› Flat Chat Strata Forum › By-laws and outlaws › How to compel EC to issue breach of By Law › Current Page
@Willie said:
Is someone able to assist in directing me to the appropriate section of the NSW act where it requires the Executive Committee to enforce by-laws?
There is nowhere in the Act that says “The EC must enforce by-laws” but it is clearly implied as one of the EC’s duties.
We put this issue to a very senior staffer at Fair Trading and they said this:
“The by-laws are binding on all owners and occupiers and it is the responsibility of the owners corp to oversee and enforce them via Notices to Comply, mediation or penalties through the NSW Civil Administration Tribunal.
“The EC may decide that certain behaviour does not constitute a breach, but they can’t say they are not responsible for administering by-laws.”
So what do you do if you have a complaint but no one is listening?
“Write to the EC secretary requesting a motion be put to an EC meeting, or even general meeting, to pursue a by-law breach by whatever means, giving the committee full authority to pursue whatever action may be required if the person in breach does not respond.”
And failing that, if they do nothing in two months, or refuse to take action, you take the EC to NCAT for orders under Section 138, which says, in part:
138 General power of Adjudicator to make orders to settle disputes or rectify complaints
(1) An Adjudicator may make an order to settle a dispute or complaint about:
(a) an exercise of, or a failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed by or under this Act or the by-laws in relation to a strata scheme, or
(b) the operation, administration or management of a strata scheme under this Act.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an owners corporation or building management committee is taken to have failed to exercise 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.