QUESTION: I am a new owner in a block of 10 units in which an absentee owner owns five apartments while three other members of his family own one each. I and one other are the only resident owners. We are about to have our annual general meeting but I’ve been told that it is waste of time going as we will not get anything approved. The block is about 30 years old, and the family concerned have neglected the building. For instance, the guttering leaks and needs to be replaced but it was patched and painted so it looked alright. There is also a water seepage problem into a common hallway that will require the removal of a raised garden and waterproofing the brickwork. Is there any way that this family can be held liable for its neglect and made to pay the total cost of all the repairs that are needed – and have been needed for years – but they have refused to approve? I do not see why I and the other owner should have to bear any of this cost. Unlike most victims of tight-wad previous owners, you can show through years of documented non or bad decisions that this family, as the dominant force on the Owners Corporation, has neglected its statutory duties which include the maintenance and upkeep of common property.
Even so, you may have trouble getting them to pay. You could go to the Office of Fair Trading for mediation on this and, if they are told to bring the building up to scratch, apply to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal to be excused from the special levy as you were not responsible for years of neglect and they quite clearly were.
Or you could apply to the CTTT to have a manager appointed because the building is not being run as it should be under the terms of the Strata Act. Or you could approach a specialist strata lawyer and get their advice on taking legal action. But be warned, this family could argue that the current state of the building was reflected in your purchase price so you could end up out of pocket too, as well as being the least popular kid on the block.