If a lot owner has the benefits of a special privileged by-law, those special privileges cannot be amended or rescinded by an Owners Corporation without the consent of the lot owner affected.
Usually, lot owners who are the beneficiaries of valuable rights such as special privileges do not give consent to their amendment or repeal. This means that the Owners Corporation would need to make an application to the strata schemes adjudicator seeking order that the owner has unreasonably refused to consent to the repeal or the amendment of the by-law concerned. At first instance, the Owners Corporation would need to apply for mediation with the lot owner affected before moving to an application for strata schemes adjudicator’s orders if mediation was unsuccessful.
We note that mattb refers to compensation to be paid to an owner who is losing a special privilege. While we think there is no obligation on an Owners Corporation to offer compensation to a lot owner from whom the Owners Corporation wishes to take away its special privilege or amend a special privilege by rescinding or amending a by-law, compensation may be the sweetener which elicits the co-operation and consent of the lot owner affected by the rescission/amendment to the by-law.