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Few if any apartment residents love the idea of by-laws telling them what to do … until a neighbour does something they don’t like and they discover t
[See the full post at: By-laws that someday you’ll want in your block]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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What a wonderful idea
EXCEPT
Whilst a by law may exist, residents and managers can’t enforce them on the spot. One needs an order from NCAT to do that.
Where the contravention is behavioural, the miscreant has probably departed long before the matter is heard.Its really annoying, but in my opinion bylaws regulating some behaviours are just not worth the paper they are written on, as enforcement is entirely impractical.
I agree with JT that by-laws (aka Rules or Articles elsewhere) can be useful as a statement about agreed expected behaviour. Even when difficult to enforce, they can be useful.
It is not so different from the situation in the wider world. Most people, most of the time could easily get away with doing all sorts of things that are illegal but the mere fact of the illegality provides considerable deterrent.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting it’s impossible.
However the days when you could register a bylaw for some $130 is passed, since we went to PEXA.
it’s now nearer to $500 and if you get a lawyer to draft the bylaw you’re over $1000.
I think it’s irresponsible for the OC to spend money on bylaws which are mere paper.
If I recall correctly, Amanda Farmer suggested that there was a way to write a bylaw that referred to a schedule of rules. Since the schedule of rules is unregulated, the schedule can be changed even by the committee without requiring registration.
Maybe if Amanda reads this she can confirm or deny.
We had a rules review some years ago since many of our rules adopted decades earlier were no longer relevant or had been superseded by provisions in the Act. We had a strata lawyer assist in this. One of the suggested rules was as follows:
“(1) The Owners Corporation (OC) may adopt by special resolution House Rules that shall be interpreted and adopted by the OC with the same force as the Rules of the OC.
(2) The House Rules are not OC Rules and shall only explain how the OC Rules shall operate.
(3) The Executive Committee shall have the power to enforce the policies in the House Rules adopted by the OC.”
This would let us tweak the details of some of our existing rules but it would still need a special resolution of a general meeting, not just the whim of the committee, to be enforceable. We have not made use of this rule. However, I imagine that it could be used to add specifics and detail to some of the generic default rules about not causing nuisance, excessive noise, interfering with ‘reasonable use and enjoyment of the common property’ etc. without the bother of registering a new specific rule.
I wish we had a bylaw where we could pass on charges that were generated by spurious claims, it might make people think twice before a callout fee is generated only for the technician to find no apparent problem. For example when a resident claims there is something wrong with his telephone connection, complains to the Strata Manager who sends out a comms technician to test the line only to find ($500 later) that there’s no fault!!! We are constantly haemorrhaging funds because people think it’s a fun sport to make the Strata do stuff and pass on costs that are rightfully the occupants responsibility. Grrr 🙁
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