Bylaws to Recover Costs

In respect to the legal fees, only the courts can award costs. Your proposal would be seen as a deterrent to people exercising their rights. Remember that when your are in court you argue for your costs, so it’s not as if it’s just a fleeting afterthought of the court.

For the other issues, you could pass a bylaw for “service charges”. You would need to be careful of the wording to include all foreseeable events. The OC would also need to prove these costs before charging the owner. That so that it’s not seen as an arbitrary penalty but a genuine cost recovery.

Lastly unless the OC has an order from the court they can only enter a lot with the permission of the resident. Of course if it’s a real emergency (burst water pipe) then forced access is allowed but the OC would pay for gaining access (a locksmith) and any damage caused by the entry.

Thanks for writing this article . My building has this by law. As I have just won two cases against my OC I wish their Costs bylaw worked in reverse . If they think they can claim costs against an owner if the the owner fails in litigation, then shouldn’t the owner be able to claim costs against the OC when they fail in litigation!

EnterSandman wrote:

I think they can. We had an owner at our block that continuously attempted to send the committee to NCAT as a payback for sour grapes for being out voted on certain issues. Certainly deterred them from wasting EC and managing agents time.

I take your point and I know that vexatious or hobby litigants exist but the processes exist under Tribunal laws and those laws trump by-laws.

It might be more appropriate for owners to pass a by-law that, in the event of claims to NCAT that the majority of committee members regard as frivolous, vexatious or without foundation, the strata committee is instructed to request a ruling on costs  under NCAT’s  “special circumstances” that the matter had limited or no possibility of success and where the claim was “weak, misconceived and bound to fail”.

That way you are sending a message to the miscreants but leaving the the decision on costs where it belongs, at NCAT.

EnterSandman wrote:

Is a by law even necessary though?

Probably not, but it’s a way of sending out a warning to would-be hobby litigants and may steady the committee’s hand if they waver under the assaults of a strata pest.

Larry wrote:

… from what I can gather from Jimmy’s and others’ responses, only the NCAT or a court can decide responsibility for legal costs, in effect rendering the bylaw invalid.

I’m not a lawyer so it’s only my personal opinion that the by-law would be invalid and the only way you would find out for sure if that was true would be to test it at NCAT.

In any case, letting owners know, by whatever means, that all costs will be pursued for vexatious, mischievous and baseless claims that were bound to fail anyway, should be enough to deter serial strata pests and hobby litigants, without putting off genuine complainants.

I get the amout of distress that serial pests can cause to a community but I don’t think the answer is a bogus by-law.  Two wrongs don’t make a right.

And I’m also guessing that this by-law may be there, initially at least,  to deter pests rather than bona fide complaints, and if the latter is the result, the serial pests should take a good long look at how much trouble they are causing others with their petty vendettas.