Strata can be a terrific place to live, make friends and be part of a mutually supportive community. It can also be a cesspit of spite and personal vendettas when individuals and groups fall out.
Take our Flatchatter Tenacious who is an active but not hugely popular member of their strata committee. Trust me, it doesn’t take much to end up on the outer with your committee. Just asking the right questions at the wrong time will usually do it.
A couple of years ago a fire safety inspection of T’s building revealed that several of the units’ front doors contained asbestos and had to be replaced. Every other door was – but not theirs.
Requests to the strata manager were fobbed off with instructions to take it to the committee. Led by an unfriendly chair, the committee did nothing, despite the door containing asbestos, a fact that was confirmed when T threatened to take the block to NCAT.
After two years of being ignored, despite asbestos being a known killer, T threatened to go to the media. Suddenly everything moved ahead at a great pace and the door is about to be replaced. You can read the original post HERE.
But this raises the question of what can you do when your committee or its office-bearers don’t fulfil their responsibilities under strata law, especially out of spite.
In NSW you can take action at the Tribunal under section 232(2) – failure to fulfil a function. Or you can ask the committee to relieve an obstructive office-bearer of their role with a simple vote (although they’d still be on the committee).
Alternatively, you can ask a general meeting to remove the blocking member from the committee, which only requires a simple majority. And now you can also ask the Tribunal to do that, especially if you can prove that the member knew they should have done the right thing but chose not to do it.
In short, you don’t have to suffer in silence, or wait until the next AGM and hope the nay-sayer isn’t re-elected – especially when you are trying to get rid of a substance that is very, very dangerous.
Elsewhere on the Forum
- Can the committee give permission to change common property (QLD)? That’s HERE.
- How do we get blocks that share our driveway to pay for repairs? That’s HERE.
- What happens when a committee defending a claim at NCAT has no case to present? That’s HERE.
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