Re: Can/should an OC be involved in neighbourhood issues?

It’s interesting to note that, in Victoria at least, 1,000s (probably 10,000s) of OCs exist simply because some lots share a driveway.  In many cases there’s absolutely no other reason – it’s just because of a driveway.  Not all strata schemes are apartment blocks.

Does simply sharing a driveway, and absolutely nothing more, give an OC committee the legal right to represent all the lot owners on matters that don’t directly relate to the common property in that strata plan?  I sure hope it wouldn’t!

And I have friends living in strata Plans of Subdivision where only some of the lots are members in an OC.  For other lots (they don’t share any common property at all) there is no OC, so no committee, no meetings, no levies – absolute zip.  And the OC committee that does exist in the same Plan of Subdivision has absolutely zero jurisdiction over the lots that are not part of the OC.   Yet all the lots were built at the same time, are part of the same Plan of Subdivision and even share the same street address.

To me, the above demonstrates the reason an OC is created is very much to do with common property maintenance and not much more.

As for communications and speaking out etc. I’m both a resident and a non-resident strata owner. I get addressed letters from councils re community matters for all the lots I own. I’d agree though that I don’t always physically see what’s happening in the neighbourhood of all my lots.  So I might appreciate a committee informing me about neighbourhood issues that concern them.  But I’m not so sure that I agree that a committee should be allowed to automatically legally represent me on those issues.  They can speak out if they want, as residents and ratepayers but I’m still struggling to see how they can legally say they represent the views of 190 owners (as is the case in one of my OCs where I am a committee member) on matters not defined by law as a committee’s function.