Reply To: Bylaws to Recover Costs

Thanks Jimmy and others.

Just to clarify, I was more concerned that a bylaw to enable to the Owners Corporation (OC) to recover legal costs from an owner would actually discourage an owner who has a valid complaint and supporting evidence against the OC. The OC has already previously lost a case at NCAT and so the bylaw could be perceived as an attempt to muzzle any future complaints against a strata committee or OC.

An owner would be loathe to apply in future for mediation or to NCAT, supposedly a low cost place to hear cases, for fear of being lumped with the OC’s legal costs bill, especially if the owner has limited financial means. The owner would also even have to foot any costs related to mediation,

The proposed bylaw also states that if the OC brings a claim against an owner at NCAT or court and the OC wins, then the owner will have to pay for all the OC’s legal costs.

However, from what I can gather from Jimmy’s and others’ responses, only the NCAT or a court can decide responsibility for legal costs, in effect rendering the bylaw invalid.