› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Living in strata › Roundup: $130k legal bill for a lawless committee › Current Page
JimmyT wrote:
Why … is there no organisation that will get involved on the spot and tell committees, especially, when they are in the wrong?
In the ACT, we have managed to extract an opinion on a couple of matters without it needing to be tested at the Tribunal in a dispute.
On one matter, an owner wrote to the Office of Regulatory Services complaining that the meeting agenda included a motion for a resolution that should have stated a different class of resolution. At first the ORS wrote to our managing agent strongly advising her to advise our general meeting that we needed the different class of resolution. After some rushed correspondence and a long phone call, the ORS better understood our situation and wrote out a reasoned opinion why the class of resolution we originally had was correct.
On another matter, we had one member of our committee who was adamant that a particular rule (aka ‘bylaw’ in other states) amendment would be void and of no effect if passed. He asserted that it would be inconsistent with the Act. He was not convinced by various authorities and sources of evidence. Eventually, I wrote to the Attorney-General who confirmed that our proposed rule amendment could be made and was not an unusual change to make.
With persistence, in other states, there might be similar authorities who have the function of administering the relevant strata act who might be persuaded to provide an authoritative written opinion.