He states he needs to check that the strata committee has acted within its scope and with full support from the Body Corporate.
This lawyer needs to read up on his strata law. The committee is empowered by the Act by default to act on behalf of the owners corporation except for in the very few matters where the law states that decisions can only be made by the owners corporation at a general meeting.
Issuing notices to comply and requiring owners to not annex common property are not decisions that require a meeting of the full owners corporation.
This is the kind of a-hole who gives lawyers a bad name. How about you tell him a) to point out where in law it says his client can annex common property without permission and b) that if he doesn’t pull his head in you will report him to the Law Society for knowingly giving unsound advice to his client for the purpose of bullying members of a strata committee into making a decision that violates strata law.
Or you could just tell him to stop harassing the strata committee and take it to NCAT and see how he gets on there.
But really, all you need to do is commence a mediation at Fair Trading with a view to seeking orders at NCAT and if the owner doesn’t reveal that to potential purchasers he is breaking the law.