It was my understanding that a vote at a general meeting would be required to approve/deny the request, so I was shocked that the very small committee (4 people) were able to outright reject something without taking it to the rest of the owners (48 in total) for vote.
First things first, this sounds like a proposal that may appear to straddle the line between minor and major renovations (terms used in the Act), the difference being whether or not there is structural modification to common property and changes to waterproofing. It also sounds as if the committee doesn’t really know what it’s doing – the concept of precedent doesn’t really exist in strata decisions – every application should be considered on its own merits.
The good news is that the committee has rejected the proposal so you can move on with this and, if necessary, seek orders at NCAT under Section 232, covering the committee’s failure to fulfil its responsibilities.
But before that, write to them and politely ask them to reconsider and tell them that you will undertake to provide binding assurances that you will repair and maintain any changes to common property that may be required.
Failing that, you can suggest that you might seek orders at NCAT (strata Act section 232.2) on the grounds that their refusal was unreasonable, without foundation in law and had serious implications for your family’s health and the structural inegrity of the building.
Finally, any decisions by the committee can be overturned at a general meeting but that usually means waiting until an AGM and often finding, as the readers did in this post, that the committee comes out with all guns blazing, sending out propaganda to persuade owners to reject the proposal without giving you any real chance of reply.
With that in mind, you might want to get an experienced strata lawyer involved to make sure you are making the right approach on the right grounds. That may be enough to make them rethinnk.