One of the most common complaints in strata is about the owner who wants to do a significant renovation but doesn’t see why they need permission from anyone else in the building, least of all those busybodies on the strata committee.
You know how it goes – the line of least resistance is followed slavishly. Tradies come and go. Rubble exits while new fixtures arrive. But why cause a fuss? What harm can it possibly do? It’s his or her home and surely they wouldn’t want to do bodgy work in the place where they live.
And then they sell and the new owner complains about damp spreading from the failed waterproofing in the renovated bathroom. Or the pipework in the relocated kitchen sink is spraying water everywhere.
Or the fusebox keeps shorting because of badly connected wiring somewhere behind the kitchen cupboards? And is that smoke I can smell?
The new owner quite rightly says, “Hey, this is common property and you need to fix it. And don’t give me that caveat emptor* BS – I don’t speak Latin but I am fluent in NCAT.”
So what do you do when an owner has changed common property without so much as a “by your leave”, let alone the requisite by-laws, and they are planning to sell?
We have a way of putting a spoke in their departing wheels. That’s HERE.
*Buyer beware
Elsewhere in the Forum
- The strata manager says I can only email them, not the committee. That’s HERE.
- How do we pay for internet upgrades when NBN says it has to be everyone or no one? That’s HERE.
- Can the committee demand in-person – no Zoom or Teams links – for an AGM? That’s HERE.
- Who’s responsible for tree roots in a lot property courtyard damaging common property pipes? That’s HERE.
- Strata manager has let us down – how hard is it to sack them? That’s HERE.
- Strata committee were given incorrect result of a vote – now they want to take it again. That’s HERE.
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