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Hi, Hoping for some advice – my mum is selling her unit and has signed a contract subject to the prospective buyer gaining approval to install an air con. Seems the body corp has met (we believe that this is two people ) and one lady ( who happens to have a history of being particularly difficult ) has said she has an objection to it being approved. The interesting thing is that probably 7 out of the 10 units in the complex already have had air cons installed . The lady who has lodged the objection owns one of the units thatdoesn’t have air con installed. So now we are told she has 30 days to lodge her objection and reasons , meantime my mum has moved into aged care and this is delaying the sale going through and for her to put the money towards her accommodation payment in aged care. Do we have any way of hastening this process as it really seems like this lady is just putting the brakes on to cause inconvenience? The unit is located in Tassie.
Any advice appreciated. 🙂
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I had an answer already for this … then I realised it was in Tassie. Honestly, I think the only way you are going to speed this up is for the objector to withdraw her objections or to call for a general meeting of all owners and have her outvoted.
Right now, I would be contacting an experienced strata lawyer if you can find one or you could start with the government’s free legal advice service.
You should also have a look a the Guide to Strata Living in Tasmania but I don’t have a lot of faith in an organsiation that can’t work out how to insert a new page in a PDF documant.
But perhaps the easiest way is to take a deposit from the buyer, repayable if the permission for the air-con doesn’t go through. You can only hope that having a a little Hitler on the committee doesn’t put them off buying.
Finally, you could get a lawyer to write to the backslider to warn her that you will seek full restitution if the a/c is allowed but the sale falls through, or you incur any substantial costs due to her recalcitrance.
Worth a try.
By the way, if this was NSW, you could push the air-con through as a minor renovation provided it was reverse cycle as (as found out recently) is considered environmantally beneficial.
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.
Before seeking a strata lawyer as Jimmy suggests, you could have a look at the building’s by laws which may contain either an all encompassing by law for air con units or a by law per application for an air con unit which may have required meeting certain criteria. Assuming you find such by law(s), pass it to the lawyer.
Make sure you’re comparing apples with apples. Assuming you find evidence of by law(s) covering air con units, be sure that the system being considered for installation and where it will be installed it is identical to what was approved in the by laws. If you don’t have a copy of the plan for installation from the supplier and installer, then you’ll need to get it. Ideally the plan will reflect what’s in place in other units. It should feature a similarly powered, similar brand with same number of rooms being air conditioned in the unit, using the same common wall as a unit above or below your Mum’s unit. If so, it is hard to see in what legal grounds is the objection.
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