[villageidiot]

Thank you for the replies. I should add that myself (Treasurer) and the guy who owns the two units (Secretary) are along with our Strata Manager (a prominent strata managing agent starting with the letter J who is also the Chairperson) make up the entire Strata Committee.  No one else in the building wants anything to do with running it.  We three are the ones who have tried to get the rest of the owners to approve these repairs at the last 3 AGMs to no avail. So we are trying to get the job done and aren’t being negligent.

1. Can someone please confirm that we do only need an Ordinary Resolution to do this work, (ie 50% +1 or 5 units in our case?) as I have also heard (and read on the internet) that because Common Property is involved a Special Resolution (ie 75% or 6 units in our case) is required instead.

2. If these repairs were not structural – what could be considered ‘cosmetic’ repairs such as rendering, painting, replacing the windows and garage doors etc, would this require an Ordinary resolution or a Special Resolution?

[villageidiot]

@PeterC said:
With the caveat that I am in the ACT, I would expect that an ordinary resolution is >50%, not just 50%, so in your case that would be 5 of 8 if all take part in the meeting, 4 of 6 or 7 if 1 or 2 don’t take part (in person or by proxy), 3 out of 4 if half your members don’t take part and so on. 

As all your units have the same value a poll vote where votes are weighted by unit entitlements would make no difference. 

A recent discussion on ‘voting on a special resolution’ might be relevant here. 

Again with the caveat that I am not in NSW, I think a special resolution (which you need for a by-law) is also based on whoever takes part. If a few members do not show up or put in a proxy/absentee vote then the vote would be based on 75% of the 5, 6 or 7 members who do take part. 

I assume that (like the ACT) a bylaw in NSW is subordinate to the Strata Act and other legislation. So you could only ban smoking (or anything else) if there is not some other law preventing you from banning it. I would think you would not have a problem banning it on the common property but within units might be harder to enforce or defend. I would be pointing out to owners who might not feel strongly about the issue that their unit value is likely to be greater rather than less if they could sell their property as part of a non-smoking building. 

Thanks for the advice Peter.

Moderator/Jimmy T you may like to repost this thread in the ‘Smoking’ section of this forum as well. I am sure many others would be very interested, especially in this link about smoking in Strata buildings which is very enlightening.

https://www.ashaust.org.au/lv4/…..ousing.htm

I hope in the recent review of Strata Laws that the government takes a much stronger stance on preventing smoking in Strata buildings. They know the serious health implications of smoking and passive smoking, thats why smoking has been banned in all public buildings, office buildings, shopping centres, bus shelters, restaurants, pubs and clubs and many other places throughout Australia.  We should be able to choose to stop it in our own homes.

[villageidiot]

Thanks Whale for your reply. Our building has been thinking about this for a long time, before all the recent publicity. Of the owners and owner occupiers in our building of eight lots, not one is a smoker, so we think we have the numbers to pass this. Even if the Special Resolution is passed (and the special by-law added to our Strata Plan) that prevents smoking, even though it may be difficult to enforce it will certainly make prospective new owners think twice before buying into our building should a present owner decide to sell in the future. New owners will know in advance that smoking will not be looked upon favourably and hopefully this will persude smokers not to buy in.

Please note though that a Special By-Law that prevents residents from smoking inside their Lots is already in place in a number of buildings in Australia.

You can read more about these at this link

https://www.ashaust.org.au/lv4/housing.htm

and then scrolling down to SMOKEFREE STRATA BYLAWS.

[villageidiot]

Thanks to those who provided advice. We are still not sure how we are going to resolve this, as one (elderly) woman claims she has no money to replace the ugly window mounted AC unit with a newer split system type, even if the OC agrees to pay for the removal of the existing unit. We are wondering if we can write some sort of condition for new owners that stipulates that any new owner purchasing one of the two units affected agrees to have the window mounted AC units removed as a condition of purchase?

[villageidiot]

Thanks very muchly to those who posted advice. I think I will just not tell anybody, as presenting a motion to have the existing by-law which prevents all pets to one which allows pets will just arouse peoples attention. I can't understand how anyone would oppose someone else having a cat in their unit. I can understand not allowing a dog in a way, because they can bark and do big turds. But opposing an indoor cat is just plain unreasonable. Don't people understand that people who have animals live longer?

[villageidiot]

Thanks for the tips so far. Striking a bargain with the owners and getting the OC to pay for the removal and the owners to pay to have the new systems installed might be a good idea.

Jimmy T you mention that they were installed in an open window. Its actually worse than that, they have been installed by cutting out a square piece of the main pane of glass of the main windows on the front facade of the building and slotting them into that hole supported by a bracket that is bolted to the exterior brickwork! Unbelievable that it was ever approved, if it ever was, and if it wasn't approved, its beyond me why no other lot owner hasn't done something about it before now. Five of the eight units have changed hands in the past five years including mine, hence the 'new blood' in the building trying to do something about this. Prior to that there had only been one other person buy into the building since 1964.

Just wondering, if the AC units are now regarded as common property, would that mean the OC would have to pay for them to be repaired if they broke down? That would be outrageous!

[villageidiot]

Thanks for your reply. No the AC units are mounted on windows that are not on balconies, they are on the windows on the main front facacde of the building.

So you think the owners corporataion would have to pay to have them removed? It is very strange that such work would ever have been granted approval, as it is so obvious that it has been done….and looks so terrible. Perhaps there was a verbal agreement to allow it.

[Author]

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