Happy New Year and welcome to 2017, arguably the biggest year in apartment living in NSW since our state inflicted this particular method of sharing our space on an unsuspecting world.
OK, the laws came into effect last month, but it is only now that we are getting to grips with them and there’s a whole lot of push and shove to be got through before we see how well (or otherwise) they fit apartment living in the 21st Century.
For instance, how many of you are actively looking at some sort of electronic means of allowing owners to participate electronically in your AGM.
Looking for the Too-Hard Basket? It’s over there next to the swear box.
Electronic voting is just one highly significant change in the attempt to eradicate proxy farming. I say attempt because the power junkies in our midst are not about to give up the reins just because a bunch of poxy politicians says so.
“Tyrants,” Minister Dominello calls them and it’s as good a word as any. But how do you defeat them?
If you have already seen the brand new proxy form available on the Fair Trading website, you will have noticed something very different – you now get to name two proxies instead of one, the second being your nominee if the first one has used up his or her allocation.
It’s a start but any reasonably democratic and efficiently run strata committee should already have embraced the spirit of the law as well as its letter.
In the unlikely event of my ever being elected secretary of a strata committee I would start, a couple of months out from the AGM, by sending out a circular asking people who were prepared to act as proxies to put their names forward.
I would also ask them a very broadly based question such as whether they were in favour of spending more, less or about the same.
I would then circulate the names to all the owners and tell them these are your choices for proxy holders and invite people to get together long before the AGM was even announced.
That way everybody who wanted to have someone take their proxy would get one, and have a chance to discuss issues with them, without the popular names filling up their allocation and the rest of the owners being disenfranchised.
Of course, none of this is ever likely to happen. So, meanwhile, back in the real world, the Forum never sleeps, even over the Festive Season, and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
- How much would a building manager earn? That’s here
- The despotic developer is still ignoring all the advice from Fair Trading, the Minister’s office and even this Forum. This has to stop. That’s HERE.
- What would be reasonable reasons for rejecting a pet application? That’s HERE.
- Can I demand to see legal advice given to the strata committee? That’s HERE.
- Owner with on garage but two cars is allowed to park one on common property. Owner who uses garage for storage wants same permission. That’s HERE.
- Is there such a thing as a Dummies Guide to Defect Claims? That’s HERE.
- How do you define a short-term lease for a by-law? Clue: you can’t! That’s HERE.
All these questions and answers and a whole lot more can be found on the Flat Chat Forum.