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FlatChatFan – I don't think BB is saying this member adjudicates on actions brought against him; just that the fact that he is a member of the CTTT means that he can't lose (BB will correct me if I'm wrong).
Regarding tenure of the CTTT here is a recent response from them to exactly that question:
Members of the CTTT are appointed by the Governor of NSW for a term of up to 5 years. Under the CTTT Act members are eligible for reappointment. There are presently 80 members of the CTTT located throughout NSW.
A number of appointments to the Tribunal generally expire at the same time. For example, the terms of 40 or so members expire at the end of 2011. An advertisement seeking applications from suitable candidates was placed in the press in August 2011. Anybody, including members who wish to be reappointed for a further term, was required to make a written application. Appointments are based on merit and will be made following an assessment and interview process involving all candidates. This process is not yet concluded.
A variety of selection processes have been employed by former Ministers in earlier years. All have involved an advertisement, written application and assessment process.
The last large scale recruitment exercise was undertaken in 2007. At that time 23 existing members were not reappointed and 11 new appointments were made. Smaller exercises were undertaken in 2009 and 2010. On each occasion a number of members were not reappointed and new appointments were made as a result of the selection process.
This question was asked after a very prominent and highly qualified member of the strata community who had applied to become a Member told me he was informed at the interview that the CTTT operates an unofficial 'tip and fill' process whereby existing members only have to reapply as a formality to stay in their jobs. Nothing in the above contradicts that – there certainly seems to be no rigorous performance review as part of the process.
On the question of the serial complainer, there are many ways to resolve an issue of bad management of a strata scheme. Firstly, all you have to do is convince the majority of your neighbours that this is the case. They, after all, can see at first hand how well or badly the scheme is being run. I know it's never as simple as making a compelling argument but democracy doesn't get any more grass roots than at strata level. If you can convince enough of your fellow owners that there is a systemic problem in your strata plan, they can vote to fix it at the AGM. If they don't care then the problem clearly isn't that bad in their eyes.
Secondly, there is appeal to a higher Court. These days in Strata, the first resort for appeals is the District Court where any obvious misinterpretations of the law can be heard and remedied. It's more expensive than running another case through the CTTT – one reason serial complainers don't go there.
The worst serial complainers use up huge amounts of their strata plans' and the CTTT's resources by running variations on cases they have already lost, which have to be treated as new cases.
Their search for 'justice' ties up EC volunteers time and energy not to mention the costs if a strata manager or lawyer is involved (and one or the other probably will be). When one tilt at the windmill fails, they come up with another variation and the process starts again – mediation, adjudication, hearing, appeal.
If the serial complainer happens to be a pensioner, the cost to them is negligible and if they literally have nothing better to do with their time it takes on all the hallmarks of a hobby.
What they are doing is perfectly legal but it's clogging up a CTTT system that's already struggling while undermining their own communities. They also encourage CTTT members to feel very superior to ordinary strata residents (not that they need much encouragement).
We have to balance the right to a fair result with all strata owners' rights to choose how imperfect their world is. Yes, there is proxy stacking, a high level of ignorance of the law and, even worse, apathy that all mitigate against correcting flaws at the individual strata plan level.
But there has to be a cut-off point where the CTTT can say that one individual taking case after case against their strata plan has to stop, for everyone's sake.