› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Strata Committees › Can individual commitee members get their legal fees paid for by OC? › Current Page
Thank you to all that responded. Apologies for not responding earlier.
Jimmy-T and others.
Some great insights and information there.
Update: the OC applied to have legal representation at the hearing.
Tribunal ruling:
The application for legal representation is refused
Reasons:
The application seeks a range of orders and raises a large number of allegations and the factual issues are
not complicated and the Respondents should be able to represent themselves.
The Tribunal cannot prevent the Respondents from seeking legal assistance in the preparation of their
evidence and submissions. The Respondents may review their application for representation if the
subsequent conduct of the case by the Applicant changes the circumstances sufficiently to warrant such a
further application.
This was very welcome news. The application (including reasons for) was prepared by a solicitor.
What was incredible was that one of the reasons was that the strata manager does not understand strata law, even though they proport to be highly proficient in strata with over 25 years experience as well as being a senior member of REINSW! Apparently this strata manger was more than capable of representing the OC in previous NCAT hearings.
Although this means that the OC and individual strata committee members can still obtain their own legal advice to prepare documents or submissions, and it seems they can still use OC funds to pay for this, as long as it is not above a threshold amount that requires OC approval.