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You can develop a by-law and vote on it. And once the by-law is in place, you can take action. If the by-law is sensible and not an overreach, then you may get support from enough other owners to get it passed.
We own a place in VIC that seems to work like that. OC pays for driveway and tree-trimming in between properties, and issues with sewerage. Shared walls (of which there are very few) seem to be a shared cost between the owners that share them. Roof repairs are covered by individual owners. I don’t know if this has evolved, or if it’s how the strata plan is set up. We’re about to embark on a garage door replacement which is a mix of singles and doubles so I’m not sure how costs will be shared.
In your case, it sounds like the strata plan is pretty clear. Your strata fees should be fairly low. The main issue I can see is what you do if someone fails to maintain their part of the property and causes damage to another property or negatively affects the amenity or value of other properties. That can happen in any other suburban street but in strata you have a few more levers you can pull and a Tribunal to help.
Beware of “cheaper.” You may find that the cheaper company charges extra for services that your current SM includes in the monthly fee. It’s quite a job comparing SM fee proposals.
I suspect the property manager didn’t raise it with the landlord earlier when it could have been fixed at less cost (or else possibly blamed on the tenant who caused the original damage), and is now trying to take cover behind you.
The forum has been very quiet in the past week. I imagine all the flatchatters have turned their attention to the negative gearing and CGT changes and what those might mean for them.
I’m in the “don’t panic” camp, although I feel sorry for those who are trying to sell right now, and those who were about to buy with a negative gearing strategy. Nothing has been legislated, so it’s hard to be certain about anything. Wait a few weeks and things will be clearer.My prediction is that the negative gearing changes will pass through as announced. But I think we have a way to go with the CGT changes. Already we are hearing about unintended consequences, and I think a few of the harshest features of the new plan may be modified. I wouldn’t be panic-selling yet.
I’m not a financial advisor, just a punter with a fine Australian education. Please take my comments with that in mind, and gather your input from a wide range of sources.
I wish I knew about lift consultants when we replaced our lift a few years ago! We are a small block of six, so a new lift is a big expense for us with only six owners to bear the cost. We saved for that lift through increased levies over a three year period. One of our owners took on the price negotiations and we got the lift for $160K. Eight weeks with no lift – so difficult for the elderly people in the building. And then the new lift kept breaking down. We were so disappointed. That’s when we learned how far down the priority list we were for call-outs. Hospitals and nursing homes get first preference behind people actually stuck in a lift. Then big towers. Small blocks with elderly residents just don’t get attention. The entire service system was automated with no people to speak with. We ended up with residents lying in wait in the basement in case a technician turned up, trying to make contact with anyone who would talk with us about what was going wrong. One of our residents was getting maintenance quotes from other companies (we were still within our year of free maintenance).
Finally someone encountered an actual technician and explained how poorly the new lift was performing and he looked beyond the “get it going again” approach and discovered a serious fault with our mother-board, which was replaced (that took three months). Lift has been brilliant ever since.
At the end of our year of free maintenance, we were very reluctant to sign up with that company and suddenly actual humans started to talk to us. We were able to negotiate the pricing and the terms of the standard contract for the first 12 months and we got an exit clause added to allow us to get out of the contract without penalty if the lift continued to behave poorly (which it hasn’t). I now have email and phone contacts for actual people in our lift company.I worry about the numbers of people moving into apartments in our cities and how many of them are not equipped to manage projects of this size, fight for their rights, negotiate contracts or pay for expensive consultants and lawyers to look after their interests.
How long do you plan to live there? You might get away with it for a few months, but you’d always be living a version of a shadow existence. Can’t join the library. Possible trouble proving your address for a drivers license, enrolling a child in school, Medicare etc. lots of government services require a street address. What address would you provide for the electoral roll? Over the years I’ve had many interactions with my local government staff and elected representatives. Local friends who know where I live have successfully stood for Council. Do you really want to be hiding your address from the people who manage your local community, and denying yourself access to services?
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She’s throwing stuff at people. That’s a bit more than being a busybody.
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Do you have a strata manager? I’d like to think the SM would be working through all of this with the owner who wants to do the renovation and making sure all the relevant document is provided. That said, the SM may be very busy with multiple schemes and it could fall to the Secretary and other Committee members to chase it all up and make sure the by-law is internally consistent. My preference is to have all the plans attached to the by-law. If they are not, how does a potential future buyer of that property know if the renovation that was completed was ever actually approved? Sometimes the contractor names can’t be included in the by-law because th ey change after the by-law is approved (contractors pull out, or are unavailable, some refuse to quote until after the reno is approved by Council). But if the owner is trying to do the right thing, and the Committee is engaged and maintaining open and constructive lines of communication, then it should be possible to get the proper documentation in place. Remember that the by-law is not just a document that gives approval for the reno. It has to stand the test of time as it specifies who is responsible for what on an ongoing basis, and it communicates to a future potential buyer of that property what they are responsible for. So the owner has to be prepared to spend money on adjustments to that by-law if the project changes mid-stream.
Are you an owner? If so, get together with enough other owners and don’t vote her in next time! If she was unbearable before, then I’m guessing she got back on the Committee because no one else put their hand up for the job. If you don’t want her on the Committee, you need to be prepared to take on the job if no one else wants it. In the meantime, if she physically assaults someone or their property, that’s a Police matter. If her behaviour is sufficiently out of line that you suspect a serious mental health issue, you could ask the Police to do a welfare check. That might give her reason to consider how her behaviour is affecting others. Then there is also the right of residents to peaceful enjoyment of their properties. That is something you could raise with the strata manager.
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Owners Corp has a duty to maintain common property under law. If the first repair didn’t fix the problem, they have to move onto the second repair.
Does forthcoming building work include fixing the balcony and brick wall, or is it just the repairs to your apartment that have been left out? If so, it’s reasonable that they are not repairing your apartment until they know the problem is properly fixed.
I think you should involve a lawyer. With mould and fungi, you could be heading towards a situation where you need alternative accommodation. A lawyer can help you understand what is reasonable and how NCAT has treated these situations in the past.
That’s true, but not relevant to this question. Stratalearner didn’t buy a house with a balcony, he/she bought a flat where the balcony is part of common property, not his/her own. And he/she is not allowed to go ahead and fix it without permission of the OC. And in any case, it’s the OC that is supposed to fix it – they are funded (by the owners) to do these things.