Can the EC force owners to remove staircases which they claim are illegal

This is an update on issues raised in a past forum. There are 10 lots in the strata. The story so far. The EC wished to have an SBL to make all owners with stairs (4) be responsible for maintaining and repairing the upper floor/stairways should this be necessary.

All stairs in four lots were installed long before the present owners purchased their villa.

My villa suffered a sag in the floor upstairs and scaffolding was installed to hold up the ceiling in the lounge room near the stairways. It was there for 7 months.

There were discussions with whale and others re this SBL.

In the meantime the upper floor my lot has been repaired as the work could no longer be delayed. Steel beam etc installed, carpet laid. Engineer’s certificate for the works.

At no time did an EC member appear while this work was in progress.

EGM yesterday: We (25%) of lot owners would not agree to this SBL which was a Special Resolution. 

We did not agree to sign the SBL as aside from all other factors, the EC and SM had not proved that the stairs were illegal. 

They said “Can you prove they are legal” (in that authority was sought from the OC and council to install the stairs all those years ago).

I said “No, council will not allow any records to be copied under copyright law. But you have a statement from a Building Surveyor (who inspected my file at council) that the stairs were passed by council, even perhaps inadvertently”. 

I had been informed by the Building Surveyor who inspected my file that I had a case against council. Don’t really want to get in to litigation.

I informed the meeting that council did not want to be involved and that they said it could open a ‘whole can of worms”. 

The meeting then went to Motion 3: which was that the EC would advise the SM to notify all owners of stairs that the stairs be removed within 90 days. A majority vote said Yes.

There was some desultory discussion about how long the owners would need, 28 days, no, too soon. 90 will do.

The SM said he would have to notify the solicitor for a villa with stairs. A sale for this villa is halfway along. This will be a loss for the owner, (who is one of our 25%) of the fifth buyer. Most of the sales have fallen over because the strata reports are so bad. Dysfunctional.

We have sought orders:

A compulsory manager and a Special Levy to top up Admin Fund (as of yesterday the Admin Fund was minus $13,000) with $26,000 in the sinking fund. So really, we have $13,000 for both funds. 

We had instigated this meeting. We had requested A special levy be on the agenda yesterday. They had some long winded discussions about finances. The vote was NO.

We have a conference “hearing” by phone at the end of the month.

The respondent is named as the Owners Corporation.

Janet