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… claiming I have breached by-laws as I should not be writing direct to owners. No owner has complained or requested removal from the distribution.
Imagine if you wanted to invite all the owners to a party. Would it be illegal to write to them with an invitation?
I have been issued with a Notice to Comply invoice amounting to $220.00 which I will challenge through Fair Trading and NCAT.
This sounds like a bluff. There is no such thing as a “Notice to Comply invoice”. Did the strata committee give you a form which looks like NSW Fair Trading’s Notice to Comply with a By-Law Form (see below)?
https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-03/notice-to-comply.pdf
You need to see the exact wording of your by-laws to confirm whether such a by-law exists. If such a by-law does exist, you could apply to NCAT to have it invalidated for being “harsh, unconscionable or oppressive”.
Next, one of the earlier chats between David Bannerman and Jimmy noted that the owners corporation cannot issue a fine or a Notice to Comply invoice unless NCAT first makes an order for your to pay.
Finally, I suggest you familiarise yourself with Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). Google it. Scroll down to “Part 7. By-Laws for Strata Schemes”. Sections 146 to 150 are most relevant to your question.
Who issued the Notice to Comply? If the strata manager has been delegated to do it, they can issue the Notice to Comply. Otherwise, you have to hold a meeting of the owners corporation (or strata committee) to pass an ordinary resolution to issue that Notice to Comply. Make sure you have evidence of a motion passed at a general meeting, if you did not authorise the strata manager to issue such notices.
Refer to Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 sections 146 and 147 for the exact rules.
Then google “NCAT application strata” and scroll down to a large heading “Penalty” which has a bit more guidance.
If your strata manager is trying to put you off going to NCAT with the $20K cost, can you ask your secretary to do it instead? An application costs a bit over $100. I hate the idea that you’re doing their job for them.
There are laws about “abandoned goods”. You could research that and see if you could simply pick up the rubbish and put it in the nearest red rubbish bin for council pick up. The drawback is that they might get the impression you are a free cleaning service.
Oh no. This is terrible. The last time I updated by-laws was in 2021. I paid $146.40 at the NSW Land and Property Information (LPI) in Sydney (near Museum Station). The office had moved from St James and was significantly smaller. They were obviously preparing for the final offload of the business to PEXA.
Before we became self-managed, the strata management contract listed by-law changes as $550 per by-law.
There should be an option for non-lawyer people to do this.
Hi CupOfC: for your info, the strata roll is merely a list of names and addresses of each lot owner in the strata plan. It is not a record of correspondence (emails, text messages, letters, meeting minutes) which you seem to be seeking.
There is no such thing as secret info which only the strata committee can see. Any owner is entitled to request a viewing of the records of the owners corporation. The process for requesting that is also explained the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) (SSMA 2015) under the heading “Part 10 Records and information about strata schemes”.
If the strata committee conducts a meeting, the meeting agenda has to be distributed to all owners, even though only the strata committee will be making the decisions. It is explained the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) under the heading “Schedule 2 Meeting procedures of strata committees”.
If that grey water waste pipe services more than one lot, then it is common property. The owners corporation is responsible for all common property. See Section 106 of SSMA 2015. The only exception would be if they can prove that the lot owner is responsible for the damaged common property.
The owners corp can choose how they pay for the repair of the common property. If they choose to make an insurance claim, the owners corp pays any applicable excess.
I can’t see how a by-law giving the owners corp has the option to decide who pays insurance excess makes sense. If it is common property and the lot owner did not damage it, the owners corp pays for its repair.
If the lot owner is responsible for the damage, the owners corp should bill the lot owner for the total repair cost. It is ridiculous to make an insurance claim and blemish the owners corp’s insurance claim record.
Here is what I think happened. Owners corp does not have the funds to pay for this repair. They look at making an insurance claim. They don’t have the funds to pay for the insurance excess either. They invent a by-law that allows them to pass the cost on to the lot owner.
If you do a search ON THIS WEB SITE for “lawyer in the hot seat”, you will find a two part interview between Jimmy-T and a strata lawyer. In part two of the interview, they talked about a costs by-law for recouping legal costs from an owner. The lawyer said such a by-law is invalid.
Your situation is different. So you really should contact a strata lawyer and tell them your story. As much as I love reading the opinions of others on the forum, NCAT will decide according to the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). A strata lawyer should know how this would apply in your case.
I agree with Sir Humphrey. I wondered why this strata manager wants to make herself busy with this too.
Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 is your friend (again). Refer to “Schedule 1 Meeting procedures of owners corporations”.
You can definitely organise your own meeting amongst yourselves. The procedure is explained in the above legislation.
You could formalise it by passing a resolution at a general meeting. This should not cost a cent if you do it yourself. Once it is recorded in the minutes, you have something to show the strata manager, other owners, NCAT member.
However, the NCAT member would be more impressed by a common property by-law (which costs money).
Whether you have a leg to stand on? My owners corp was taken to NCAT by an owner. She wanted one of her neighbours to remove their dog. The NCAT member asked how long the dog had been living there. Answer: 10 years. NCAT member: “I am not about to remove a dog that has been living there for ten years.”
NCAT members each have their own temperament. Hopefully, if it comes to a tribunal hearing, you get a member who has common sense.
As a last resort, doorknock the other lots and find out who owns it.
Would it be a good idea to apply for compulsory appointment of strata manager? The other strata committee member is behind in the levies. The strata manager is doing nothing about it.
Hello slicendice
I think you need a common property rights by-law. To find out more about that, read Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, Part 7, Division 3, Sections 142-145. You need 75% of the owners present at a meeting to add a new by-law. If this dispute goes beyond mediation and into NCAT, NCAT will want to know if a common property rights by-law exists.
A common property rights by-law would explain who is responsible for maintaining any patch of common property. It would be clearer to everyone if you have a separate by-law for each patch of common property maintained by a different owner. If you only pass a resolution at a meeting without updating your by-laws, you’re not really covered against more complaints.
The conflicts are so outrageous that no one even talks about this part of the ABC report:
“Netstrata is the naming rights sponsor of Jubilee Stadium, home of the St George Illawarra Dragons, and its managing director is Stephen Brell, the NSW president of the Strata Community Association (SCA).
The SCA has awarded Netstrata “strata management company of the year” for four of the past five consecutive years.”
As a general rule, for things like TV antennae, electrical wiring and lighting, if it serves one lot only, it is lot owner’s responsibility. I think you would apply that idea to plumbing. How many lots does that pipe serve?
This by-law looks like it was written because owners were fed up with paying for repairs in other people’s lots. Even though it was common property, the repair might have a bigger benefit for one lot owner than anyone else.
If you think this by-law is oppressive, ask a strata lawyer to look at it. You can go to NCAT and have that by-law removed if the member agrees it is oppressive.
You should treat the SC member just like any other contractor who does work for you. They should provide a detailed quote.
Check your insurance policy to see what public liability is available for people working on the property. Talk to the insurance broker (or strata manager) about it.
Read Part 3 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). It says that the strata committee cannot make a decision which requires a special resolution to be passed. (Section 36 3(a)). An example of such a decision is when the external appearance of the common property is to be changed. If the proposed work involves changing the external appearance of the common property, the owners corporation must decide on it.
The owners corporation can override the strata committee if it disagrees with the Strata Committee. See section 36 paragraph (2) of the Act.
You can go to NCAT for an urgent hearing to stop work being done on common property.
I just had a look at my old levy invoice. (We no longer use a strata manager.)
At the bottom, there is a notice about DEFT and authorising the bank to direct debit an account. The wording is as you indicated.
Below the DEFT notice, I see a BPay biller number and code. Is there anything like that on your invoice? If you can see a BPay biller number and code, you can set up payments from your internet banking portal and ignore that DEFT payments paragraph. I never authorised Macquarie Bank to take money from my account.
Strata managers are no longer permitted to receive a commission from the insurance company.
Really? Why then does the law say that any commissions have to be declared? Also, most insurance companies will not discount the premium by the amount of the strata managers’ commission even if you negotiate directly.
You’re right. I should have read Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) Section 60.
In my defence, when we still had a strata manager, the strata manager said that his employer was no longer allowed to receive a commission for insurance. Either he was wrong or I misunderstood the message.
I agree that if I dealt directly with an insurance company, who is already working through a broker, they would not exclude the broker’s commission. However, it is different with insurance companies who are not working through a broker. There is no broker commission.
I found some strata insurance companies. I called them for quotes. I saved almost $5,000. We also got a premium reduction because we excluded “common contents” from the cover. When the insurer asked if we had “common contents”, I said “yes we have letter boxes in a brick wall”. The insurer said that’s already covered by the building policy. Since we don’t own anything else (e.g. chairs, tables, computers, tv, garden tools etc.) we excluded common contents and saved a bit more.
I mention this because we had common contents cover for decades when the strata manager + insurance broker arranged our insurance for us. It makes me wonder why we would pay a professional to organise our insurance if they don’t even consider our specific needs.
Would this be a concern for your strata insurance? If the place is full of waste, some of it might easily catch fire. If there was a fire, would your insurance company pay your claim? Perhaps you can tell the owner that they would be responsible for the clean up and repairs.
If the rear garden is a mess, ask your municipal council to visit the site. They can tell the owner to clean up the outside of the house.
– failure to first pass a resolution before sending two notices to comply (s 146 (3))
This would make the Notice to Comply as useless as a warning letter. If the recipient of the notice continues to breach a by-law, the owners corporation could not go to NCAT because they did not pass a resolution.
At one of our NCAT hearings, the Member said there is a high threshhold for appointing a compulsory strata manager. Perhaps there is also a high threshhold for expelling a strata committee member.
I am sorry you did not get any satisfaction from your legal proceedings.
Hi my strata manager claims they get 20% commission when sourcing out insurance. I was wondering if the insurance company pays them the commission or does that get tacked on top of our insurance policy? Our manager claims we don’t pay for it but another member in community claims we pay for it, is that right? We live in nsw
Here is my understanding of it. The commission is tacked on top of the insurance policy. Strata managers are no longer permitted to receive a commission from the insurance company. They get around it like this. The insurance company receives all the money. Then:
. The insurance company pays the commission to the insurance broker.
. The insurance broker pays the commission to the strata manager.
. The strata manager pays something back to the insurance broker.
My owners corp received an invoice from an insurance broker as follows:
Base Premium $4000
Fire / SES Levy $600
GST (10% of the above two items)
Stamp Duty $500
Insurers administration fee $220
GST administration fee $0
Broker Fee $1700
GST broker Fee $170
Strata Manager Commission $0
Total: about $8,000
The commission is roughly 20% of the total cost: If you google “strata insurance” and call a few companies for a direct quote, you would be quoted something closer to the base premium.