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Our strata committee has elected not to have the inaccessible windows in our property washed. They have not been cleaned for years. Given strata is responsible for cleaning these windows, can they simply opt out because “they will just get dirty again”?
Check your by-laws. If your strata has adopted the model by-laws (provided by the NSW Government), it says that the owners corporation is responsible for cleaning them externally when it is not safe for the lot owner to clean them:
13 Cleaning windows and doors
(1)Except in the circumstances referred to in clause (2), an owner or occupier of a lot is responsible for cleaning all interior and exterior surfaces of glass in windows and doors on the boundary of the lot, including so much as is common property.
(2)The owners corporation is responsible for cleaning regularly all exterior surfaces of glass in windows and doors that cannot be accessed by the owner or occupier of the lot safely or at all.
I personally find the flatchat interface more challenging.
I’m sorry to hear that. I am constantly trying to make the website more accessible to more readers while maintaining security over email addresses and passwords.
Thanks Jimmy. I appreciate you keeping this forum running. You’re doing an excellent job. It is an essential service.
I cannot remember how long I have been around but it has been more than five years.
My gripe is not with your page design. It was with the underlying software. You can’t change that. Sometimes I type a long post, hit submit and there is no “waiting for moderation” message. The post is lost and I am annoyed!
Also, I check the “Notify me of follow-up replies via email” and I have NEVER received a notification.
In Lesson 1, a screen told me: “Then, let’s get started by meeting Priya, a first-time committee member. Select the Next button to continue.” The NEXT button was grayed out: it could not be clicked on with a mouse. A number of attempts to Exit/Save and Resume got me no further.
Underneath the photo of Priya, there is a triangular “play” button. You have to click on the play button to hear Priya speak. Alternately, there is a transcript button in the bottom right corner below Priya. Click on the transcript button and it shows what Priya says. Then the “NEXT” button becomes available.
This screen set up exists at the beginning of all six lessons.
BTW, the course is not free. The user is paying for internet-access. Some strata residents, on limited incomes, do not have ISP plans with ‘unlimited data’; money is limited, Internet access is rationed. The course is an hour (apparently)! I would be less irritated if my time wasn’t being hijacked by communication and design glitches. I am all happiness for those users who have managed to access and complete it
Our local council library has free Internet access. If you can access this web site, then you can get through the strata committee course.
the Internet has been available to the general population for over thirty years! How can it suddenly be a problem to make up a secure password? No wonder people are getting scammed every few minutes. A four digit password like 1234 is not acceptable any more. Even if you think its “Mossad” level security, you will be sorry after you have been scammed or had your identity stolen. fair Trading does not want a system which is easily compromised.
I had no difficulty navigating the strata training system. I completed the first 10 min module and got one of the three quiz questions incorrect! It was the one about common property vs lot.
I personally find the flatchat interface more challenging.
More younger people should become interested in joining a strata committee. If only it was easier for young people to buy property.
Here is an example of what could be written on the registered plan.
“Areas include verandahs and garden courts. Verandahs are limited to a height of 2.745 above upper surface of verandah floor level except where covered. Garden courts are limited to a height of 3.66 above, except where covered and a depth of 1.525 below upper surface of ground floor level of respective adjoining unit.”
You should ask your strata manager for a copy of the registered plan. If there is a height limit and this palm tree exceeds that limit, the owners corporation becomes responsible for it.
In 2017, we paid $1,709.40 to install child safety locks in eight homes. Someone showed me the lock. It looks like the “Ikonic Sliding Window Lock aluminium – 2 pack” which sells for $3.40 at Bunnings.
We were ripped off.
Furthermore, two of the owners were not at home at the time of the installation. A “call back fee” of $270 was charged for EACH home.
It is so unnecessary. Have they considered that children could fall off a balcony as well?
Does your neighbour have someone to support her? She might be so impaired that another person has been appointed as their Power of Attorney.
It sounds like they need a regular lawn mowing / cleaning person to come into their property and maintain it. This is the responsibility of the lot owner, not the owners corporation. If she is unable to maintain the place herself, then she has to pay someone to do it for her.
Find out if someone is in charge of their finances. The person who pays the bills should arrange for a regular lawn mowing / cleaning contractor.
two hours of training is not enough. I sat through a three hour workshop on meeting proedure (passing a motion with an amendment, points of order, procedural motions, chairmanship). That was exhausting.
By the way, Jimmy, I was overseas for three months. I could read forum posts but I was unable to login. Are you deliberately blocking non-Australian IP addresses? It’s probably a good thing for moderating the forum. I would like to know if it is intentional.
The fee to call an extraordinary general meeting should be in the strata management contract. You need to take a look at this document. If it is in the contract, it is legal.
The strata management contract lists how much they charge for their services to the owners corporation. Somewhere in one of the “schedules” at the end of the document, it shows that they charge a certain amount for holding an extraordinary general meeting.
You can get around this. If you have several owners, whose unit entitlements add up to 25% of the total unit entitlements in the strata plan, they can call a meeting. I did it. I called a meeting without involving the strata manager so that we could vote on a few things. The strata manager cannot charge me for something I initiated. However, you have to read the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and know something about running a meeting because there are rules about issuing a notice of agenda, voting minutes etc.
What I cannot understand is why the resolution passed in the original meeting did not allow you have ongoing care of different animals. The wording of the motion should have said you can keep zz number of animals for a maximum xx days and include whatever conditions they see fit.
It would be even better to create a by-law to formulate rules around foster care. In that case you might need a lawyer to draft the rules and you would have to pay for another extraordinary general meeting and registration of the by-law.
Hello mailbox
You have not mentioned your location. We always assume it is NSW, unless otherwise stated.
In NSW, a company does not “own the strata”. Your brother’s townhouse is one lot in a strata plan. The owners of each lot form a company called the owners corporation. The owners corporation keeps a set of by-laws.
Most owners corporations delegate the responsibility of day to day running to a strata manager. If you want to find out what by-law your brother has broken, you should ask for a copy of the strata plan’s by-laws. The strata manager should have these. So ask the landlord how to contact the strata manager. In fact, every tenant should receive a copy of the by-laws when they first move in to the property.
There may be a by-law explaining that you cannot put things on display in the front garden if people outside the garden can see them. It is not about how benign the decorations are. When you life in a strata plan, there are rules which promote a consistent look from one townhouse to the next.
You live in a house which is separate from the other homes. Ask a strata lawyer whether they could draft a by-law “conferring rights or privileges over common property” to have more autonomy over the maintenance of your lot.
Regarding a “divorce”, I suggest you read:
Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW)
Part 7 By-Laws for Strata Schemes
Division 3 By-Laws conferring rights or privileges over common property
Sections 142-145
For the time being, you are entitled to get common property maintenance work done on your lot. It is up to the owners corporation to find the funds for it.
@Flatchatty, You can initiate mediation / NCAT proceedings yourself. You don’t have to wait for a strata manager or Strata Committee to do it on behalf of the owners corporation. The application forms are on the Dept of Fair Trading’s web site.
The strata manager is wrong for these reasons:
- It is their job to know the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW).
- Section 110 does not apply to this air conditioner. Read Section 110. There is a list of things that comprise “minor renovations”. There is a second list of things you can find in the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 Section 28 which are also “minor renovations”. Reverse cycle split system air conditioner is in the list. However, SSMA 2015 Section 110 paragraph 7 lists what is NOT a minor renovation. 7(b) “Work involving structural changes” and 7(c) “Work that involves changing the external appearance of a lot …“. It can’t be clearer than that. If the air con was not visible from outside the lot (e.g. in a rear courtyard), this would be a section 110 minor renovation.
The owner with the air conditioner is wrong for these reasons:
- The strata manager does not approve an air conditioning installation. It must be approved by the owners corporation.
- The strata committee does not approve an air conditioning installation if it does not comply with Section 110 of the SSMA 2015. It must be approved by the owners corporation via special resolution.
- The “defect committee”, whatever that is, does not approve an air conditioning installation. It must be approved by the owners corporation.
- A general meeting of ALL OWNERS must be held to approve the air conditioning installation. As far as I can tell, this has NOT happened. You should contact all the other owners and find out what they think of that air conditioning installation. It would be wise to find out who would vote to approve / disapprove the installation before a meeting is held.
If you are an owner, you can apply to Dept of Fair Trading for a free mediation session. You can also apply to NCAT for a hearing. The NCAT application form is downloadable. It lists all the orders you can request the NCAT member to make. You can request an order to have a strata committee removed. You can request an order to have the air conditioning system removed. You can request an order to remove the strata manager too. For each request the form indicates what evidence you need to gather and whether they want you to seek mediation beforehand.
You seem to be very frustrated that the strata committee and strata manager are not doing anything about the installation. They are trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Keep all your correspondence. You can show NCAT that you have tried to point out the illegality of this installation and what the response was.
Earlier in this thread, there was mention of Cumberland Council. Have you spoken to someone there about this?
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Hello. Does privacy law in NSW prevent minutes showing lot and apartment numbers of those in arrears?
Unfinancial members [should be identified] because they are not entitled to vote at owners corporation meetings (e.g. Annual General Meeting, Extraordinary General Meeting). They can attend the meeting and join in the discussion but they cannot vote.
Are you in NSW? Is not this a violation of Strata Schemes Management Act 2015?
Please look up Section 108 and Section 111 of the Act.
Owners cannot alter the external appearance of common property unless a SPECIAL RESOLUTION is passed at a general meeting.
This is more than asking the strata committee to approve it. This is asking ALL OWNERS to consider the application and vote. Special resolution means you must get 75% of all votes cast to pass the motion.
An owner can ask for retrospective approval but it is got to be a vote of the whole owners corporation. A single strata manager or strata committee should not approve it. There is a lot of people playing ignorant.
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