I ask because if an OC is not obliged to enforce it, what use is it?
We have had this argument time and again on this forum and as far as I am concerned, the owners corporation, through its committee and/or strata manager, has a duty to enforce its by-laws.
According to Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello, his Second Reading of the Act made that clear, back in 2015.
That’s not to say that there is a compulsion to proactively police observance of the by-laws, but when there is a complaint about an evident breach, they are obliged to act.
When they decline to do so, owners or tenants can apply to the Tribunal under Section 232 (2) of the Act, “Failure to exercise a function”. That section of the act says that if you make a complaint and they don’t respond within two months, or if they say they don’t intend to do anything, you can seek orders from NCAT, compelling them to do something about the problem – in this case a by-law breach.
We have had committee chairs on here several times saying that if they were compelled to pursue every by-law breach, they would give up. Our response has always been, if you have by-laws on your books that you aren’t prepared to enforce, then they shouldn’t be there.