#12861
Billen Ben
Flatchatter

    My Uncle Jamal said:

    The CTTT *is* an affordable dispute resolution process. If the person taking the action is a pensioner, the entire process from mediation application to appeal decision costs only $15 ($5 mediation application, $5 adjudicator application, $5 appeal application).

    To be awarded legal costs, the onus is on the Owners Corporation (as Respondent) to convince the Tribunal to award them, and the onus is high. Costs are awarded by the Tribunal *only* in limited circumstances.

    The circumstances are when:-

    (a)  the application or appeal is frivolous, vexatious, misconceived or lacking in substance, or

    (b)  a decision in favour of the applicant or appellant is not within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.

    (Section 192 Strata Schemes Managing Act).

    It's not about whether you win or lose. It's about whether the appeal was nonsensical, and few appeals are, even when they lose. So provided this appeal has some substance to it and the matter's within the Tribunal's jurisdiction, the Tribunal will not order the Appellant to pay the Respondent's legal costs.

    Even if costs are awarded, the Respondent can't just ask for any sum it likes. It must be reasonable. The Tribunal has in the past ordered only a portion of the Respondent's costs to be paid when the costs seem unreasonably high, especially when it's not a complex matter (in which case only about an hour's worth of legal fees is reasonable).

    I have, at times, paid the $5 fee and still feel i am getting ripped-off for the service I receive.
    I was involved in a matter where costs of almost $7k were awarded without question. The matter related to whether or not an SP had registered a by-law as was ordered by an Adjudicator.
    The Member at the Tribunal hearing openly stated the order in question was poorly worded but still said the matter should never have been before the Tribunal  … a little contradictory.
    Both parties believed the same wrong interpretation of the Adjudicators order for months until the OC realized its mistaken interpretation and registered the order via s209.
    The OC then decided to let the matter run and try to get costs just to be spiteful.
    The costs were exclusively the time the OCs solicitor claimed she spent on the matter. It was an insane amount for what was a trivial matter that was only before the Member because the Adjudicators' order was poorly written.
    The OC had secretly accumulated almost $7k in expenses. There was nothing in EC minutes about the matter and it was later revealed that half the EC (4 of 9) had quit because the other half refused to show the Treasurer the solicitors fee agreement which turned out to be for only $2500.

    The whole experience makes me very reluctant to appeal anything given  costs, outrageous costs, can be awarded even when a matter has some substance.