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Call your local council and ask for advice on dumped vehicles? There’s usually a process to be followed eg putting notices on the car that it will be moved after an amount of time. It may be that the Council can’t act because the car is dumped on private property, but at least you can follow the procedure… and that may make the owner think the Council is acting and it is outside their control.
Thoughts on secretly installed skylights…..
Without a by-law moving responsibility for upkeep to the unit owner, the Owners Corporation (OC) must take responsibility for them.
Now that the OC is responsible for them, the OC might decide it doesn’t want to take care of skylights that favour just one owner, and might resolve to remove them and patch the ceiling and roof.
What’s that – the new owner likes them? Well, they can prepare a special by-law for registration on their title, moving the care and maintenance of the skylights to the unit owner.
End of thoughts.
@M S said:
Hello JimmyI am curious as to what is meant by the phrase “any personal property vested in the owners corporation”? Could you give an example of what property might come under that term?
Thanks!
I’m imagining a painting bought by the Owners Corporation to display in the foyer of a block of apartments? Or if a unit owner has a flourishing pot plant, which they happen to have put on common property, but then they move and specifically state they are leaving it to the Owners Corporation? That makes your lattice and vine sound like a likely candidate.
These are just guesses.
Curly one. My response would be to aim low. Target the “tenant” on the breaches of the bylaws committed by the individuals. Amend your bylaws if necessary to impose fines for disturbances, littering etc. After a while they might get tired of constantly being “pinged”.
I have no expertise to offer here but it strikes me that having such a lift might have been a condition of the development approval by local council, although no doubt originating at a much higher level eg legislation requiring access to people of all abilities. You could start at the Local Council level and ask some questions.
Whilst there may be no present need amongst the residents for the lift, what about visitors? There’s no way of knowing if a future visitor will need it, and it not being available when needed, may open your Owners Corporation to action for discrimination.
Also call the lift manufacturer and ask about any ways you can save on maintenance… again, I know nothing about this and it may be that mothballing it will work out more expensive in the long run as it will be more costly to restart it when needed, but it’s worth asking about.
And how rentable are damp and waterlogged apartments these days?
Sorry to be glib but sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This is the basic tenet of unit ownership. Clearly the waterproofing was a major fix, benefiting all owners.
I wonder if you had permission to install the airconditioning units in the first place? They must have been attached to common property – whether hanging on an exterior wall or their pipes etc passing through an exterior wall. If permission was given to install them a sensible Body Corporate would have required an exclusive use bylaw to be registered making them the individual owners’ responsibility – in which case, you are on your own as they are your responsibility.
If a bylaw wasn’t registered and they are attached to common property, there’s an argument that they then become part of common property, and the Owners’ Corporation can do with them what they wish. And that’s what they’ve done.
I also wonder where you were when decisions were being made about the major waterproofing project and the contractor said “those airconditioning units have to go”? That would have been the sensible time to raise an objection and work out a solution.
Finally, think of the increase in value of your unit now this major project has been undertaken. To return to my first point, dry and serviceable apartments are much more saleable and rentable than damp ones. Short term pain for long term gain.
The strata plans will need to be redrawn and re-lodged with Land Titles Office. It wont necessarily change unit entitlements unless the parking bays are different sizes. But it will be quite the exercise.
Sometimes tiles in bathrooms are common property – http://www.flatchat.com.au/what-exactly-is-common-property-and-what-isnt/
Maybe the Strata Manager figured that if something was attached to common property (the shower screens are probably attached to a bathroom wall) it became common property too?
Can you ask the Strata Manager their reasoning?
I hope you get some positive action from NCAT etc. What a mess your block has got itself in – and despite your active interest in it even you can’t get to the bottom of it.
One thing that I can’t get past is that there are, in most unit schemes, two charges to unit owners:
1. Quarterly strata levy for day-to-day running (paying common accounts such as insurance, electricity for common areas etc); and
2. Quarterly levy for the sinking fund. The sinking fund is to cover maintenance issues that arise – some short term (emergency fixes eg broken light fitting in common area) and some long term (painting the block).
At some stage expert advise should have been sought to estimate how much you need to hold in your sinking fund – or to put it another way – how much owners need to be levied to build up reserves so that when maintenance issues arise – you have a fund to dip into.
If there hasn’t been an accumulation into the sinking fund over time a Body Corporate may need to suddenly jack up a levy to get money for things that need to be done NOW. But if nothing needs to be done immediately for safety reasons (as Sir Humphrey points out) there’s no need to raise all the money RIGHT NOW.
And, to repeat the point, it should be raised as a special levy and not as an increase in your strata levy.
Best of luck and let us know how you get on.
Hmm, dinner and a show! Either enjoy the celebration of the female body that is going on, or move on. There are far worse things that could be on view.
The problem with putting your head in the sand is that as soon as something goes wrong with the skylight, the owner will come to the Owners Corporation asking for them to fix it, as it’s on common property. At that time you could play nice and shrug and fix it, or play “legal” and say “well, the OC doesn’t want the continuing expense of a skylight so we are going to board it over.”
Either way ugliness ensues. As long as the OC understands their liabilities in the circumstances, and the owner the risk, that’s fine. But if you want to avoid potential problems, get bylaws registered. Although a strata lawyer will probably tell you differently, there’s nothing too complicated about them… is there an example of an exclusive use bylaw already in the scheme that you could crib? Does your Strata Manager have a pro forma one you could use? The Land Titles Office will assist with registration procedure. Knock one up and no one can say then that it’s too hard.
Don’t worry about finding a case. Just raise the idea of a single cracked tile that needs to be replaced inside a unit … but the tiles are no longer produced. Would anyone put up with a single mismatched tile or would they agree that all the tiles should be replaced in that case?
As previously indicated, once you file for mediation, they may realise you are serious and back right down. When you compare the time, effort and (if they engage a lawyer) cost to the OC, they might realise that simply paying to have them replaced will be the cheaper option.
I know it’s a big step, but you are in the right here and just need to DO IT.
Simple reply… if it’s common property, the OC can decide what to paint on in… how does he like mission brown on a (now) internal wall?
Oh for heaven’s sake. You say they are “hard working” – they certainly are working hard to twist meanings of words. If only they were that willing to work hard on a compromise.
I find it hard to believe that replacing one glass panel will in fact meet safety concerns; will the rise in the floor level be “ramped” to the present level so the existing panels still fulfill their safety function? (I imagining someone leaning across from the raised floor level to enable themselves to get over the lower barrier. I’m imagining a child doing this and falling to their death and your OC being sued….)
The underlined part of your post boils down to “you so tom-ay-to; we say tom-a-toe” – they don’t think it’s an aesthetic issue. Surely that’s in the eyes of the beholding owner!
As previously suggested, file the papers for mediation. Hopefully everyone will come to their senses that $2000 is a small price to pay to avoid thousands in legal fees and time wasted.
And go back to the books looking for those tile cases. They are exactly on point.
Good luck.
@GeorgeB said:
The OC had a lawyer and to cut a long story short we agreed on a consent order where they would pay my reasonable expenses. So I thought. As I was not a lawyer I confirmed with the Member that before I sign the consent order am I correct to assume that if my claim is reasonable they would pay. He said yes so I signed the consent order.
No sooner am I back home all the owners receive a letter from the lawyer advising that they don’t owe me anything but just to consider my claim.
…………….Since then the Strata Committee and the Strata Manager have tried to intimidate and bully me to leave based on the consent order, which I have come to understand is now no longer in play or as the tribunal says is not substantive.
The OC are now filing cost applications against me. It’s getting too much to handle.
I hesitate to become involved in this, but here goes….
On what basis do you say the consent order is no longer substantive? Because you say you were misled as to its content and effect and your agreement to it should therefore not stand?
It sounds like a very unconscionable way for a lawyer to behave. Without wishing to muddy the waters too much, perhaps a word to the local Legal Practice Board might distract them from writing any more threatening letters?
On what basis are they seeking a costs order?
Have you made it plain, in writing, to the Executive Committee and the Strata Manager that you are more than prepared to move out as soon as you have an undertaking from the Body Corporate / Owners’ Corporation to meet your reasonable costs of relocating and refurbishing?