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I agree, and as I just noticed “Mr Strata's” query about the isolating tap for the water supply to individual Units, the answer is …. it's the Lot Owners' responsibility.
If people (including me) find any Legislative or Regulatory provisions to be onerous or administratively / operationally incorrect, then the solution is to advise the Regulators and wait for the next Review to have a say – not to make expedient interpretations, even if they do seem sensible.
In the meantime the operation of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (currently under review) requires the Owners Corporation (O/C) to make-good any private property that's been damaged to due a Common Property fault.
As onerous as that appears in Anajr's circumstances, where the O/C was not negligent in any way, an Application for Mediation will, as Jimmy T advised, “explain to them (the S/M) how and why” that liability exists.
Don't do the repairs yourself Anajr, but instead advise your S/M that you're applying for Mediation, then do that, and wait for the process to run its course.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and your plumber are correct, and your Strata Manager is “splitting straws”.
All original tiles on the floor and on the external wall to which your refer are Common Property, and your Owners Corporation has an absolute responsibility to undertake all maintenance and repairs, and NOT to wait until the consequences of its inaction affects other Units.
The solution is to again advise your Strata Manager, this time in writing, that the areas requiring maintenance / repairs are Common Property, that the consequential affects of the fault is spreading, and that as concession on your part you will pay for the cost of the re-grouting of those areas post the repairs (those $ will be minimal). Add that if you do not receive an agreement to that within say 7 days, an Application for Mediation will be lodged with the OFT.
Hopefully you won’t need it, but that Application can be downloaded here https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov…..edform.pdf
I'm afraid that as long as your Plan's prolific letter writer has the time to persist, there's not much that your E/C and Strata Manager (SM) can do but respond; that's the proper thing to do, but the nature of those responses is very much within E/C's control.
Upon receipt of his next letter have your SM respond, and include a para. advising that all future contact with your Plan's Insurer and Contractors must be via the SM or E/C Secretary (depending upon the delegations under your Agreement), and that any and all matters to do with the management of your Plan are best raised personally at E/C or General Meetings.
After that, if the correspondence continues (and it may well), I'd suggest a very brief shell-letter type response, that simply acknowledges his. Once your serial complainer realises that that's all he's going to get (e.g. no apparent reaction), but that the door's not shut (because it can't be), he may attend personally at Meetings where you can better control what he says and when.
Defamation is largely in the eyes of the reader, so just ignore it.
If the entire deck is “Common Property”, a term that does not necessarily imply common or shared use, then the responsibility for fixing the leak rests with your Owners Corporation, who may in this instance be able to recover costs from the current owner of the floorboards; although that will be “messy” as it's a previous Proprietor who placed them there, and it may not be apparent that the floorboards damaged the membrane, or when.
On the other had, if your Plan has registered a Special By-Law covering the Exclusive Use of part of that deck by the Proprietor of one (1) Unit, then it's usual for that Special By-Law to include a Condition that the Proprietor from time-to-time of that Unit is responsible for all on-going maintenance and repairs to the area over which they have that exclusive use.
I'd suggest that you speak with your Strata Manager about whether or not a Special By-Law of the type referred to (above) has been Registered.
Alternatively if you're in NSW, you can do an on-line search of your property’'s Strata Plan using the Land & Property Management Authority's “on-line shop” where all “Dealings” (e.g. Special By-Laws) are listed by Dealing number at javascript:mctmp(0); and then at the following link, where the wording of the individual Dealings can be found: javascript:mctmp(0);
Frankly, it's not worth the discussion when you can buy one on eBay for <$20 locally, or for <$10 from O/S (incl. postage).
Don't be too hard on me Jimmy!
Seriously though, my non-resident Proprietors don't give a damn about anything else but their Levies and their Rent, and their Property Managers don't care about anything other than keeping their Clients' costs down by making sure that the O/C pays for everything; but don't get me started on that continual try-on (that doesn't work)!
I'm reluctant to include that Levies Item on the Agenda (and may not), but I feel that adjourning the AGM and reconvening 7 days later to have a meeting with myself in order to rubber-stamp all the Agenda Items, that I wrote in the first place, could be equally irresponsible.
Note to “Flatchat” – I'm the “Strata Manager”, Secretary, and Treasurer, so I do have all the correct contact details.
Apathy is endemic in Strata Plans, and that's made worse when most of the Units are tenanted.
As Secretary of a 27 Lot self-managed Plan, every AGM Agenda that I prepare includes a front-page plea for attendance, and still I'm continually e-mailing our 23 non-resident owners to encourage participation or to obtain their proxies and voting instructions in advance of our Meetings.
Most e-mails are never responded to (not even a read-receipt), but thus far, with personal attendance by E/C Members, I've held sufficient proxies to reach a quorum and to hold the Meetings; just.
There are days when I wonder why I bother, and right now as the date for our AGM approaches, I'm contemplating whether to use trickery in order to elicit attendance by placing an Item on the Agenda to increase the Levies by some outlandish percentage, or to do/say nothing, then adjourn the Meeting and reconvene 7 days later to resolve to pass everything.
I don't think there's a solution to this problem, but if there is I'd like to read it.
Your Owners Corporation is right!
The electrical switch room and everything in it (e.g. meters/fuses/switches) is Common Property, so all necessary repairs therein are entirely the responsibility of the Owners Corporation, and there's no need for Owners or their Electrical Tradespeople to have access.
There are limited circumstances when an electrician, having assessed fault/s within a Unit and its electrical sub-board (all Owners' responsibility), wants to check the Unit's main supply in the Meter Room. In these circumstances, I've never found an electrician who didn't have the Master Key issued by the local Supply Authority.
Your Motion only requires a vote by simple majority, unless of course any Owner in attendance requests a poll vote, in which case votes are still by majority, but “weighted” in accordance with the Units of Entitlement applicable to each voting Owner’s Lot/s.
You're obviously prepared to go to a lot of effort and expense in order to do the right thing, and whilst I admire that approach, it may all be for naught if your Owners Corporation (O/C) or the Developer, as they who hold the majority Unit of Entitlement, does as you suggest, just say no!
Why not limit your expense by purchasing a suitably-sized freestanding cat enclosure, and place that on your terrace together with the screening/landscaping you have suggested, but again freestanding in pots/planters?
In that way you don't need to seek the consent of your O/C as you're not altering or fastening anything to the Common Property (CP), and you’'re limiting your expense whilst you “test the waters” with your neighbours and your O/C.
Then if the worst happens and you receive complaints, you can offer to remove everything freestanding with little effort and with no damage to CP, and concurrently propose to replace that with the gold-plated option that you're considering now.
In that way, your O/C could claim a “win” – and that may well be just what you need; as they say “slowly, slowly catchy monkey”.
Colosus01 – may I just add that there would need to be a specific Special By Law registered for your Plan if the 3m restriction that you mention is truly a Strata requirement (as opposed to one by Council).
“Struggs” is right about a making formal submission, especially as it sounds to me like you have all the info. anyway, because at least then the O/C's decision and the reasons for it, also has to be in writing.
That way, if you choose, you'll be in a position to do something about any ad-hoc and/or spurious decisions via the Strata Regulator in your State; in NSW – https://www.cttt.nsw.gov.au/Divisions/Strata_and_community_schemes.html
The short answer is YES – but you don’t have to pass and register a Special By-Law in order to resolve the present issue involving the impending sale of a Lot. As an “easy-out”, your Plan’s Executive Committee could issue a retrospective consent to the Owner of that Lot, covering the air conditioner and the requirement for all on-going repairs / maintenance / replacements to be the absolute responsibility of the Lot Owner from time-to-time (i.e. current and all future Owners).
Then … you need to have some generic Special By-Laws expertly drafted, agreed to at a General Meeting (<25% non-agreement), and Registered to retrospectively and in future cover the installation of air-conditioners, the placing of items (solar panels / solar hotwater) on Common Property, and Additions to Common Property (the sun room, and in this case probably covering that Owner’s Exclusive Use of that area).
You need to resolve this, because if there's ever a discussion about who's responsible for those items in the circumstances that you describe, there's precedent for all of them to be deemed “Common Property”, and in which case your Owners Corporation will be entirely responsible for all maintenance / repairs / replacements; forever!
Sorry – but as unfair as it may seem, you are required to make all of those repairs. The rationale is that, with the exception of the “grill thingies” (sic), there could be an electrical fault in the Unit that may result in an injury to your tenant and/or a guest, and then, as you've been made aware of the problem you'd be in real strife!
G'day “strugs” — most Strata Managers (SM) uses the standard form of Strata Community Australia Agreement (formally the ISTM), where even if the Term of that Agreement has / is about to expire as of the date of your Plan's AGM, it automatically renews unless your O/C has given them either:
- prior written notice of a Breach of the Agreement that they haven't rectified, or ..
- a minimum three (3) months written notice of your decision to Terminate on the expiry date.
As the Agenda for your AGM has already been issued with that standard item about the appointment of a SM, why not slightly amend that at the Meeting to the extent of including a vote to give the SM the prescribed Notice of Termination to take effect a min. 3 months later, during which time you can look around, get some proposals, select a new SM, and put that to an EGM?