@kiwipaul said:
Item 13. POWER TO GARAGE – SPECIAL RESOLUTIONI agree with all that PeterC says but in NSW this sort of thing needs a byelaw to be registered to ensure future owners don’t come back to the OC for maintenance of this extra cabling.
So what PeterC proposes as a motion should instead be approved as a bylaw as it seems to cover all of the issues. This is not a problem because it is the same proportion of the vote to approve a new bylaw as to approve improvements.
The cost of registering a new bylaw is a couple of hundred $ which I think the Strata should pay for to eliminate future problems. Their is no requirement to spend more money on getting a lawyer to draw one up for such a simple change, just common sense.
In the ACT, depending on whether the EC judged it to be defensible that this is a ‘minor use’ as defined in the Act, it might be done by the EC. However, for the reasons you say of transparency and not being lost in the mists of time, it could also be done as a special resolution that is registered with the Land Titles Office and so able to be found by anyone buying in.
As a catch-all, our EC is proposing an amendment to our rules (aka bylaws) that would say (more elegantly) that anything installed on common property that is only for the benefit of one unit must be maintained in a safe condition by the unit owner at their expense, regardless of whether the item was approved or not, and the OC has the power to make it safe and charge them.