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I posted a response and it did not go into that “pending” status.
It is easy to call insurance companies yourself and get a quote for strata insurance. It is just like organising your own car insurance, health insurance etc.
In fact, owners have more knowledge of the property being insured. For years, my owners corp was insured for “personal property”. When I called the insurance company, they asked me if we had “personal property”. I said “yes, we have letterboxes”. The insurance company said “that’s not personal property”. It turned out that we did NOT own any personal property.
The resulting insurance premium was cheaper than any premium we paid in the previous five years.
I have called multiple insurance companies and arranged my own strata insurance. I can’t see the benefit of paying somebody 20% of the premium to do the same job for me.
With my personal knowledge of the property, I may have negotiated better terms: One of the questions the insurance company asked was whether we owned personal property. I said “yes, we have letter boxes”. The insurance company rep said “no, that’s part of the building”. It turned out that we did not own any personal property. i.e. we don’t even have a lawn mower.
Once that question was correctly answered, we were offered our lowest premium for the past five years.
I understand that strata managers rely on that 20%+ insurance commission for their income. It would be more honest to factor that amount into their monthly management fee.
Charges like insurance commission, “postage, copying, phone calls, stationery”, insurance valuation, income tax returns are strata management fees by stealth. Instead of putting them in the strata management contract, they put it in the budget and get the owners corporation to approve the budget.
We had roughly $1,400 of budget expenses added on to the $3,600 management contract. Hence, the real cost of the strata manager was $5,000 per annum.
I was just listening to your podcast. At the point where you and Sue discussed this topic, you said solar PANELS. The rebate is for BATTERIES only (as stated in your post here). Yes, strata schemes are excluded.
However, there is a programme for solar panels. Earlier this year, NSW Government launched a programme called Solar for Apartment Residents Grants programme (SoAR) SoAR pays up to 50% of the cost of a solar energy installation (batteries NOT included).
So it is not entirely correct to say that apartment residents get no assistance for solar panels. It is the batteries, for which they are excluded.
If you don’t have a battery: solar panels and an inverter will receive energy from the sun and convert it into energy for the home. Any unused solar energy is sold to the grid (at a very cheap rate). When the sun goes down, the householder will be drawing energy from the grid.
A battery can be added at a later date. This might be a better idea because you might find there is very little unused solar energy to store in a battery.
If you do have a battery: any unused solar energy will be stored in the battery. The householder can use that energy after the sun goes down.
Villas and townhouses are not eligible for SoAR
There is a catch to the SoAR programme. NSW government’s eligibility rules state that you have to be a class 2 building. My strata plan is a class 1a (rowhouse, townhouse, villa etc.) I wrote to the SoAR people and asked if this was a mistake on their part. They said that if two or more homes share the same underground carpark area, then it would be a class 2 building. Most villa and townhouse developments are not built like this. The only things we share are the outdoor parking, gardens and letterboxes … and a roof. We’re going to miss out on both SoAR and the battery rebate.
Hello CupOfTea, google “strata schemes management act 2015” and scroll down to section 109 “Cosmetic work by owners”. There is a list of examples of “cosmetic work” which does not require approval of the owners corporation.
Paragraph 5 lists work that is not included as “cosmetic work”. Here is your problem:
“(c) work that changes the external appearance of a lot, including the installation of an external access ramp,”
A hook on a balcony ceiling does change the external appearance of a lot.
You would have to seek permission from the owners corporation. This would require a vote of all the owners at a general meeting. If they decline, they could order you to remove the hooks. If you refuse to remove the hooks, I wonder if the owners corporation would go as far as applying to NCAT to have your pot plant hooks removed. It seems so trivial.
You could explain to the NCAT member that they’ve been there for years and nobody keeps records for that long. You could also apply to NCAT yourself to have the hooks approved. I think the NCAT member would think why is everyone wasting their time on this.
If your strata manager issues a “cash management statement”, every owner should study every transaction. This is where the money is going.
I suggest you look for these two items:
1. Income tax return: For most strata plans, it is NOT necessary to submit an income tax return. ATO has a tax ruling to decide whether it is necessary to submit an income tax return. See TR2015/3 (tax ruling)
In short, if your only income is levy income, you do NOT need to submit an income tax return. This is because levy income is considered mutual income. On the other hand, if you are receiving income such bank account interest or advertising space on your building, that is taxable income.
2. Postage, copying and calls. Ask for a breakdown of these.
We consulted a lawyer who said we had a good case and that the problem would be fixed. Unfortunately he has said it might cost up to $30,000. Is this about what it costs in others experience.
I recall being quoted $10-15,000 about 6 years ago. We ended up representing ourselves and were successful.
If your application is successful, you can ask NCAT to award costs to you. That should be part of your application. This is not guaranteed to happen. I don’t know what happens if the other side agree to fix the mould after you hired the lawyer.
You need to establish that Section 106 of SSMA 2015 has been breached. You need to prove the waterproofing problems are causing the mould in your lot. Your engineer’s report is needed. You need to show that you requested the repair and that the owners corporation declined your request.
As everyone else said, “it costs too much to fix” is not a valid reason for ignoring the problem. It could cost more money for the owners corporation if there is an order to pay your legal costs.
If you decide to pursue this yourself, you could ask the strata lawyer what other kinds of info they would gather when they put your case together. Then you could seek that information yourself.
At my Directions hearing, I was told to write a response in a document. There should be a table of contents, page numbers and an index. I think the index was overkill.
Congratulations @Sage-grouse. Thanks for letting us know the outcome. I did not know that a matter should be settled in a directions hearing. Saves time and money. I would love to know the cost of that lawyer.
Hi Sammy
You must get everything in writing. The executive committee is not giving you a consistent story. Please put together all emails, text messages and paper correspondence to confirm what you are saying. I hope you have a written statement from your workman from five years ago.
From my own experience in NSW, you cannot claim that the owners corp “refused to fix something” unless you first ask them to do it. If you have not done so already, put your request in writing. Then get their response in writing.
Then ask a strata lawyer how you should proceed. I don’t know why you would be liable. A strata lawyer can advise you.
The insurance company insures “building” and “contents” according to their definitions of “building” and “contents”.
However, you never know your luck. Just ask the insurance company if they will pay a claim for that hot water tank. If the insurance company considers the hot water tank to be a “permanent fixture”, you might have a claim.
In a nutshell, the strata manager was free to spend the owners corp money without consulting the owners corp beforehand.
So how did you fix it?
One quarter of the owners corp called an extraordinary general meeting to vote on several changes to the strata management contract. These motions were to:
- Revoke the strata manager’s authority to spend up to $500 on anything
- Instruct the strata manager to contact the strata committee for any matter (including emergencies) before they spend money.
- Instruct the strata manager to stop submitting income tax returns on our behalf (because they were unnecessary and costing us money).
After these motions were passed, the strata manager resigned from our service. We tried to find another strata manager who would not use “emergency” as the catch-all excuse to spend money. It did not happen. Now we’re self managed.
Ask your strata manager to give you a copy of the strata management contract if you don’t have it already. If it is a contract based on a template provided by Strata Community Association, you should look at Schedule A2 (which lists “Duties and Functions” and “Limitations on Authority”). This is where you find out how much money the strata manager is authorised to spend without telling the owners coporation (or even the strata committee).
I had the same experience with past strata managers. Expensive bills for simple jobs appeared on our quarterly cash management statement. It was too late for me to object to the expense because it was “done and dusted.”
The strata managers argue that it is a waste of time contacting the owner for every little repair. In my past management contracts, the strata manager stipulated that they can spend up to $500 without telling the strata committee. So they send a “work order” to a contractor with a “$500 limit”. Unsurprisingly, we are charged $490 or $495 for every job. Over the course of years, these repairs add up to a lot of money.
Then they had another condition which overrode the $500 limit if it was an “emergency”. The definition of “emergency” was when the owner called it an emergency. It did not have to be life threatening or leading imminent collapse of the building. It just had to be a cranky owner.
In a nutshell, the strata manager was free to spend the owners corp money without consulting the owners corp beforehand.
Call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the owners. You need 1/4 of the owners (or unit entitlements) to ‘earn’ the right to call an EGM.
I have a couple of ideas for the agenda:
1. replace the secretary
2. present all the quotes to the owners and let the owners select one.
You need to explain to the other owners that the secretary is working against a motion that has already been passed by the owners corporation. You already voted to get the work done. The strata committee is delegated to do the work of the owners corporation. If it is failing to do this work, the owners corporation should take over.
Please remember that the strata committee (and strata manager) work for the owners corporation. The owners corporation is ultimately in charge. They don’t want you to know that because it would make life difficult for them.
A laundry washtub is not the only way to dispose of waste water. My waste water hose goes into a pipe under the laundry basin.
I lived in Germany for a couple of years. It was very common to see a washing machine in the kitchen (front loader under the kitchen bench). The other popular location was the bathroom. There was no second laundry basin. The waste water hose is connected to wherever the waste water is supposed to go.
Dishwashers don’t feed their waste water into the kitchen sink.
It sounds like a nasty response from the property manager.
Please look up Residential Tenancies Act 2010 to familiarise yourself with your rights.
Also read your lease agreement. The standard residential tenancy agreement can be found here. Both the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 and the lease agreement should indicate that you are entitled to have something like the oven in working order. Page 8 of the standard residential tenancy agreement document has a heading “LANDLORD’S GENERAL OBLIGATIONS FOR RESIDENTIAL PREMISES”.
You should also have received a condition report. Both landlord and tenant complete the same condition report at the start of your tenancy. It records the state of the property at the start of your tenancy.
In the standard residential tenancy agreement, 60 days’ notice is required for a rent increase. On page 5 of the standard residential tenancy agreement, it says:
“Section 42 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 sets out the circumstances in which rent may be increased during the fixed term of a residential tenancy agreement. An additional term for this purpose may be included in the agreement.”
There is a rent check tool on the NSW Govt’s web site: https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/renting-a-place-to-live/rent-check
It uses rent data collected from rental bond lodgements to give you an idea of how much rent is being paid for similar properties in your area. Use it to see if the rent increase is reasonable.
Addit: added a link to the standard residential tenancy agreement. Mentioned the condition report. Correction to notice period of rent increases. It should be 60 days.
I copy/pasted Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 because it describes the responsibilities of the owners corporation. Following the manufacturer’s recommendation to test the water every six months should fall under paragraph (1) below.106 Duty of owners corporation to maintain and repair property(1) An owners corporation for a strata scheme must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
(2) An owners corporation must renew or replace any fixtures or fittings comprised in the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
(3) This section does not apply to a particular item of property if the owners corporation determines by special resolution that—
(a) it is inappropriate to maintain, renew, replace or repair the property, and
(b) its decision will not affect the safety of any building, structure or common property in the strata scheme or detract from the appearance of any property in the strata scheme.
(4) If an owners corporation has taken action against an owner or other person in respect of damage to the common property, it may defer compliance with subsection (1) or (2) in relation to the damage to the property until the completion of the action if the failure to comply will not affect the safety of any building, structure or common property in the strata scheme.
(5) An owner of a lot in a strata scheme may recover from the owners corporation, as damages for breach of statutory duty, any reasonably foreseeable loss suffered by the owner as a result of a contravention of this section by the owners corporation.
(6) An owner may not bring an action under this section for breach of a statutory duty more than 2 years after the owner first becomes aware of the loss.
(7) This section is subject to the provisions of any common property memorandum adopted by the by-laws for the strata scheme under this Division, any common property rights by-law or any by-law made under section 108.
(8) This section does not affect any duty or right of the owners corporation under any other law.