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I’m on a strata committee for a building that is updating its by-laws. We are writing our own, as a first draft only, I need to add, and we have lined up a lawyer to review them and provide suggestions and any necessary changes. We have started from the latest version of the Model by-laws, with some obvious amendments (eg, excluding fish from the “pets” by-law).
But I’ve been trying to track down other building’s by-laws to see how they have worded new by-laws for managing visitors carparking or swimming pool use, for example. Several people have told me that their building has a great by-law that handles this (or their brother’s building does…) so I’ve asked them to give us a copy.
But then they say, “well, I’ll ask the strata manager if they will allow this?” and that is the end of it. So my question is, are a building’s by-laws a public document that can be provided to any member of the public, or are they in some way a private or confidential document that can only be provided to owners and their tenants?
Is there an authoritative reference anywhere that I can refer people to, in order to overcome their reluctance to distribute a building’s by-laws to other people who want to read them?
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There are only two reasons I can see for schemes not allowing other schemes to read and/or use their by-laws. Firstly, if they are exceptionally onerous, illogical, outated, illegal or restrictive, it might give the building a bad (and entirely deserved) reputation.
Secondly, there is a faint possibility that they may be subject to copyright restrictions but, since those usually only apply to creative works and the commercial exploitation of them, at least when it comes to penalties, the worst that might happen would be that the original scheme sent a “cease and desist”.
Slightly more likely would be if the scheme said the by-laws cost them X amount in legal fees, therefore you should pay half.
I think before you go any further in this, you should consider joining the Owners Corporation Network (OCN) where you will find a community of other owners and strata schemes happy to share their resources and experiences.
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.
In my opinion, the strata bylaws for a building are public documents.
By paying a fee to LPI, you can get a copy of any strata title document and any of the attachments to that title document. One of those attachments is the by laws.
Unless someone can show me the rule where LPI holds the copyright to these documents, I’d say they’re public.
First of all, what is your definition of “LPI”? I have about three.
Also, by paying a fee to a bookshop, you can get a copy of a book. That doesn’t mean you now own the right to reproduce its contents. Just because you’re allowed to read something doesn’t mean you can copy it for your own purposes.
In the bad old days when the Strata Community Association was called the Institute of Strata Title Management (ISTM) they would refuse to let anyone change the terms of their standard contract, saying it was “copyright”.
Personally, I think they were morally wrong but they may have been copyright right. Copyright usually only applies to creative works, but if someone has spent time and money creating a form of words, it’s only polite to ask their permission before you take and use it for your own purposes.
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.
Can I suggest that Flatchat set up a board for posting draft by-laws, for other users to share, and to comment and review?
I’d rather do it on a case by case basis because there are eight different sets of strata laws in Australia and myriad very specific strata scheme configurations.
Happy to have people request and post specific by-laws for defined situations.
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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