the occasional special levy rather than large increases in levies in general. I don't think owners realise that with the complex getting older, and costs getting higher, that both special levies and raised levies will be in our future.
This is what annoys me most about strata living. Some people think that anything and everything is the responsibility of the OC. So they don't report a problem because if it gets bad (and therefore more expensive) they won't have to pay anyway. So they wait until it is really bad before saying anything. We had one owner who wrote saying that he had considerable damage to his property caused by a problem that he himself said he had known about and had watched get worse over 5 years. When the damage caused huge problems and required extensive repairs, he contacted the OC.
Owners/residents( and in this case agents) should have to report problems when they first appear so they can be repaired with minimum cost. And if they don't, and it is obvious that the problem has been ongoing and not reported, then the owner should pay for it. If only…..
We had a by-law drawn up covering bathrooms and internal plumbing. It took quite a while going back and forth to the lawyer, back to the EC etc etc. It was necessary to ensure that the correct terminology and wording was used for our complex.
We also had cause to contact a strata lawyer regarding an owner who had breached strata by-laws (damaging/changing common property on numerous occasions and refusing to return back to original condition). It also took a long time before we had a document with the correct wording and referring to the correct areas of common property. It was about 5 weeks at least in this instance.
In both instances, the time was worth it. You really do need to read, re-read to make sure it is right. The wrong wording and you are back to the drawing board.
I personally would look into the balances of the admin and sinking fund and find out what you can do to rectify this before selling. No one wants to purchase a property in a complex that has no money in the bank. They could be up for a huge special levy the day they move in! Buyers like to know that there are sufficient funds for any upcoming repairs/maintenance as well as the unexpected. Low funds in the bank could result in a low offer on your property! Perhaps forget about the hot water system and pursue this instead.
Could not even imagine us having any kind of online social page for this complex. We have a resident who has made some outrageous statements which were defamatory and vitriolic to the EC and even contractors carrying out works on the premises. This was in writing, with name included! And from the resident who has broken just about every bylaw ever written and continues to do so! Imagine what would have been written if they could be anonymous!
We tried to get everyone onboard with an OC email address. But only a handful could be bothered giving their email addresses to be kept up to date. Everyone here prefers to save up their whinge about lack of communication and what is wrong with the place for the AGM. I give up.
If you are live in a strata (ie you all put in levies to take care of common property) then the Executive Committee and Owners Corporation would be responsible for ensuring by laws are observed. Everyone who owns in strata make up the Owners Corporation. Also, individual owners can take other owners to task regarding compliance with by laws.
I would not be putting something on common property because someone else is. They could take you to task over this garden. Their junk car is not a permanent fixture ie something that can be moved easily even if your neighbours aren't. Don't be putting up a raised garden bed with stakes into the ground securing it. Could be viewed as a permanent structure. If they object to the garden bed and complain, they can have their car towed away overnight and leave you with the permanent fixture. They win! Why not put pots along this area. They, just like the car, are not permanent. Someone gets picky, you can move the pots overnight. Otherwise, do the right thing, even if your neighbours don't and get permission to build this garden bed.
If you do something because your neighbours have, then the other neighbours might do the same and it may not be something as nice as a raised garden bed. And then the next neighbour might do something else then you end up with a hodge podge look, very unappealing. If this car is on common property, about time someone does something about it before someone gets injured due to the car being there and sues your strata for injury/damages.
I wouldn't have thought the police would not look into this matter. If it is a public street, then parking across a driveway is a bookable offence? It is my belief that you cannot park over a driveway on a public street even if it is your own driveway.
Not having access to a driveway means that emergency services do not have access. You should write to council and emphasise this fact. Should there be a fire, heart attack, act of violence, how would the appropriate people attend if the driveway is blocked?
I would write to council and point this out, ask them to paint “No Parking at any time” outside the driveway or some other obvious notice. Should there be a serious event on these premises (whose owners pay rates to council for services which I would think includes access to their homes from the street) and emergency services not be able to attend due to no action taken on this parking problem then you would have proof that you tried to bring this matter to someones attention.
This is an area that I believe the current model bylaws and bylaws in general do not cover. Blinds, shutters, awnings, pergolas etc all effective ways to cut down on heat inside a dwelling without resorting to using air con. These methods are very effective at keeping the heat out and therefore reducing the need for cooling.
The model bylaws state that an occupier can make changes (within reason) that are for the purpose of security and keeping out insects. I believe that this should include the above methods of protecting a home from the effects of the summer sun.
Of course, there would have to be ground rules laid down by individual stratas. The colour, type, where and how placed, to protect the strata complex from looking like a a hodge podge of bits and pieces. An owner should be allowed to do something if they wish to reduce the heat inside their home (without the OC being responsible for upkeep).
In any complex, some units will have more heat affecting them than others (such as Monique on the top floor). So of course the others don't know what the fuss is about. Same in this complex. Some suffer the summer sun alot, some suffer just a bit.
I believe the model by laws need to be updated to include such matters as energy effective cooling in existing strata complexes as to what an owner can (and of course cannot) do.
Our strata insurance has “volunteer” cover. Therefore, we have believed that should any owner/resident volunteer to do something around the complex they would be covered. However, once you start paying them, they wouldn't be volunteers would they? If an owner/resident did work around a complex, and was paid for their services, therefore not a volunteer anymore, and they were not a business with their own insurance, nor a qualified tradesperson with coverage, would strata insurance necessarily cover them? And if a strata complex “employed” the services of a resident/owner should they not check that they this resident has adequate insurance to carry out any paid work in the complex? I know that our SM advises us that should we decide to use someone to carry out maintenance in the complex (other than from their approved list of tradespeople) then the onus is on us to check that they have insurances (and licences).
When I was on our EC we did most of our correspondence via email between committee members. If we did not we would have not achieved anything. Most of the committee members worked full time. At least with an email, they can perhaps answer whilst at work if not at home. Only with the really big decisions did we have a meeting if only so that we could get everyones input/ideas/suggestions on the matter. Sometimes what seems like a good idea/decision may not be when someone points out the negatives in it and you can't have those discussions via email.
However the EC did not correspondence directly with residents via email. We encouraged residents to send emails to the SM to be forwarded or copy sent to EC. And the EC did the same, sent emails to residents via SM. In that way, there was a recorded copy on file of any discussions/problem/issues. It worked well. If we had to have a meeting for every decision in the place, it would have taken months for each and every matter.
Am hearing you bpositive! I don't want to pay for other owners either. Something needs to be done. An owner can make a change on the sly and then say it was always like that and the OC should pay.
Our complex was an off the plan job. The original owners could pick their paint colours, floor coverings, taps, tiles, fixtures etc. So, what was in where when? The OC wouldn't know what was originally there. Therefore they no one would know if a change had been made in a unit. It's not like we all had white tiles on the floor and beige on the walls!
Owners want to OC to be responsible and replace/repair fixtures in their units, but they also what the ability to change/renovate the same fixtures/tiles etc without notice or permission. It frustrates me – you can't have it both ways. Either you are responsible so can change then if your want (proper notice notwithstanding) – or the OC is responsible and you have to jump through all the hoops to get change done!
For your owner with the floorboards, I do believe that floorboards are covered by strata insurance (as they cannot be taken with you when you move unlike carpet?!). Found that our SM had been arranging floorboards repairs/replacement with our insurance by accident as they never bothered telling us what they were doing. So try your strata insurance first before your OC spends anymore money.