sltflatchat- I agree with your interpretation that your Strata Manager’s Sh2 dutiies of “enforcement” would cover issuing a Notice to Comply (NTC), but it’s what may follow the issue of that Notice that I believe is causing him to prevaricate.
Let’s assume that the recipient of the NTC wants to discuss the issues with the Strata Manager who issued it and that discussion becomes heated, or if that recipient chooses not to comply. As the “peaceful enjoyment” issue that your original post referred to likely relates to noise, that’s an issue that has to be mediated through the convoluted processes of the Consumer Trader & Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT).
Those of us who have experienced the CTTT know how painful that can be, not just in terms of your Strata Manager’s time to attend the mediation sessions ($), but if those don’t produce a settlement, also in terms of the Tribunal where Members’ often make determined and time consuming ($$) efforts to find a reason for not ruling, on anything.
I’m not in any way suggesting that your Executive Committee drops the issue, but rather that it knows what the issue of a NTC could lead to, and that there may be other ways to skin the noisy tenant.
The first alternative is to advise the Proprietor/Landlord and their Agent in writing that their tenant continues to breach the Plan’s By-Laws and the conditions of his/her Tenancy Agreement despite the issuing of “several warning letters” (copies of which should be attached). That letter should also point out to the recipients that under a NSW Local Court Ruling (6393/11), a Landlord (and their Agent) is deemed as responsible for the consequences of their tenant’s noise making activities as they would be if they themselves had made it.
The consequences of the above were Orders against the Proprietor/Landlord pursuant to S268(4) of the NSW Protection of the Environment Operations Act (1997), and that leads to your E/C’s second alternative whereby it can itself seek to obtain a Noise Abatement Order against the tenant in the Local Court. Sure, your E/C would may need to present evidence and statements, but it would need to do that anyway if it proceeded down the NTC path as opposed to the much more certain and less convoluted one to the Local Court; why not ask them?
The third alternative is that when the tenant next creates a disturbance, call the Police because they have the discretionary powers to issue a Noise Abatement Warning, and if it persists a Noise Abatement Direction where an on-the-spot fine generally gets results.
The last alternative is to produce a short E/C Meeeting Agenda, hold the Meeting (by e-mail if necessary as Scotty suggests), Minute the Resolutions to issue the NTC and to instruct your Strata Manager to issue that, and provide him/her with a copy.
That’s it … probably confused the issue, but these are all the options that I can think of to resolve the issue of a tenant “interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of another occupier”; good luck.