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In the absence of any official decision, by special resolution, not to maintain and repair the ducted air-con, the owners corp has a legal obligation to do so. If they refuse or fail to respond to a request within two months, you can take them to the tribunal Under Section 232 (2) of the Act (below) and request orders compelling them to do so.
Lack of funds is not an excuse, neither is the fact that other people have installed split systems.
So here is what you need to do.
1. Write a letter asking the owners corporation to fix the air-con under its legal responsibility to maintain and repair common property. Explain that failure to do so will lead to action at NCAT seeking orders under Section 232.
2. If they say there’s no money in the sinking fund to do this, explain that’s irrelevant and anyway it’s a consequence of poor budgetting and “saving money” in the past.
3. When they try to scare you off with a special levy, point them in the direction of our sponsors Lannock Finance (see top of this page) will arrange a loan that can be paid off over several years.
4. If they haven’t started the process of getting this done with any serious intent withing two months, start your action at NCAT.
Here’s an extract from section 232.
232 Orders to settle disputes or rectify complaints
(1) Orders relating to complaints and disputes
The Tribunal may, on application by an interested person, original owner or building manager, make an order to settle a complaint or dispute about any of the following:
….
(e) an exercise of, or failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed by or under this Act or the by-laws of a strata scheme …(2) Failure to exercise a function
For the purposes of this section, an owners corporation, strata committee or building management committee is taken not to have exercised a function if:
(a) it decides not to exercise the function, or
(b) application is made to it to exercise the function and it fails for 2 months after the making of the application to exercise the function in accordance with the application or to inform the applicant that it has decided not to exercise the function in accordance with the application.