Flat Chat Strata Forum Rental rants Current Page

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  • #8482
    Jimmy-T
    Keymaster

      One of the recurring themes in both this column and the Flat Chat Forum is that tenants often don’t know that there are by-laws they’re supposed to observe, mainly because they’ve never seen them.

      Another frequent complaint is that Owners Corporations don’t know who they’re dealing with when there are problems with rentals.

      However strata law has requirements covering both issues – and non-compliance carries fines.

      Landlords in NSW must provide tenants with a copy of the building’s by-laws within 7 days of them signing the lease.  The same applies to changes of the by-laws that occur during their tenancies.

      This also applies to subleases and failure to do so could cost you a $110 fine. Smart agents provide a copy of the by-laws with their leases. Does yours?  Remember, you’ll pay the fine, not them.

      Owners are also obliged to tell the Owners Corporation when they lease or sub-lease their units, to whom they’ve been leased and who the agent is withing 14 days of the lease commencing.  Failure to do that could cost $550.

      These fines are hardly crippling but they’d certainly get a slack landlord’s attention.  And they could be a way of exposing and discouraging rogue short-term rentals.

      Did you get a copy of the by-laws the last time you rented?

      As with strata, tenancy laws vary from state to state and territory to territory.  A very handy one-stop advice website that covers the whole of Australia is TenantHelp.  Just click on the link and then choose your state or territory for specific advice.

      For strata legislation for each of the states and territories, there are links HERE.

      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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    • #17287
      Whale
      Flatchatter

        The only way that the tenants in our Plan ever receive their copy of our By-Laws and Special By-Laws and of the “Strata Living” publication produced by the NSW Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is when I provide it to them; both are required to be provided to tenants by Property Managers under the provisions of the NSW Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (RTA) but they never provide those documents to their tenants – ever!

        The tenancy notifications to which Jimmy refers are to be provided to the Owners Corporation under S119 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act, and even though I’ve included a proforma of that notification as a download on our Plan’s website, Property Managers never provide that notification unless I contact them to request it when the prescribed 14 day window has lapsed – in fact most Property Managers have no idea what I’m talking about!

        The RTA also requires that tenants are informed of any past “violent incidents” or significant health and safety issues involving the rental property that they’re contemplating leasing, but Property Managers don’t do that either even though information on that requirement is also a download on our Plan’s website.

        With around 80% of the Units in our Plan being rented, it’s in our Owners Corporation’s interests to ensure that tenants are properly informed about what we call “the top ten challenges of Strata Living” in our Plan.

        So in order to overcome slack Property Managers, every incoming tenant receives a Welcome Package, addressed to them by name once we receive the S119 notification, which includes a one-pager / double sided from the Executive Committee about those challenges (parking, noise, vehicle lights, balcony use etc), some site specific information (garbage segregation, security access operations, maintenance responsibilities etc), and copies of our By-Laws and of the OFT’s “Strata Living” publication.

        The whole idea is for the O/C to assist tenants to “settle” and to give them an opportunity to do the right thing, on the basis that people generally don’t behave like idiots on purpose!

        It works almost all the time, and overcomes the inadequacies of our local Property Managers who don’t know any better; but then I’ve raved on about them in numerous other posts.

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