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I am an owner of a unit in a 15 year old, 16 unit block in Sydney. One owner ( an individual who developed the block) owns 8 of the units, which are all rented out, and he has always been the sole member of the Strata Committee; so the whole place has been run as his personal fiefdom, with him using a (competent) strata manager. We are now having significant problems with one of his tenants in particular, and essentially this owner refuses to do anything about it – simply happy to collect his rents, as the tenant has a (commercial) 3 year lease. One can only communicate with this owner by landline phone or letter – no mobile or email or computer! (Or so he says). And of course he now pleads that he lives on the Central Coast and with lockdowns can’t get down to Sydney for inspections etc. The strata manager acts professionally and sends notices to comply to the tenant who just ignores them, and so nothing else happens.
Other owners and myself feel we could get more done by being on the Strata Committee.
However, the last AGM was May 2021 and the next one will be in May 2022. Foolishly I did not nominate to get on the Strata Committee at this last AGM. My question is – can I (and some other upset owners) get onto the Strata Committee now, as opposed to waiting until the next AGM? If so, how do we go about it, particularly given that this (bad) owner will probably act to obstruct this. Also the strata manager says we can only get onto the SC at an AGM, not in between AGM’s. This doesn’t sound right to me? My reading of the legislation is that the SC can appoint members to join in between times if there is a vacancy on the SC, but would this apply if this current sole member of the SC is not willing to make such an appointment?
I would appreciate any feedback anyone might have.
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The obvious question that occurs to me is, although the original owner owns half the lots, does he own more than half the Unit Entitlements.
If so, his voting power should have been reduced by two-thirds and that may be grounds for going to NCAT to have that last AGM election declared invalid and a new election held.
Also, was proper procedure for the election followed as per Section 9 of the Strata Regulations?
And finally, you don’t need to wait for the one-man committee or the strata manager to do something about the tenant. You and other owners can take action at NCAT for breaches of by-laws or you can even take actions against the committee for failure to enforce the block’s by-laws.
But you will need to get the support of at least two more owners if you want to pursue this, otherwise you will still be outvoted when it comes to the election.
I strongly recommend you contact our sponsors Strata Answers and ask how they might be able to guide you through this mess.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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