#53637
Jimmy-T
Keymaster

    The easiest way to have your concerns made official is to seek mediation at Fair Trading and apply for orders under Section 232(2).  This is part of the Act that setes out to resolve disputes over duties that the strata scheme has failed to undertake.

    Painting is part of the strata scheme’s maintenance duties. The law also required the scheme to have a 10-year maintenance plane updated every five years.

    On the question of climbable balcony balustrades.  A simple and relatively cheap and unobtrusive way of dealing with that is to affix perspex sheets to the inside of the ironwork, thereby removing footholds.  You could even get a local builder to quote for the whole building using your apartment as a guide.

    This three-pronged approach would start with mediation and that would, if nothing else, create an official record of your concerns.  If you do go to medaition, and the strata committee appears ro agree, make sure you get a commitment in writing ast to starta and completion dates for the work.

    Another otion might be to contact your strata insurers and ask them if they are concerned about the potential climb and fall risk.

    None of these approaches are guaranteed to work, and they will make you very unpopular with your recalcitrant neighbours, so perhaps the best thing to do first is to politely tell the secretary or chair that this is your plan of action if they continue to ignore your concerns and suppress all records of you having made them known .

    But just be sure to follow through if they ignore you again. I would say at a guess that they don’t want to spend money and they don’t want any record of problems to appear in the minutes as that might affect the value of their apartments.

    But nothing damages the value of property more than neglect and willful ignorance. One you take them to Fair Trading, that is a record that must be available to prospective purchasers, and that’s something they really don’t want – for people to see how the property has been neglected and allowed to run down.

    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.