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Cosmo – Over 80% of the Units in our Plan are tenanted, and in that environment the purpose of this Special By-Law (SBL) was primarily to make our Proprietor/Landlords think twice about the types of people that they agreed to place in their Units by making them ultimately responsible for the costs of any damage that their tenants and/or their visitors caused consequent to a Breach of any By-Law.
I had to incorporate the costs of “mitigating the impacts” as there had been one incident which necessitated the Owners Corporation hiring barricades to place around a section of glass balustrade that was damaged by a rampaging tenant.
It’s worth noting that we have other complementary SBLs including one covering the correct operation of the security access systems to our Plan and another that mirror some provisions of the NSW Residential Tenancies Act such as one holding tenants vicariously responsible for the actions of their visitors (both currently relevant).
The obvious limitation is that this SBL is only effective where a person is in Breach of another By-Law and where the O/C has followed the correct procedures in managing that such as by issuing a Notice to Comply, and it’s been ineffective where one Landlord/Proprietor included the O/C’s invoice with his criminal proceedings against his tenant. The legality of the SBL was upheld by the Court, but the tenant was incarcerated and it wasn’t worth the O/C chasing the money.
So here’s the SBL that you asked for …….
Special By-Law 4 – Damage to Property arising from a Breach of By-Laws
(a) Where a Breach of By-Laws results directly or indirectly in any costs to the Owners Corporation, including but not limited to those for mitigating the impacts of that Breach or Breaches upon other occupants, for the repair of damage to Common Property and/or to the personal property of owners, occupants, authorised visitors / invitees and contractors then at the property, then the person/s committing the Breach must reimburse to the Owners Corporation all of its costs to mitigate the Breach, and for its costs to rectify / repair all damage caused;
(b) Where the person in Breach is a visitor/invitee, then the occupant of the Lot being visited is responsible for the full payment of the Owners Corporation’s costs as outlined [in (a)] should their visitor/invitee not do so, and in default, the Proprietor of the Lot being visited becomes fully liable for the reimbursement in full of the costs shown [in (a)].