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SaltyOne, why do you think it is a new requirement? When I look at “point in time versions” of the SSMA 2015, Section 55 seems to have been there for a few years.
The reason I mentioned strata management software: my two most recent strata managers had almost identical looking report layouts. They merely changed the strata manager’s name at the top of each page.
It’s not right that they are ignoring you. It’s not surprising either.
It seems to fit with the legislation OC Act 2006 per section 24 (3) ‘The owners corporation may determine the times for payment of the special levies and charges.’ Thank you.
Usually all owners are levied at the same time. Since you have already paid the $4,000 levy, you are asking the owners corporation to cancel your levy invoice and issue it to the next owner.
The new owner may object by claiming that $4,000 special levy was included in the sale price of the apartment.
In NSW, it is possible for owners corporation funds to be paid back to the owners. (see SSMA 2015 (NSW) Section 77 Distribution of Surplus Money …). I couldn’t find anything similar in the Victorian OC Act 2006.
What was written on the agenda? The agenda item should say something like “that the Owners Corporation resolves by special resolution / ordinary resolution to <insert activity here>”.
The exact wording from the agenda should be copy / pasted into the minutes. At the time of the meeting, you could re-write the motion to say something else. You can only do this if you are not taking pre-votes from members not attending the meeting in person. Everyone has to be voting on the same decision.
I suggest:
- Read the agenda and compare that motion with what is shown in the minutes.
- Find out if anyone voted before the meeting. If yes, the wording of the motion must NOT change.
Meeting procedures are documented in the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). Scroll down to the bottom to “Schedule 1 Meeting procedures of owners corporations”.
I’ve listened to your podcast and I know how much you advocate for pet owners. Unfortunately, I had a very bad experience with a yapping dog. The dog did not stop yapping until the resident returned home. The dog could be yapping all day and into the night. Neighbours from the same strata plan and neighbouring addresses complained about it. They called the police, local council and RSPCA. They were told to “talk to strata”.
Talking to the tenant was pointless. They straight up denied the existence of a dog. Then they said the non-existent dog belonged to a relative.
In the end, the property owner evicted the tenant for keeping a pet without seeking permission. (There were other issues: illicit drug use, property damage.) It was faster to get the problem resolved with an eviction.
If it was left to “strata”, we would issue the breach of by-law notice, apply for mediation and go to NCAT. There would have been months of relentless dog yapping.
fee-free rental payments: totally agree. It is obscene that anyone would consider charging a transaction fee for paying rent.
Paying for your own background check does not seem right. They’re exploiting tenants because tenants don’t have a lot of choice right now.
Does anyone have experience with S55 reports (NSW)?
STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 55 Strata managing agent to record exercise of functions (austlii.edu.au)
Or is this requirement something that the Strata Managers just ignore because it’s too difficult?
Hi SaltyOne
I found a “Strata Managers Report” in my old files. The report contains many lists, sumarising the work they did for us. The lists are grouped under the following headings.
- Work Orders Issued
- Quotes Called
- Total Strata Status Certificates Issued (Section 184 Certificates)
- Strata Interest Notices (Section 22 Notice)
- Total Number of Payments Issued
- Total Number of Receipts Issued
- Insurance Commissions Earned and Predicted
- List of Insurance Claims
- List of Meetings Called
- Training Services Received
- It looks like something that was produced from a strata management software package. Having experienced multiple strata managers, I think they’re using specialised strata management software to handle their work.
We never formally requested a “Strata Manager’s Report”. It was bundled with all the papers accompanying the notice of Annual General Meeting. By “papers”, I mean the agenda, Statement of Key Financial Information, Balance Sheet, budget, income and expenditure statements and any service they wanted to charge extra money for doing.
I think this report should be part of the service they provide for you. If they have never provided such a report, they may try to charge you an extra fee for producing it.
Strata law requires that any major renovation be approved as a special resolution (ie, majority for, less than a quarter against) at a general meeting, any minor renovation be approved as a normal resolution at a general meeting (ie, a majority for, and some buildings have delegated this to the strata committee), and any cosmetic renovation does not require approval.
How is the split between major, minor and cosmetic defined? This seems to be a useful approach, if it can be defined clearly.
Please refer to Sections 109 and 110 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). There are lists of what is considered “cosmetic” or “minor renovation”.
You can google “Strata Schemes Management Act 2015” and find the NSW legislation web site.
Jimmy’s article is a caution for all of us.
Have a regular, ongoing inspection and maintenance regime for plumbing, drainage, roof, electrical and plant.
Deal with repairs routinely and promptly.
Maintain a healthy fund balance so you can ‘self-insure’ smaller jobs.
Agreed. It is a false economy to think that you can avoid paying for something by claiming it on insurance. Any claim is going to increase ALL future premiums. I aim to make no claims except if the entire building is lost by fire or natural disaster.
Consider setting higher excesses to lower premiums
The highest excess I could get was $5,000.
Always include your excess in yearly budgets, and carry it over
Great idea! I have now included it in my budget for next year.
Always shop around insurance and scrutinise policies.
In NSW, the SSMA 2015 requires us to seek three quotes for building insurance. When I sought the policy myself, I learnt that we could exclude “contents insurance” because we had no contents. That made the premium cheaper. Also, by obtaining the policy myself, I avoided the 20% insurance broker commission. It saddens me that we paid 20% commission for a professional broker, who did not even ask us if we needed contents insurance.
Here is an explanation of unit entitlements
There is a fixed total number of unit entitlements. Each lot is allocated a fraction of this total. How much unit entitlement is allocated depends on things like the size of the lot, balconies etc. The unit entitlement determines how much levy the owner pays. The higher the unit entitlement, the higher the levy.
Suppose a strata plan has a total 1,000 unit entitlements. Each lot was allocated either 122, 125 or 128 unit entitlements, depending on their size and position in the strata plan. If the owners corporation has an annual budget of $100,000:
Lots with 122 unit entitlement pay $12,200 annual levy
Lots with 125 unit entitlement pay $12,500 annual levy
Lots with 128 unit entitlement pay $12,800 annual levy
Unit entitlements can also be used to count votes in a general meeting, if poll voting is adopted.
In NSW, Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 Section 236: Order for reallocation of unit entitlements
You can ask the Tribunal to make an order to reallocate the unit entitlements if you can prove that the existing regime is “unreasonable”. Any individual lot owner can make an application (paragraph 3). You don’t need to pass a resolution at a general meeting.
I suggest you ask your strata manager what the unit entitlement is of each lot. This should be shown on the plot plan or Certificate of Title. Speak to a strata lawyer if you think the owners with a balcony should pay higher levies. The strata lawyer could help you assemble an application to NCAT, if you are unsure of doing it yourself.
I found this article quite amusing.
In my childhood, we had portable transistor radios and cassette players. It never bothered me if someone wanted to play music or listen to a sports broadcast on their portable thing. Maybe there was more space between people.
There is not as much space between people in a train carriage, bus stop, restaurant, coffee shop. What has happened to courtesy and good manners? There is so much selfishness and entitlement now. Someone wants to listen to their smartphone and thinks the rest of the world should either put up or shut up!
I find the “open ear” style of earphones very comfortable. They don’t have a plug going into the ear canal. They have a hook over the ear so they can’t easily fall off. I can keep the “open ear” earphones on for so long that I forget that I was wearing them. They don’t work as well as in ear buds in noisy public places. They’re perfect if you’re in a train carriage / library or a not too busy coffee shop.
SCA-NSW should get kicked out of the Professional Standards Authority.
They should never have been allowed to join PSA in the first place. They have had a culture of kickbacks and overservicing extending over decades.
I could go into detail with my experiences of incompetence and dishonesty but I would become “incoherent with rage”.
Woodwalker, the rules for proxies are documented in the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (Schedule 1, Division 2, Part 4, section 26). I copy / pasted them here. I highlighted the bits that answer your questions.
26 Appointment of proxies
(1) Duly appointed proxy A person is a duly appointed proxy for the purposes of this Part if the person is appointed as a proxy by an instrument in the form approved by the Secretary and the form is signed by the person appointing the proxy or executed in any other manner permitted by the regulations.
(2) Form of proxy The approved form is to make provision for the giving of instructions on—
(a) whether the person appointing the proxy intends the proxy to be able to vote on all matters and, if not, the
matters on which the proxy will be able to vote, and
(b) how the person appointing the proxy wants the proxy’s vote to be exercised on a motion for the appointment or continuation in office of a strata managing agent.
(3) Proxy to be given to secretary of owners corporation The instrument is ineffective unless it contains the date on which it was made and it is given to the secretary of the owners corporation at least 24 hours before the first meeting in relation to which the instrument is to operate (in the case of a large corporation) or at or before the first meeting in relation to which the instrument is to operate (in any other case).
(4) Period for which proxy effective An instrument appointing a proxy has effect for the period commencing with the day on which it takes effect and ending with the later of the first anniversary of that day and the conclusion of the second annual general meeting held after that day, unless it is sooner revoked or a shorter period is provided by the instrument.
(5) Proxy cannot vote if person appointing proxy votes A proxy cannot exercise a vote in relation to a matter if the person who appointed the proxy is exercising personally a power to vote on that matter.
(6) Effect of subsequent proxy An instrument made by a person appointing a proxy has no effect if the person makes a later instrument appointing a proxy and delivers it to the secretary of the owners corporation in accordance with subclause (3).
(7) Limit on number of proxies that may be held The total number of proxies that may be held by a person (other than proxies held by the person as the co-owner of a lot) voting on a resolution are as follows—
(a) if the strata scheme has 20 lots or less, one,
(b) if the strata scheme has more than 20 lots, a number that is equal to not more than 5% of the total number of lots.(8) Despite subclause (7), a person who owns more than 1 lot in a strata scheme may appoint a single proxy in respect of all the lots.
(9) Adjourned meetings An instrument appointing a proxy for a meeting is not rendered invalid merely because the meeting is adjourned to a later date.I suggest you search “owners corporation pay for damaged caused by lot owner”. There are many strata lawyers discussing this topic. Here is what I gleaned from a quick search. I found the following info on a Marsdens Law Group web site but I have difficulty posting links in forum posts.
Whilst the other lot owner is responsible for the cost of repairs, you will have to get the owners corporation involved. The Owners Corporation is responsible for keeping common property maintained.
If the other owner does not offer to pay for it:
- NCAT cannot award damages to you. You have to go to a court.
- Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 Section 153 Owners, occupiers and other persons must not create nuisance. The damage to the ceiling is the nuisance. A lot owner caused the damage. Therefore, the lot owner is responsible for repairing it.
- Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 Section 106 Duty of Owners Corporation to maintain and repair common propertyEven though the Owners Corp did not cause the problem, they have a duty to see it get fixed.
The rules for including balconies in common property changed around 1974. It would be helpful to ask a lawyer to read the strata plan note about “interior of the balcony”.
I think Flame Tree is trying to say:
1. There used to be an automated system for watering the garden. It stopped working after some tiling work was done. No effort taken to repair / replace the watering system.
2. Until recently, a gardener was employed to water the garden. Now this gardener is no longer watering the garden.
3. Committee is now looking for an owner to water the garden and be paid for it.
4. Flame Tree wants to know:
(a) What kind of discussions were held by the Committee to take this course of action?
(b) Is the cost of paying an owner is in the budget or approved in an AGM?You should ask your strata manager or Committee. I can’t speak for Qld but it seems reasonable that owners receive the minutes of all meetings held. Owners should also have seen a proposed budget and then approved it a general meeting.
If your strata manager is not distributing meeting notices with proposed budgets, they are not doing their job. If the owners don’t read the meeting notices, they are not doing their job either.
Hello outsider
The starting point for rules about strata committees would be the Strata Schemes management Act 2015. The Act is on the NSW government’s legislation web site. Google it. It’s not hard to read.
From there you should scroll through the headings until you see ‘strata committee’ or do a search for ‘strata committee’. There will be a section explaining what the responsibilities of the strata committee are.
There is another section about the process for conducting strata committee meetings. That’s near the bottom under a heading with the word ‘Schedule’ in it.
I wish strata managers would point you to the Strata Schemes Management Act. Knowledge is power. They probably don’t want us to get too smart.
If you get stuck, let us know.
Are you in NSW?
I don’t know what you mean by Schedule 2 model rules. Is this about by-law breaches? I remember jimmy interviewing Bannermans lawyers about a costs by-law for by-law breaches. It is invalid. You can’t charge an owner for breaching a by-law unless you take the matter to NCAT.
I think your question is different because the strata manager intends to charge the owners corporation, not the person who breached the by-law.
I can only speak about NSW and refer to the Strata Schemes management Act 2015.
Before a general meeting, you should have received a notice of a meeting with the meeting agenda. The meeting agenda should list all the motions which will be voted. There should be a motion stating that the Owners Corporation will pay this $187 per hour.
A meeting notice and agenda should be delivered at least seven days in advance of the meeting. You should have at least seven days to consider this decision before voting on it.
Can you get a copy of your strata manager’s agreement? This should document every charge and what service they provide. Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. As owner, you are entitled to see what is in that agreement. It’s quite an eye opener.