› Flat Chat Strata Forum › By-laws and outlaws › Major reno ignores by-law – SM says it’s OK › Current Page
If your strata managers said ignoring renovation by-laws was OK, they are idiots and should be replaced at the first opportunity.
Significant work on bathrooms is almost impossible to be done as either a minor or cosmetic renovation. As soon as you remove tiles on the floor or a common wall, you are in by-law territory.
The main reason you have by-laws for renovations is so that the renovator has to agree that the owner of the lot, henceforth, will take responsibility for the work done.
And that avoids the all-too-common situation of people renovating their bathrooms (especially), selling their flat, the bathroom leaking and the new owner asking the owners corp to fix it because it’s common property and there is no paperwork to say otherwise.
That’s why Section 108 (below)is there in the Act, declaring that unless the renovator accepts responibility for the renovations, then common property flaws fall to the owners corp.
Despite its wording, it’s not there to shift responsibility to the OC, it’s there to make sure the OC thinks about the implications and puts appropriate by-laws in place.
If your strata manager doesn’t understand that, they should hand in their ticket right now.
In your specific situation, you should ask your committee to immediately demand that the rogue renovator sign up to a retrospective by-law or restore the common property to its original condition. The by-law will fix the problem. Doing nothing is planting landmines for your scheme’s future and neither the renovator not the strata manager will be held responsible.
But if the committee does make the claim now, then the renovator will find it very hard to sell their unit until they have complied.
(1) Procedure for authorising changes to common property
An owners corporation or an owner of a lot in a strata scheme may add to the common property, alter the common property or erect a new structure on common property for the purpose of improving or enhancing the common property.
(2) Any such action may be taken by the owners corporation or owner only if a special resolution has first been passed by the owners corporation that specifically authorises the taking of the particular action proposed.
Note—If the special resolution is a sustainability infrastructure resolution fewer votes may be needed to pass it. See section 5(1)(b).(3) Ongoing maintenance A special resolution under this section that authorises action to be taken in relation to the common property by an owner of a lot may specify whether the ongoing maintenance of the common property once the action has been taken is the responsibility of the owners corporation or the owner.
(4) If a special resolution under this section does not specify who has the ongoing maintenance of the common property concerned, the owners corporation has the responsibility for the ongoing maintenance.
(5) A special resolution under this section that allows an owner of a lot to take action in relation to certain common property and provides that the ongoing maintenance of that common property after the action is taken is the responsibility of the owner has no effect unless—
(a) the owners corporation obtains the written consent of the owner to the making of a by-law to provide for the maintenance of the common property by the owner, and
(b) the owners corporation makes the by-law.
(6) The by-law—
(a) may require, for the maintenance of the common property, the payment of money by the owner at specified times or as determined by the owners corporation, and
(b) must not be amended or repealed unless the owners corporation has obtained the written consent of the owner concerned.
(7) Sections 143 (2), 144 (2) and (3) and 145 apply to a by-law made for the purposes of this section in the same way as they apply to a common property rights by-law.
Note—A new by-law or other changes to the by-laws for a strata scheme must be approved by a special resolution of the owners corporation (see section 141).