It’s been an understandably slow start to the flow of questions to the Flat Chat Forum, especially since I took this story about a committee covering up its discussions and gave it a slot of its own.
That has left me with one question with which to start the new year – but it’s a doozy.
But first, some background. As you may know, there is a war on surrounding cut-price cigarettes and vapes on our high streets.
Just two weeks ago a shop in Swan Hill, Victoria, was rammed with a stolen car after a threatening note had been pasted on its window.
Over the past two years, more than 125 tobacconists in Melbourne have been fire-bombed in what has become known as the city’s tobacco wars.
And there are signs that the gangland turf wars over cheap illegally imported cigarettes and vapes are spreading to NSW.
It’s in this context that a Flatchatter has written to us about the fact that their insurance premiums have gone up significantly, purely because a tobacconist has taken over the commercial lot in their block.
Now, strata law could not be clearer about this. Section 82 of the Strata Schemes Management Act says that one exception to the rule that owners can only be charged levies according to their unit entitlements is if the use of the lot specifically increases insurance costs.
In that case, the strata scheme can charge the lot owners the difference, with their agreement. And if they refuse unreasonably, the other owners can go to the Tribunal (NCAT) to get orders allowing them to raise the payments by the amount of the increase.
In fact, any owner in the building can seek such an order, if they feel their levies are subsidising the business that’s caused the insurance premium rise.
So why has the strata manager shut down a motion to seek higher levies from the owner of the tobacconist shop? Is the threat even more real than our Flatchatter thought?
You can light the fuse on this one HERE.
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Forum: The strata scheme can increase levies on a tobacco shop to cover insurance rise – why has the strata manager stubbed out the plan?
[See the full post at: Forum: No smokes without fire bomb risk?]
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