As an actual tenant at Regis Towers for the past 4 years, I can tell you that this card cancelling and extortion has been going on for over 6 months now and it’s disgusting behaviour.
I am personally offended by this letter from the Secretary who is too timid to name himself. This letter implies that as someone who has had a card cancelled, I am either a drug dealer, a prostitute or some other type of miscreant. I also know many other people who have had cards cancelled and none of them are criminals either, it is merely the owners taking the opportunity to recover the costs of maintaining a strata by victimising people who have no understanding of their legal rights in this country. At the peak of this nonsense, card cancellations were earning Regis Towers $13,000 over one weekend and another $10,000 over another weekend. You do the math, is this just the owners doing their honourable duty? I wonder how much levies have been reduced due to these ill-gotten gains? I am certainly not the only resident who noticed the 4 brand new large LED monitors at the lifts in the lobby of one of the towers and no doubt there is a new computer system running them.
Aside from all that, why should we be denied the freedoms and rights afforded to every other tenant in this country, to allow ourselves our friends and family to come and go unharassed and without constant fear of being locked out of our own homes.
I fail to understand how Mr French and Mr Sharman from Fair Trading have determined that Regis aren’t breaking any strata laws when the bulk of the card cancellations to date have happened prior to the new card rules being passed into the by-laws. Any rule that isn’t in the by-laws is commonly referred to as a “house rule” and is illegal. Aside from that, the by-laws used to have a specific clause that covered the lending of keys which said that it was permitted, so the card cancellations were clearly illegal, which is why they changed the by-laws…to protect the money extorted in any future card cancellations.
Going forward however, any owner who has allowed these card cancellations to happen to their tenant is in breach of the NSW Residential Tenancies Act 2010 which clearly states:
“Part 3 Rights and obligations of landlords and tenants.
Division 7 Security and safety of residential premises
71 Changes of locks and other security devices
(1) A landlord or tenant may alter, remove or add or cause or permit the alteration, removal or addition of a lock or other security device for the residential premises only if:
(a) the other party agrees, or
(b) with a reasonable excuse.
…
(3) If a lock or other security device is altered, removed or added by a landlord or the tenant without the consent of the other party, it is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that it was altered, removed or added by the landlord or tenant without reasonable excuse.
…
(5) This section is a term of every residential tenancy agreement.”
I think locking lawful tenants out of their own homes because their neighbours “might” be overtenanting or dealing drugs or selling their bodies is pretty clearly not a reasonable excuse to anyone other than the money hungry Owner’s Corporation.
This means that any owner who leases their apartment and who voted for the card cancellation by-law (at least 75% according to the article here on flat-chat.com about Regis) are in breach of the Residential Tenancy Act of NSW 2010 because they have caused these card cancellations to happen which is in breach of their contract with their tenants and the law. Any owner who leases their apartment and who has not fought tooth and nail (which should reasonably include legal action against the Owner’s Corporation) to have this by-law repealed have permitted these card cancellations to happen which is also in breach of their contract with their tenants and the law.
I am looking forward to the panic and fear being put back on the owners for once, when the owners who let out their apartments start being sued for breach of contract by tenants with cancelled cards.