Hi Catch 22, another thing your friend should know is that if there is no Bylaw in place for the installation of the air-con she may be asked by the OC to pay for the drafting and registering of the By law which could cost around $500 depending on how much your legal fees are.
I recently had an issue with the wish to install air-con (one owner had already installed an unauthorised system without a By law being place)
My request to have a By law for the air con to cover all 6 units in the block was voted down at an EGM (with harvested proxies) without explanation from the EC. They instead voted (absurdly) for a By law to be drafted which applied only to the one offending unit.
I really think that the EC/OC did not understand what I was asking for, and seemed to think (according to their submissions) that I was trying to get the rest of the owners pay for my air conditioning!! I took the issue to NCAT and won, and much to my surprise, had a costs order awarded in my favour too. I assume that the Tribunal member assessed sensibly that to deny me the opportunity to install air conditioning was unreasonable.
Seeing as the installation of my air con was part of a legal battle I wanted to install it properly with all the appropriate approvals and also had to pay $400 for a DA with my local council. It is now installed (as of Monday) and working very well.
Please warn your friend there may be some extra costs involved, apart from the earlier purchase and installation of the air-con system. I think it will be worth it to fess up and get on with surviving the current heatwave.