Mojo – as I said before, the Owners in your Plan are lucky to have you!
In answer to your question about exclusive use attracting a fee, Division 4 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (SCMA) prescribes how such a privilege may be obtained an Owner, and specifically Sect 53 talks to what a corresponding Special By-Law (SBL) may contain by way of conditions, and cites as an example one “requiring the payment of money by the owner or owners of the lot or lots concerned, at specified times or as determined by the owners corporation”.
Your Owner friends should really seek some relevant legal advice about the wording of a SBL that relates to any privilege of exclusive use that they, as an Owners Corporation (O/C) may consider, as such a SBL cannot be rescinded or amended without the prior written consent of the Lot Owner who’s at that time its beneficiary, and there needs to some basis to initially determine and regularly review the amount of any payment to the O/C for that privilege; such as a professional valuation and changes in property values respectively.
As for the change in use of the property involved, the Schedule 1 By-Law #19 of the SCMA states:
Change in use of lot to be notified
An occupier of a lot must notify the owners corporation if the occupier changes the existing use of the lot in a way that may affect the insurance premiums for the strata scheme (for example, if the change of use results in a hazardous activity being carried out on the lot, or results in the lot being used for commercial or industrial purposes rather than residential purposes).
So clearly, a prior notification to (and the implied prior consent of) the O/C WAS required, where it has the right to make a further condition requiring the Lot Owner (in this case) to meet the cost of any consequent increase in the O/C’s insurance premium.
There been some recent discussion HERE about strata-savy lawyers, and I again urge you to urge your Owner friends to contact one of those before matters progress too much further.