@gtyk said:
They said they would send breach notices to the tenant, owner and agent. Ash keeps happening. They tell me they can’t fine the tenant. I asked them to start a tribunal action against the tenant. The strata people tell me this needs to be voted on by the owners committee, and given the cost of initiating an action, and likelihood of failure, they will likely not vote for it to go ahead.
In ACT legislation, if you can request that a breach notice be sent to another resident. If a notice is sent they have to tell you that it has been done within 14 days.
Most OCs will have a general rule to cover nuisance. IE that you can’t do something in one unit that causes a substantial annoyance or nuisance to someone in another unit. Depending on the wording it probably has a qualifier to say that it has to be ‘substantial’. IE no proliferation of breach notices over very minor things. The trick is convincing people that the ash amounts to a substantial nuisance. Time would be part of that. Something you would tolerate for a short time becomes substantial if it continues for a long time.
I expect the advice is correct that it takes a resolution of the EC to take a dispute to the tribunal. That is what we have in the ACT.
Causing nuisance would be breach of the tenant’s tenancy agreement so a breach notice could be sent simultaneously to the owner and the tenant and they can be held jointly responsible. Perhaps the EC would agree to write to both, even indicating that the matter could be taken to the tribunal, even if they privately think they are unlikely to take it that far. That might get some action nonetheless.