Having spent years trying to answer readers’ questions or, more to the point, allowing Flatchatters to answer each other’s, I have a question for you.
I have recently bought an investment property in regional NSW and I am involved in a daily arm-wrestle with a 12-year-old strata manager who thinks his job is to hold the AGM once a year and supervise the occasional strata committee meeting, but otherwise run the block and make all the decisions (while running up Schedule B fees like they’re going out of fashion).
He has even refused to turn over the strata roll because “you don’t need it …I’ll take care of the emails and it’s a privacy issue.”
Don’t worry, all that will be dealt with as he learns the legal facts of strata life. But here’s a conundrum. An owner (not me) wants to erect a screen in the corner of his balcony that’s out of sight of the rest of the scheme and the surrounding area.
StrataBoy says it changes the appearance of the building therefore it needs a by-law. I ask, how can it change the appearance if no one can see it? Doesn’t appearance require the object to be visible?
What’s the difference? If the invisible screen does change the appearance, it requires a common property by-law (which means $1000 in legal fees for the owner and Schedule B fees for the strata management company).
If it doesn’t change the appearance, it’s a minor renovation – no by-law, no fees.
What do you think? Seriously, would you go to the barricades over this, or am I wrong (again)?
Elsewhere in the Forum
- Should your rental agent provide access if you can’t be there to let tradies in for strata repairs? That’s HERE.
- If a committee meeting isn’t properly conducted, do the decisions still stand? That’s HERE.
- Why it costs more to replace a balcony in a Class 2 building than a Class 1. That’s HERE.
- Insurance confusion over break-ins at storage units. That’s HERE.
- How much detail should there be in our budgets and financial statements? That’s HERE.
- Where can I get sound recording devices to prove I’m not too noisy? That’s HERE.
How to ask and answer questions
Anyone can read our posts any time but you have to be registered to ask or answer questions. However, there are several easy ways you can search, access, ask questions and reply to others’ queries once you have registered using the green “register and sign in …” box on this page.
The best way may be to click on “Forum: Your Qs & A’s” on the top menu bar on a computer screen or on the drop-down menu (three lines) on the right of the screen on phones and tablets, under the Strata Choice ad. Then click on the topic title that interests you, and off you go.
Alternatively, you can look at the list of “Your latest questions and answers” under the ads on the right of the page on a computer screen. Or at the bottom, after the ads and stories, on a tablet or phone.
Or you can go “old school” and go to the Forum Home Page and work your way through the topics there. Whichever route you take to get there, the best way to keep up to speed with what’s happening is to register (if you haven’t already done so), then login and subscribe for free to the topics that interest you most.
That way you’ll get an alert whenever the discussion moves forward, and you can also chip in with your own comments and questions. Have a look HERE at our instant guide to getting online.
› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Current Page
Having spent years trying to answer readers’ questions or, more to the point, allowing Flatchatters to answer each other’s, I have a question for you.
[See the full post at: Forum: Can an unseen screen alter ‘appearance’?]
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Current Page
› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Current Page