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I’d conclude that $300 / Lot / year is closest to the mark, but don’t forget all those “disbursements” that add substantially to the Management Fee.
Back in the day when our Plan engaged the services of a Strata Manager, their additional fees for things like making and receiving telephone calls/faxes/e-mails, word processing, debt recovery (letters only), arranging quotes, issuing work orders, liaising with tradespeople, attending meetings, advice by more senior managers, archive storage, and a range of other “services” almost doubled their management fee.
To be fair though, I believe that some Strata Managers are now including some of the above (services) in their management package, but I’ll lay odds they’re still keeping some extras in their back pockets!
Willie – there’s been a lot of discussion lately about the consequences of owners not seeking the Owners Corporation’s consent prior to renovating their Lots; see HERE, HERE and HERE [hint: read the original (bottom) post first].
In answer to your question, both types of works that you mention in your post almost always involve something that’s classified as a change or addition to Common Property, and even if your proposed works do not, your Owners Corporation (O/C) still needs to know who will be working at the Plan and what if any impacts that may have – of which parking, loading / unloading, and noise are but a few.
The applicable reference is Cl 65A of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) and for more general information you could peruse THIS publication of the NSW Office of Fair Trading.
My advice is to err on the side of caution; advise your Owners Corporation of precisely what renovations you propose, and let it decide what it needs to consent, and what comprises works for which you’re entirely responsible – albeit with some reasonable requirements to address any consequent impacts such as those shown (above).
The situation as I understand it is that there’s currently no waterproof membrane in place, and who’s to say that if the Owners who tiled their balconies had properly sought the O/C’s consent beforehand, that one of its conditions may have been the installation of such a membrane, thereby avoiding the current problem altogether?
My advice was with regard to how I see the legal position, not the one that waverton’s O/C may expediently need to take in an effort to please the majority of Owners, simply because some of those were unaware of, or simply chose not to follow the rules!
Fortunately for those Owners, it’s not my call!
I assume by your alias that you’re in NSW, in which case KP’s absolutely correct.
If there IS a Special By-Law (SBL) in place covering the installation of tiles by Owners, then it will almost certainly contain something about who’s responsible for on-going maintenance, replacement, and repairs of those; usually the individual Lot Owners.
IF on the other hand there’s no SBL in place, then all that your Owners Corporation is legally required to do is make the repairs to the surface of the balconies and to return those to their original state; that is without tiles.
I imagine that will likely cause some angst amongst those Owners whose balconies are tiled and please those whose balconies aren’t, but when the dust settles, your O/C needs to make a decision about how it pleases the majority.
Whatever the decision, before any further tiling is done at whoever’s expense your O/C needs to place an Item on the Agenda for its next General Meeting to “Specially Resolve” (where ≥75% of those in attendance need to vote in favour) to create a Register a SBL to enable Owners to, at their discretion, tile their balconies.
That SBL should include a statement about who’s then responsible for the on-going maintenance etc, and in my opinion conditions about tile materials (e.g. non-slip), consistency of colour/s, and size etc – particularly if balconies are visible from the streetscape or from other units.
Here’s that Special By-Law as Registered in 2010:
“The following are the requirements of the Owners Corporation of Strata Plan ♦♦♦♦ further to the provisions of Chapter 3, Part 2, Clause 65(a) of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) and/or any subsequent or complementary Act/s that may at any time in the future apply (“the Act/s”).
Any and all changes and/or additions to the Common Property of the Plan that have been undertaken by the Owners Corporation, and those that have been requested to be undertaken by Owners and which have been properly consented to by the Owners Corporation (O/C) under the provisions of the Act/s will be shown in a Register of Changes and Additions to the Common Property of the Plan (the Register) that will at least include the details of the Owners / Proponents, the date that the O/C’s written consent was properly given, the full details of the consented works and/or activities, and any conditions that form part of those consents.
The Register must be kept in an up to date form by the Secretary of the Executive Committee.
Any and all changes and/or additions to the Common Property of the Plan that are not shown in the Register on and after the date of Registration of this Special By-Law will under no circumstances whatsoever comprise or be considered a change or addition to or form any part of the Common Property of the Plan, and any and all maintenance, repairs, and replacements of, and insurances for changed or added items not shown in the Register that may be required from time to time is the absolute responsibility of the Owner/s from time to time of the Lot/s where the changes and additions were undertaken or completed.”
Zijerfex said …. I like the idea of your Common Property Register and would love to see the text of your special by-law relating to alterations to common property.
Happy to do that as soon as I can work out how to cut and paste to this page from a pdf document. I’ll have to get a License so that I can charge for all the Special By-Laws that I’ve written; I’d make a fortune.
KP – I agree, not just because of my SBL, but because in dech’s example (and in others that I’ve read on FlatChat) it was the Executive Committee (E/C) that gave consent to the changes (albeit possibly well-intentioned), when that is the role of the Owners Corporation (O/C) by way of a Special Resolution (≥75% voting in favour) taken at a General Meeting.
In answer to dech’s questions – yes, in the circumstances you describe the O/C would be held responsible for the maintenance of the air-conditioning system, and yes, it could require a Lot Owner to remove it and to restore the Common Property.
As I’ve stated in other posts, a problem often arises when the well-intentioned nature of the parties involved changes after property settlement (sale of the Lot) and/or after changes to the membership of the E/C.
It seems to me that both the current Lot Owners (who at least sought consent) and the current E/C would have the goodwill to remedy this situation, so your O/C needs to place an item on the Agenda of its General Meeting and Specially Resolve to grant retrospective consent to the Lot Owner’s air-conditioning system.
In order to enforce conditions such as one to make current and future Owners of the Lot responsible for all on-going maintenance, repairs, and replacements of the air-condition system, your O/C will need to Register a complementary Special By-Law; that would then apply to all Lot Owners who in future seek the O/C’s consent for air-conditioner installations.
SlapShot – Forget about possible insurance coverage for the moment.
If the floor tiles are the ones originally fitted by the Developer/Builder when the Lot was first sold, then repairs are the responsibility of the Owners Corporation (O/C), and if they’ve been fitted since, then repairs are the Lot Owner’s responsibility.
But …. if there’s movement in the floor and that’s damaged the tiles, then the O/C is responsible for the necessary repairs to the floor and to whatever tiles are damaged as a consequence of that movement and of those repairs.
Now that responsibility has been established, it’s up to those involved to contact their respective insurers in order to establish whether the damage caused is due to an “event” as defined in their policies; I think not, but in any case insurance cover or otherwise, responsibility for the necessary repairs doesn’t change!
A point of clarification though, your original post about the broken gate indicated that you were an owner, and yet subsequent posts on that topic and this one mentions that you contacted your “Agent” and refer to “the owner” (third person). Are we talking about a different property?
@waverton said:
Is this a reasonable request when other owners have paid a premium on the purchase of their unit with car parking, andCan the EC give them this right without a Special Resolution going to an GM or AGM?
NO on both counts!
oystercove – you’re hearing correctly!
The way around this anomaly is to do what I did for my Plan, by obtaining Owners’ consent (by special resolution) to create and register a Special By-Law (SBL) stating that the maintenance, repair, and replacement of any changes, additions, or alterations to the Common Property that are not shown in the Plan’s Register of Changes to Common Property are entirely the responsibility of the Owner/s from time-to-time of the Lot/s concerned.
We resolved to advise all Owners of the upcoming SBL and to give them three (3) months to advise the Owners Corporation (O/C) of anything that it may not otherwise be aware of (and some did), the Chairman and me then inspected those and placed their relevant details with others in the Register, on the 91st day I ruled a line under the last entry, and went ahead with Registration with NSW Land & Property Information.
Now, whenever the O/C makes a change (recently, an additional clothesline) I record that in the Register, and when an owner applies to do so and they receive a written consent from the O/C with conditions (where appropriate), I similarly record the details in the Register; agreed it’s a bit more work for the hard-working Secretary but it’s very well worth the effort in my opinion.