With regard to the making of submissions to the proposed reform of Strata Law in NSW, I think that the people making those have done so on the basis of the mostly bad experiences that they’ve had in the Plans where they reside.
Submissions such as the one by Jimmy T about prohibiting non-resident owners from taking up office-bearer positions on the Executive Committee wouldn’t work for me as we now have only one apathetic and totally disinterested resident owner in our 27 Lot Plan, and my Wife and me don’t reside there on a permanent basis as ours was a holiday unit for our family, who have now gone on with their independent lives with their own families.
Anyway, enough of that ….. What would work for me is a few compulsory By-Laws such as about finances and meeting procedures, and a suite of Model By-Laws from which Owners Corporations (O/C) would have to formally select and vote to adopt (or not) for their individual Plans, and then compulsory and consistently enforce those in accordance with procedures strictly prescribed in the new Laws, including for the O/C itself to issue prescribed penalties for non-compliance which could be challenged (or not) by the recipient using the Local Court’s Dispute Resolution Service, and if let stand (or not challenged) be collected by the Office of State Revenue (OFT) and paid to Owners Corporations, minus the OFT’s “commission” (take a breath here).
That was one of my submissions, and it would hopefully do away with the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT), and with O/C’s who enforce their By-Laws selectively, both with regard to the By-Law itself and with the recipient of the Notice-to-Comply.
Jimmy T asked “is anybody listening” to the submissions?
I think in very general terms YES, but only to those submissions that support what the NSW State Government has, through the advice of its Public Officers and of the Lobbyists for the various “interest groups”, already decided will be the tenor of the Reforms.
That’s not totally a bad thing as at least there should be some consolidation of the existing Legislation, but I fear that without strict administration (read enforcement) by the NSW Office of Fair Trading (OFT) the status-quo will remain, whereby O/C’s and Strata Managers will either through ignorance or by deliberate actions (or both) manage Strata Plans in a way that circumvents and/or ignores the Legislation.
You only need to read the posts to this forum to see how the existing Legislation is so often deliberately ignored and/or circumvented, and sadly I don’t see that changing much post the Reforms in the absence of strong “policemen”, and I’m afraid that the OFT has neither the skills nor the arm-and-legs to be that!
Apologies in advance for being so negative, and I sincerely hope that I’m proven wrong!