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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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· The Motion Mash-Up: They’ve crammed the decision to have an ‘end of major defects warranty’ building inspection with the decision on which company to use all into one motion. It’s like asking “Should we get pizza and should it be from Dominos?” in a single breath. They need to be separate votes!
Agreed. If they change a motion after the agenda has been sent, they need to re-send the agenda to all owners. You cannot add a new motion to a meeting without all owners seeing it beforehand.
· The Wonky Voting Paper: The voting paper only has “YES” boxes next to each quote. No “NO” option. It’s generated by their software, apparently, and we’re just supposed to accept it. Because nothing says “democracy” like being unable to formally vote against something!
Draw a box and write the word “NO” next to it. Draw a tick inside the box.
· The Missing Info: They haven’t provided the scopes of work for the quotes. So owners are being asked to choose between a $1,500 inspection and a $4,750 one with zero idea of what they’re actually getting for their money. Super informed decision-making, right?
You could call the providers yourself and find out what the works entail. It should not be your job to do it.
But wait, there’s more! The real kicker is the new habit this manager has developed. At the end of his emails, he now includes this little gem:
“Please be advised that all correspondence is being recorded on the property file, which may have a negative impact if you wish to sell your property in the future.”
If a prospective buyer sees an engaged owner and an intransigent strata manager, they might run away. They are threatening you by saying you are revealing their incompetence.
Last September, my State MP held a “Strata Matter” forum with strata commissioner, Angus Abadee. He mentioned that there is not enough competition between strata insurers.
I have arranged strata insurance (as a self managed property) for several years without paying commission. The insurance company asks the same questions about the age of the building, condition, construction, swimming pools etc.
Thanks Jimmy. That’s a relief!
70 units in a block. 1/70 = 1.4% Your 10/1000 entitlement is less than 1/70th. That means some units have more than 1/70th entitlement. Possibly because they are bigger. The unit entitlement also determines how much levy you are asked to pay. The 10/1000 entitlement pays a lower levy than for example, 20/1000.
Admin fund: $1,500,000
Capital works fund: $30,000
If you really like this unit and it has a fantastic location, you should take a closer look at the finances. You need to see their budget, past transactions, insurance claims / premiums, levy payment history of the owners and their ten year capital works plan. Are there embedded networks? Otherwise, run.
If they have a debt of $1,500,000 and they have the same amount in their administrative fund, why don’t they pay off the debt AS FAST AS THEY CAN? Debt usually incurs interest. No one lends $1.5M without charging interest.
Or is this a debt where the interest charged is LESS THAN the interest earned (minus 30% tax) from the admin fund?
You need to look at their budget to find out how they spend their money from the administrative fund. Does this place have a lift, building manager, manicured gardens, swimming pool, gym, tennis court as a well as $1.5M debt to pay off? How many years will it take to pay off this debt?
The relatively tiny amount reserved for capital works is interesting. If you are an investment property owner, you can claim the administrative fund levy as an expense for income tax purposes. You cannot claim the capital works fund levy. Has someone made the administrative fund levy really high to help property investors get a bigger tax deduction?
The tiny capital works fund might also be the result of recent $1.5M capital works. They just have not had time to rebuild the fund. I worry that they don’t care about property maintenance. They leave everything to deteriorate until they can no longer ignore it and then take a massive loan to fix everything. If that is their attitude, you should run.
If there is an embedded network in this strata property, I would continue looking for something else.
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It would be best to ask a strata lawyer for advice. On this forum, everyone volunteers an answer and we try to be helpful. We are not lawyers. Your problem seems like an expensive one.
You need to determine what is common property and what is not common property. Every strata plan has a document called the registered plan. Your strata manager should have a copy of the registered plan. Otherwise, you can get it from the NSW government. By convention, thick black lines represent common property. Internal walls are usually not common property. My understanding is that waterproofing is common property.
Your problem is that the damage has extended to other parts of the villa. The definition of common property is not that the there is a common wall between the bathroom and the next room. It is usually the roof, floor, external walls, external windows, external doors, slab between floors, walls between lots. As I said, it is shown by thick black lines on the registered plan. Also, common property is not carpet, paint or wall paper. Those things are stuck onto common property but they are part of the lot.