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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.
I looked up the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 and it says the fee is paid to the Owners Corporation.
Refer to Schedule 4 Fees.
It says “Fees payable to owners corporation
For making records available for inspection under Section 182 of the Act … $31 and an additional $16 per half hour or part of half hour after the first hour of inspection. ”
A strata manager might have other charges documented in your strata management contract.
A few years ago, one of the owners in my owners corp paid $20 to the strata manager for photocopying records.
I suggest that when you next sign your strata management contract, read through all the fees and challenge the ones you don’t want to pay.
The overseeing authority, currently branded NCAT, have the delusional view:
“The legislation has always envisaged that generally, strata schemes would be managed by ordinary lot owners for their own benefit.”
J Bordon: Nulama Village P/L v Owners Strata Plan 61788 (Strata & Community Schemes) [2006] NSWCTTT 550 (25 September 2006)
This is only possible for a few strata plans. A small strata plan of less than ten villas / townhouses with lawn, a driveway and letterboxes, could be managed by ordinary lot owners. An apartment block with hundreds of homes, elevators, gym, building supervisor, electronic key access etc might want more than this.
I am looking at the common property memorandum published on the NSW fair trading web site. it could be different from your own strata plan’s wording might be different. You have not shown us the wording.
From the NSW Fair Trading version: Only the skirting board on the common property wall is the responsibility of the owners corporation. The other skirting board is lot owner’s responsibility. Painting on all skirting boards (irrespective of whether it is a common property wall) is lot owner’s responsibility.
I had skirting boards installed earlier this year (2023). They cost $7.70 per metre for the materials and $7.15 per metre for installation (GST included). Painting was extra cost.
One of my neighbours is from an overseas English speaking country. She said that she had no idea about strata until after she purchased her home.
Just before we became self managed, I spent a lot of time reading the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, the Fair Trading web site, various strata legal web sites and flatchat, of course.
My beef is with unscrupulous strata managers. They want to keep us in the dark. Our owners corp was paying around $6,700 in fees and getting poor service. The management fees were supplemented by other fees such as insurance valuation, “postage, copying, calls”, tax return, capital works review, updating by-laws. We had overpriced electricity and trades people.
I noticed that we paid over $100 per year for a tax return. I called the ATO and they confirmed it was not necessary. We have no taxable income. I organised an EGM to instruct them to stop doing tax returns and to let us approve every repair first. They resigned.
Anyone who is not interested in how their strata is run, is paying a “lazy tax”.
When I searched “home contents insurance”, the search engine had “home and contents insurance” at the top of the search result. In the second half of the search result, I saw “home contents”. That sounds like what you are seeking.