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Excellent work! I am impressed that you could achieve so much in the space of one month. Good luck with self management. You have taken the time to study the SSMA and regulations. It is very satisfying to take back ownership of these responsibilities.
I found it invaluable to use a spreadsheet for preparing the financial statements. I used OurBodyCorp [software] for the first year. I had the most basic product. The software was really good for issuing levy notices and keeping track of transactions and invoices. I needed to use a spreadsheet for preparing Key Financial Information statements.
Also, are the 10 year plans legally enforceable?Are you talking about the 10 year capital works fund plan? The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) requires you to have a plan and to review it every five years. The owners corporation could review and change the plan more frequently than that.
I suggest that if you’re on the committee, you should be notified of everything that is spent. This will help you get a feeling for what the issues are and who are the more active owners / residents. It might be more convenient to let the strata manager take care of everything costing less than $500 but you won’t learn much about your own strata plan. You should be more than a rubber stamp for someone else’s decisions.
My previous strata manager contract allowed the strata manager to spend up to $500 of owners corp money without contacting the strata committee. It was remarkable how many jobs cost us $495.
For urgent/emergency matters, there was no limit to what they could spend. We found expenditure running into thousands of dolllars because they were “urgent”. Without a proper definition of “urgent”, it’s urgent because the owners says so.
Just to give a perspective from the other side. I was one of the owners representing the owners corporation. One of the other owners took action against the owners corporation.
None of the owners had any experience with NCAT. We let the strata manager attend because we did not know what to expect at the hearing. It cost $440 for a half day (3 hour) session. I think the strata manager charged a miminum $440 and then $110 per hour thereafter. The strata manager contributed zero to the proceedings.
I know that the NCAT web site says that the parties should work together to solve their issues and not engage lawyers and other professionals. In reality, people bring lawyers and strata managers.
This case happened less than five years ago. I think $880 for three hours is steep.
If the strata manager has been previously authorised to issue a notice to comply, then this is a valid notice. See Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) Section 146:
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2015-050#sec.146
There is an information sheet about neighbourhood noise from the Environment Protection Autority:
There is no specific mention about noise from people talking. For the things that are covered, noise after 10:00PM is not permitted. These rules come from the Protection of the Environment Operations (Noise Control) Regulation 2017 at:
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/sl-2017-0449
This structure sounds like a pergola. According to the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, your neighbour’s structure could be illegal in a couple of ways (above the roof gutter and reaching the lot boundary). I suggest contacting your local council as well as your strata manager with your concerns.
See State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 2.11 at
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/epi-2008-0572#pt.2-div.1-sdiv.6
The motion at the meeting must refer to a specific by-law because the notice has to refer to a specific by-law. Here is a copy of a “Notice to comply with a by-law” form I once used. It’s from the Office of Fair Trading. The Strata Manager could also send a letter on their own letterhead.
https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/367841/Notice_to_comply.pdf
You could help the strata manager by having a friendly chat with the tenant and asking what their name is, what the dog’s name is etc.
Don’t be afraid to request a mediation session with Fair Trading. I’ve been through it. It took months. The other party refused several invitations to attend. After failure of mediation, we were allowed to go to NCAT. Our application was successful.
I learnt a lot from this forum, Q&A pages from strata lawyer web sites and the Office of Fair Trading. However, my brother is a lawyer. He advised me that I should always refer to the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 for the truth. NCAT follows the Act, not what some mug wrote on the internet.
Create a bookmark folder for strata stuff. Bookmark these pages in your web browser:
Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW)
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2015-050
Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 (NSW)
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/sl-2016-0501
Sheera, You should read through the entire “Division 2 Contributions by Owners” of the Strata Schemes Management Act (NSW) 2015.
A quick look at Strata Schemes Management Act (NSW) 2015 Section 81 suggests that you can change the levies at a meeting other than the AGM.
Paragraph (2) says “meeting”. There is no specific reference to “annual general meeting”.
If your strata manager or strata committee tells you otherwise, you can refer them to the Act.
It is very important to know who owns / controls the images recorded by those cameras. They could end up in the hands of paedophiles or used to work out what the hours when a home is unoccupied.
Victorian Case Law: I googled “Victorian case law security camera VCAT” and navigated through to the following case:
Mote V Eydlish VCAT REFERENCE: OC172/2010
To find the above case, I typed “surveillance camera” in the search box in the top right of the screen.
To find other past VCAT decisions, go to
AustLib Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) 1998-
I live in NSW. Our Owners Corp successfully applied to remove surveillance cameras which were installed without permission of the Owners Corporation. NSW also has a Surveillance Devices Act which forbids unauthorised recording of other people’s activities.
I have that “Who’s responsible” booklet too. I agree that it puts the responsibility for painting on the owner.
Do you have before and after photos to show that the paintwork was damaged beforehand? If the plaster work caused damage to the ceiling paint, the OC has to remedy it. The OC is only obliged to fix whatever became damaged during their work on the ceiling. Perhaps you could repaint the bits of ceiling that was damaged but not the whole ceiling?
In my strata plan, we have an insurance policy that covers both repair and re-painting. We had a water damaged ceiling. Owner was angry when I said that OC should not pay for the painting. We put in an insurance claim for it. The whole job was covered by the insurance company.
Paying for having Tax returns done. Strata Plans are all required to lodge Tax returns, so investment account or not. you still lodge one. So no savings on having the return done regardless of having or not having an investment account, as inhouse tax returns are usually a set fee.
“Strata Plans are all required to lodge Tax returns”
That is not true. Read the response from JodiH here: ATO community forum: tax return for strata group.
I am in charge of a self-managed strata plan. Our only income is levy income. I called the ATO and told them that we only have levy income. They marked our file so that we no longer have to submit tax returns. I had to put this request in writing.
This all started when I noticed that the strata manager was paying a taxation agent $130 every year to submit a tax return with zero income. We’d been paying $130 p.a. for an unnecessary tax return for over 20 years. I also noticed that the tax agent’s surname was the same as one of the staff at the strata manager’s office … one of many reasons we decided to become self-managed.
Just makes things hard for self managed SPs and adds costs to SPs who like to be hands on to keep costs down.
Agreed. I’m running a self-managed strata plan in NSW. Last June, I travelled into the CBD and lodged the form myself. Cost $146.40.
I completed an additional “Conveyancing Rules Exemption form” to confirm that this transaction was on a list which could be waived from electronic lodgement. (See point 23 on the list).
The lodge-it-yourself method will be replaced by “electronic lodgement network” from 11 October 2021.
Our only choice will be to use a company who will add an extra fee! This isn’t progress. We’re going backwards.
Jimmy, I used the form you linked. At that time, it wasn’t possible for me to lodge it electronically.
For anyone interested, the office needs to see the Certificate of Title for the strata plan. I numbered the pages of the form, appended by-laws, appended minutes of meeting which passed the by-laws.
conversion of WORD –> PDF: use the “Export” option in the File menu.
conversion of PDF –> WORD: I keyed in the whole thing by hand.
Apologies if the formatting is off. I haven’t used HTML in ages.
The Medicare Express app has a copy of my “COVID-19 digital certificate”.
Vaccination status should be a selling point for contractors. If I had to choose between two contractors, who were otherwise equivalent, I would choose the vaccinated one.
You could ask the contractor to show you their certificate before they begin work at the site. Unfortunately, there will be people seeking fake proof of vaccination. So masks and social distancing should always prevail.
Start by obtaining a copy of the strata plan. You can get it on-line from LPI agents. Your solicitor might have one already although it’s probably in storage somewhere.
The strata plan is authoritative on where your allocated parking is. And implicitly the committee can’t cut off access to your parking.
Agreed. The answer to your question is in the strata plan. A strata plan shows the boundaries of your lot. Everything outside your lot is either someone else’s lot or common property.
Your strata plan will indicate whether the space you use to park your car is actually common property. If it is common property, you will have to get permission from the owners corporation to park your car there. I know it sounds stupid if you have been parking directly in front of your townhouse for years … that’s why you need to check the strata plan and read your by-laws carefully.
I live in a block of townhouses where the strata plan says that my lot comprises the inside of the townhouse and a rear courtyard. All land in front of the townhouse is common property. Even the driveway leading up to the townhouse is common property. The space in front of my townhouse could accommodate a car but that space is common property. We organised for the owners corporation to grant permission to park a car on common property.