› Flat Chat Strata Forum › The Professionals › Executive Committee acting illegally › Current Page
A practical example for Mr Strata;
A number of years ago a friend of mine (a member of the EC) complained to the other EC members about a neighbour making too much noise. The other EC members 'ran for cover' and gave no support. My friend, with my help, took the noisy neighbour to the CTTT. During the course of that action my friend had to move out of her home because the noise and intimidation was unbearable.
Eventually the CTTT did issue us an order restricting the neighbour against making noise. However he continued without abatement but my friend had moved out and none of the remaining residents or EC members would publicly speak out. It would have been a relatively simple matter to apply to the CTTT for a breach of a tribunal order, but none had the courage.
At an AGM, one of the EC members, himself frustrated and intimidated, said to my friend “I wished we had supported you”. Eventually the noisy neighbour moved out.
I was inexperienced at the time and what I am saying is that if I were to ever be put into that situation again, I'd put the EC on notice that they are accountable and they cannot hide from, or hide, issues. At the very least the EC has to formally meet and (like a jury) pass judgement. And they have to document their decision for all owners to see (via the minutes). The process laid out for the EC, via the Act, provides checks and balances for the complainant and the respondent but the community has to participate.
It helps me to think of different levels of governance from the International laws, Federal laws, State laws, Local Council laws and Strata by-laws. And then to ask, who is responsible and at what levels? The State (CTTT) has no responsibility with respect to creating and/or policing by-laws.
In a pedantic legal sense each set of by-laws is unique to each individual Strata Scheme. The Scheme is the authority that created the laws [s41(2)] and the Scheme is the authority responsible to police and impose its own laws on owners/tenants [s45]. The CTTT is used by the Scheme to impose a fine only after the EC has exhausted the limit of its power [s203]. The Scheme has to function correctly for the by-law system to work.
If the scheme is remiss in exercising its function then an individual can use the CTTT to encourage his/her strata community to get back on track [s138].
So I agree with Jimmy, it's about getting the community to work together and sometimes it requires the pain of taking the OC to the CTTT to achieve the longer term good.
To sum up by using a simple analogy; it's like Mum & Dad setting good and reasonable house rules but not enforcing them. And then Mum & Dad looking to the State to fix the resultant dysfunctional family.