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I agree with most of that, but why would the exclusive use privilege be necessary?
Tony’s sun screen could in my opinion be consented under Sect 65A (c), where a Special By-Law would only be necessary if the Owners Corporation wished to, with Tony’s prior consent, formally shift the responsibility of maintaining the sun screen from itself to him?
As for a possible objection by the Owner of the neighbouring Lot, they would have an opportunity to do that at the General Meeting where Tony’s proposal must be discussed, voted upon, and consented by way of a special resolution (≥ 75% in favour by unit entitlement) if the erection of the sun screen is to proceed – as JGOWI advised the architect’s approved is not sufficient.
If the O/C did consent to the sun screen, and the neighbour was still aggrieved, then he/she could certainly seek to have the O/C’s special resolution invalidated under Sect 153 if the Adjudicator could be persuaded that the neighbour was adversely affected; but that would be the limit of their legal rights to object in my opinion.
As is often the case with the Office of Fair Trading, its advice depends upon how you phrase the question and who’s providing the answer; contact them and ask the question again in the same way and I’ll bet you get a different interpretation.
As advised before, it’s the person or entity who wants their interest recorded on the Strata Roll that’s responsible for providing the S118 Notice, and in the case of the sale and transfer of title for a Lot that’s customarily the role of the Solicitor / Conveyancer acting for the (new) Owner.
As Secretary, you can request a S118 Notice from a person who you believe should provide one (and hasn’t), but beyond that you can only report what’s shown in your Plan’s Strata Roll, and if that’s incorrect or incomplete then let those acting for the Vendor and the Purchaser sort it out!
Whilst I agree about the Owners Corporation (O/C) being responsible for the personal well being of persons on its Common Property, that responsibility is not absolute.
Clearly an O/C’s responsibility and liability doesn’t apply if persons on its Common Property have injured themselves by behaving recklessly or contrary to an O/C’s instructions, or if those persons could reasonably be expected to be aware of (and therefore avoid) the situation that caused their injury, or if an O/C could prove that it had taken all reasonable steps to prevent the circumstance that gave rise to that injury.
It’s all about an O/C’s duty of care to itself and persons on its Common Property to identify risks on that property, and then on a prioritised basis to determine what if any actions are necessary to limit or remove the consequent likelihood of injury to persons, and in what timeframes those actions should occur; in other words a risk analysis.
Dudley – YES, Our Body Corp is entirely suitable for NSW, and as I said I only wish it was available when our Plan moved to self-management.
By all means research other self-management options, and include speaking with your current Strata Managers and/or others about a Record Keeping Agency Agreement, where as the name implies the Strata Manager looks after your Plan’s administration incl. invoicing/collecting the levy contributions, issuing work orders, paying contractors post E/C authorisation, preparing financial statements, insurance, convening meetings, agendas/minutes etc etc and leaves the day-to-day operations and maintenance coordination to the Owners Corporation.
All that requires close liaison with the Strata Manager so “both hands clap”, but it’s a possible half-way step if you and the other Owners aren’t yet sure about moving entirely to self-management.
SMIG – The S118 Notice is usually issued by the Solicitor / Conveyancer who’s acting for the purchaser, and amongst other things its purpose is to inform the Owners Corporation of who it is that’s entitled to a priority vote at General Meetings and whose details should be included on the Strata Roll.
The Secretary’s only obligation is to accurately record on the Strata Roll whatever’s shown on each properly authorised S118 Notice with regard to “the person acquiring interest”, and the “nature of (that) interest”; where in the last 8 years I’ve never received a Notice showing that person as being anything other than “owner”.
So if, like me, you’ve never received a S118 Notice from a mortgagee or covenant chargee, then like me you should just write “none shown” (on the strata roll) at Item 9 of the S109 Certificate/s that you provide.
The Minister (for Fair Trading) one stated that the CTTT was “an underutilised resource”; we now have another example of why that’s the case!
Posters here often refer to the CTTT’s decisions being decided by the spin of a chocolate wheel, but seriously, don’t let the legally unqualified, inconsistent, and incompetent (but not all) people at the CTTT get away with what appears to be a totally irrational and patently unjust ruling. Talk to your acquaintance at Makinson d’Apice about proactively assisting you in an appeal to a higher Court.
Alternatively (or at least after any appeal), prevail upon your local State Member to make a representation to the Minister on your behalf; it probably won’t be seen by the Minister himself but believe me it will rattle some cages at the CTTT.
Cosmo said: It is a bit like doing a job and then reading the job description.
Kiwipaul said: most of that is nice to do not must do
I couldn’t agree more; a great analogy! But after getting the job, everything black & white people like me need to either change the job description, or follow it.
For me there’s no other option, particularly as I’ve found that the additional time and effort involved in doing the job properly and doing it half-ar**d is less than 10%.
Oh and KWP….. I think I’d sooner be in a Rolls Royce when the wheels fall off, but it sounds like you need to move south and live in a (NSW) torrens titled property
. With the utmost respect to my fellow posters, that’s an extremely simplistic view of what’s necessary to properly self-manage; something that I’ve been doing for our Owners Corporation since 2006.
The following are but a few of the self-manager’s other duties:
- Ensuring that all contractors are properly licensed, and have the correct insurance coverage.
- Obtaining competitive quotations to regularly “test” the marketplace.
- Issuing detailed Work Orders for all contracted activities including Term Orders for emergency/ after hours activities.
- Inspecting completed works.
- Paying all Invoices on time in order to maintain good contractor relationships (good ones are hard to find).
- Liaising with Owners and their Property Managers regarding the proper responsibility for repairs to Units (they think that the O/C’s responsible for simply every item of maintenance or repair).
- Attending promptly to all Common Property maintenance issues.
- Mediating disputes and other “harmony” issues involving Residents.
- Liaising with Owners who seek consent to renovations (and with those who don’t).
- Ensuring Residents’ compliance with the Plan’s By-Laws and Special by-Laws.
- Attending the CTTT on behalf of the O/C (an enlightening experience)
- Preparing Agendas & Minutes for Executive Committee and General Meetings.
- Preparing Financial Statements properly reconciled against the Plan’s Chart of Accounts (which also have to be setup in sufficient detail).
- Ensuring legislative compliance with revised requirements including: Environmental Planning & Assessment Regulation (Fire Safety), AS1288/2006 – Glass Safety Audit, Workplace Health & Safety Act (2011) for the Safety Audit, Pesticides Act (2009) for Common Property Inspections & Treatments, Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) & Regulation (2010) and proposed Revisions, plus quite a few more; and….
- Maintaining the relevant records and processes of the Plan, which in 2012/13 for our 27 Lot Plan was summarised as:
E-Mail correspondence sent / received 212 Invoices Received 159 Invoices Paid on-time 159 Invoices Issued (e.g. Levy Contribution Invoices) 114 Quotations Received 13 Work Orders Issued 19 Hardcopy Correspondence Received 5 Correspondence Sent (e.g. Debt Recovery) 61 Telephone Calls Received 35 Telephone Calls Made 92 Facsimiles Sent / Received 14 So Dudley…. would I do it all again?
Absolutely, – as apart from the money saved which we estimated as $15-$20K/a (or ≈30% of our total self-managed budget) when strata management fees, disbursements (Sch B), and the costs of “smarter” repairs are all considered, no Strata Manager could possibly manage a Plan as well as a committed and properly supported Owner or Executive Committee who after all, only has the one property to look after!
The set-up process would have been a whole lot easier for me if there were tools available such as the one you can now find HERE.
Good luck, and don’t be dissuaded from giving it a go by the information that I’ve provided; use it to your Owners Corporation’s advantage!
I assume you’re proposing to install a washing machine and possibly a clothes dryer within the existing kitchen of the Unit that you are proposing to purchase.
If that’s the case, and as those works will likely require the placement of waterproofing material on the existing floor (below the washing machine in accordance with Building Codes) and will certainly involve alterations to the services of the Unit, and specifically to the electricity, water supply, and drainage, then YES you will need to seek and obtain the prior written consent of the Owners Corporation (O/C).
If your proposed works will involve physical changes, alterations, or additions to the Common Property (e.g. the floor) the those will need to be considered at a General Meeting of the O/C and be agreed to by ≥75% of those in attendance, and otherwise, you will need to provide the O/C with written notice of your intentions (e.g. to only make plumbing/drainage alterations) a minimum 14 days in advance whereupon the O/C may impose conditions that are usually limited to the use (by you) of licensed tradespeople and to the interruption of services to others (e.g. neighbours).
As you’re still contemplating your purchase, why not contact the Strata Manager and/or the Executive Committee Secretary on a formal basis and seek their advice and if possible an agreement in principle to your proposed works; you never know, an existing Owner may have already made a similar installation?
Dudley – your Strata Manager is right, as whilst I’m not sure about taxation (ATO) implications, in terms of an audit-trail all Invoices should be made out the to “The Owners SP*****”.
As an aside, enforcement of that requirement has proven useful for our self-managed Plan where local Property Managers would routinely arrange repairs for which the Owners Corporation (O/C) would otherwise be responsible, and then send their Contractor’s invoice as issued to them to me for payment.
Our refusal to routinely pay third-party invoices from Contractors with whom our O/C has no involvement or business relationship quickly put an end to that practice, and re-established our O/C’s ability to properly maintain its Common Property.
Thanks for closing the loop; I’m glad that the performance based assessment produced the desired outcome.
leif..I’m sorry but much of all that is a bit rambling, but I think you’re asking if an item of common property, to wit the handrail of an internal staircase, is illegal and therefore a safety hazard because it’s known to be non-compliant with current building standards / codes.
In my opinion the handrail would remain compliant if and until such time as the Owners Corporation undertook some works on its Common Property that affected it, such as replacing a section or perhaps raising the stairs (e.g. by re-tiling), whereupon the entire handrail would likely need to be made compliant (i.e. higher) concurrently.
That’s a bit rambling too, but suffice to say that if your Committee is aware of the safety issue, then compliant or not, it probably has a moral obligation to do something the lessen the risk (of someone falling) by perhaps installing an additional handrail above that existing or even by placing appropriately worded signage at/near the stairway; not advising that the handrail’s low but perhaps advising people to take care on the stairway and not to run whilst negotiating them.
Not wishing to split another hair, but ….
@Whale said:
…it depends on the number of lots in your Strata Scheme and whether (or not) your Owners Corporation (O/C) has adopted or is bound by virtue of its date of registration (i.e. post 1996/) to By-Law 18 requiring it to have and maintain a Notice Board.Notwithstanding common sense, it depends on the number of lots in your Strata Scheme and whether (or not) your Owners Corporation (O/C) has adopted or is bound by virtue of its date of registration (i.e. post 1996) to By-Law 18 requiring it to have and maintain a Notice Board.
Executive Committees of Schemes having >100 lots are required within 7 days of a Meeting to send a copy of its Minutes to each Owner and to place a copy of those Minutes on the O/C Notice Board, whereas Schemes having <100 Lots are only required to place a copy of those Minutes on the Notice Board where one exists or otherwise to send a copy to each Owner.
So I’m guessing by your post that your Scheme has less than 100 Lots and that your O/C has / maintains a Notice Board, in which case your Strata Manager is correct and has absolutely no common sense, and you’ll need to ask a Member of your Committee or another resident Owner to e-mail / snail mail you copies of Meeting Minutes.
No, it’s not too much to ask but you must follow due-process and seek the active support of a sufficient number of like-minded Owners to bring about the changes that you seek.
As examples, if the appointment of the new strata management company is resolved at the EGM, then your Owners Corporation will likely need to give a minimum 3 months written notice of its intention to terminate that company’s Agreement and to appoint another; check the termination clause in the document.
Additionally, as there’s currently no EGM Agenda item (Motion) to convene yet another General Meeting to vote on the special levy, contrary to Fair Trading’s advice those present cannot resolve that way at the Meeting. That’s where the active support of other Owners is critical, as a requisition to the Secretary by ≥25% of those (by unit entitlement) is required to force the convening of that further EGM or indeed any other that may be necessary.