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Your Executive Committee (EC) can authorise the issuing of a “Notice to Comply”, and as that EC only comprises two (2) members, the Secretary/Treasurer/Chair can form a Quorum on her own at the Meeting.
What can you do?
Well, as the EC Secretary is required to provide all Owners with an Agenda for each EC Meeting, you and/or the other Resident Owners should attend, ask to address the Meeting, and voice your opinions about what’s being proposed.
If you’re unable or unwilling to attend, any number of Owners whose combined units-of-entitlement (UOE) exceeds 1/3 of the total UOE for your Plan can write to the EC Secretary in advance of the EC Meeting and oppose whatever item/s you choose to on the Agenda. That prevents any decision being taken by the EC with regard to those item/s.
As yours is only a 6 Unit Plan, it’s likely that as few as three (3) Owners could use this mechanism (responsibly) to effectively veto any EC decisions being made on items that you collectively oppose — and furthermore, the EC cannot resolve to make Special By-Laws; that is a decision for the Owners Corporation at a General Meeting, and only then when no more than 25% of Owners oppose the Motion.
Hope this assists you to manage the “EC Crazies”; there’s always a way where there’s enough like-minded Owners to collectively oppose such attitudes.
Your Tenancy Agreement (Lease) should state any “other areas” that form part of the Lot that you're occupying (e.g. carspace, laundry). In any event, if you're sure that the laundry is part of the Lot that you are renting, then you should write to the Landlord via the Agent and advise them that, in say 7 days time:
- you intend to have the lock on the laundry door changed
- you will be seeking reimbursement of your costs (of 1) from the landlord, and that;
- if reimbursement is not made, you will be seeking Orders from the Consumer, Trader, and Tenancy Tribunal for that reimbursement and for your electricity costs covering the use of the laundry by others.
Good luck!This is one of the conflicts with “associated legislation” in NSW (and I suspect elsewhere).
With regard to Notice Boards, the relevant Legislation is the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996), and Notice Boards have not been compulsory for Strata Schemes registered since the Gazettal of that Act.
However, the NSW Environmental Planning & Assessment Regulation (2000) requires that Annual Fire Safety Statements and their included “schedules” (of safety measures in place) are “prominently displayed in the building” (Pt 9, Div 4, Cl 172).
So…your Strata Manager is right, and you'll need to find somewhere to place a Notice Board – you can purchase small waterproof ones from various suppliers, and if you need to fill-it-up you could include some relevant Strata Info. (like your Strata Manager's details).
Have a look at this link (with whom I have no affiliation whatsoever)
https://www.tandcvisualdisplays.com.au/page/signs_wall_mounted.html)
I'm an intensely proud Aussie, but I can understand how flags hanging off the balconies makes your Building look just as unkempt as it does when residents hang laundry items such as sheets and towels.
So why not take the approach that the same By-Law that applies to laundry items applies to flags.
That would mean that you are not stifling national pride by prohibiting your patriotic residents from flying the national flag for their own gratification (why else?), you're just asking them to position those flag/s, including on Common Property, such that they're not visible from the outside of the Building.
Why not offer to put a Agenda Item before the next General Meeting of your Plan to put a suitably sized and properly illuminated flagpole on your Building, and proudly fly the national flag there?
Hi Confused – we went through this at our Plan a couple of years ago, and as we're self-managed I (as Secretary) had to read and interpret the rule books that your Strata Manager swallowed!
I concluded that as ceiling fans are fixed to Common Property (CP) in a manner such that the CP would be damaged if fans were removed (by accident or otherwise), and that the readily obtainable combination fan/light models are often installed by the Owners themselves using the existing light wiring, that the Owners Corporation (O/C) needed to know about such installations.
The result was that our Executive Committee (and later the O/C) resolved that Owners must seek the written consent of the O/C prior to any installation, that the only conditions on the O/C's consent would be that all works must be undertaken by a Licensed Electrician, and that once installed, ceiling fans would be classified as “Lot Owners Fixtures” and be added to our Plan's Register of Common Property Changes.
That classification meant that any damage to the CP or the ceiling fan that arose due to a “defined event” like the fan suddenly coming away from the ceiling (which actually occurred) is covered by the Plan's Building Insurance, and that in all other circumstances all repairs and maintenance to the fan and the involved CP is the responsibility of the present and subsequent Owner/s of the Lot.
The process of arriving at this solution was time consuming given the conflicts in those rule books, and it could have been more restrictive / prescriptive, but I believe it's been proven simple and effective in its implementation since 2009 when the O/C rubber-stamped the procedure by way of Resolution at an AGM; no Special By-Laws necessary or required!!
Alternatives could indeed be to go down the regulatory route preferred by your Strata Manager, or for the O/C to have no involvement at all and to then argue with a Lot Owner about who pays for what (including personal property / personal injury) if the sky does fall in; I guess that self-management enabled us to take the middle-ground.
You have answered your own question — as the floor is Common Property and your electrician needs to fasten wires to it, you will need to obtain your Owners Corporation's consent before those works commence.
As loathe as I am to comment upon strata matters in a State other than NSW where I'm allegedly a “Strata Guru”, I'll kick things off by firstly suggesting that Strata Laws in our (still) great Nation vary so much between States that you'd think each was indeed a different Nation.
That said, in NSW items such as split-system or compact (window rattler) air conditioners that were installed in a Common Property wall prior to the formation of the “Body Corp” would be classified a “Lot Owners' Fixtures”, that (again in NSW) are often covered for damage due defined events under the Plan's Insurance Policy, but are the Lot Owners' responsibility in terms of on-going maintenance / repairs.
Perhaps QLD Strata Laws are at least similar, even though that similarity may not be what you were hoping for! That said, there must be a way to quieten the operating noise of the air conditioners irrespective of who's responsibility that may be.
If you're in NSW, S119 of the Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) requires Lessors or their Managing Agents to provide the Owners Corporation (O/C) with details with regard to Tenants; specifically the Tenant's name, the date that the Lease commenced, and the name / contact details for the Managing Agent
The rationale is that in the circumstances you describe, the O/C can contact the Managing Agent, and I suspect that individual Tenants are not compelled to provide any of their personal contact details.
It's advisable to engage a Solicitor or Conveyancer of your choosing, who in the normal course of their inquiries will commission a Strata Search under the provisions of State Legislation; S108 of the Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) in NSW.
The Strata Search will normally look at the financial status of the scheme including all income / expenses for the past 2 years, any special levies proposed (e.g. to cover any shortfall arising from abnormally low levies), past and any proposed works on the Common Property, and the 10 yr Plan covering sinking fund levies for the Scheme.
You can ask for any other items about which you have concerns to be concurrently reported upon, such as the amount / adequacy of the Building Insurance, any Special By-Laws in place or planned, and any disputes with Residents and Contractors etc etc.
A properly conducted Strata Search and some interpretation / explanation from your Legal person will give you all the information that you need to decide upon the purchase; money well spent!
So far as I'm aware, there is no impediment to your neighbour again lodging an Application for Interim Orders with the CTTT, where as you've already found out an Adjudicator can make Orders without mediation.
One would hope that your neighbour's original Application (re the bathroom), her subsequent Full Application (mandatory), records of the Mediation Process, and the Determination would all be on file at the CTTT, and that all that would influence how they handled any further Application/s by this same person involving the same Strata Plan / Parties.
Once your proposed renovations receive the consent of the O/C and all Owners have the Minutes, I'd write to the CTTT outlining in general terms what is proposed with those further renovations, attach the relevant Minutes of the General Meeting, and appraise them of your concerns should they again favourably consider any Application for Orders by your neighbour.
Advice of a legal nature is best left to those Strata Lawyers who regularly post on this Forum, and based on my personal experiences, Simone of TEYS Lawyers has always been prepared to provide general comments via a personal approach on e-mail simone@teyslawyers.com.au ; mention your post on this Forum.
You may have cause for action against the then O/C Member but that is a matter best commented upon by one of the the Strata Lawyers who regularly posts on this site, but in order to attempt to offer any other worthwhile advice / comentary, I (and others) might need to know:
- Was the work voted upon at a General Meeting of the O/C or by the Executive Committee?
- What was the total value of the work?
- Was the Builder Licensed?
- Was there a Written Contract between the Builder and the Owners Corporation?
I don't know why your Owners Corporation (O/C) drafted a new By-Law, but if it hadn't been Registered and attached to your Plan's Title Documents at the time that your dissenting neighbour lodged her Application with the Office of Fair Trading, they (OFT) would have no way of knowing that your works had received the O/C's prior authorisation.
OFT could of course have attempted contact with your Strata Manager or the Secretary of your Executive Committee, but as you've correctly observed they're not the most efficient of the Government's Bureaucracies!
Sorry, but unless you want to spend your money on litigation instead of on something positive like your new bathroom, I'd just move-on and put the whole episode down to experience.
Thanks for “closing the loop” – my fingers are crossed too!
Hey Jimmy – here's the Form that you wanted, all that needs to happen now is for Proprietors to insist that their EC Secretaries / Strata Managers complete and lodge it ASAP after General Meetings.
https://www.lpma.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/25550/15CB_v3-1.pdf
novice1oo – You need to take into consideration the fact that Strata Reports by necessity include extracts on every nut-and-bolt issue that the Inspector / Consultant finds on the Strata File – and whilst that approach is reasonable it’s not always helpful.
What you and every other prospective purchaser then needs to do is to read between the lines so far as is possible, to ask questions of your own Legal Adviser, the Consultants whose Reports are referenced in the Strata Report, the Strata Manager, and even the Secretary of the Plan’s Executive Committee if you can.
In my opinion, and based solely on the information that you have provided ..
The Construction Defect Claim against the Builder could go either way, but as it’s “defect rectification” (unspecified), the works and the costs thereof could be staged if the Owners Corporation needs to fund it.
The compromised fire protection issues are not major, and relate to sealing gaps around the steel beams at the points where they adjoin or pass-through boundary walls, and the placing of dampers (shut-off flaps) in the exhaust fan ducting at those same locations.
BUT ….. (there’s always one) I’d be most concerned about the Engineer’s Report with regard to the corrosion of the structural steel-work within the building, which whilst apparently due only to the absence of corrosion protection at the welded joints at the time of construction, is no doubt a long-term issue (ref: “numerous past reports”) post construction; and as yet unresolved probably due to the cost (?).
I'’m still loathe to advise you about which way to go, other than to say that if you’re still in doubt after making all reasonable enquiries; then don’t do it !!