- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 1 month ago by .
-
Topic
-
I am on the EC of a Strata complex of 25 townhouses in Sydney. 12 of these townhouses face onto an internal roadway while the remainder have frontage to the public road. Each townhouse has a lock-up garage.
Recently a family with young children moved into one of the “internal” townhouses. Half their garage was filled with packing boxes so their car was parked half-in and half-out (on common property). One member of the OC pointed out to the tenants that the by-laws precluded parking on common property.
At the EC meeting a few days later (following the AGM), believing the tenants had not been given a copy of the relevant by-laws by the owner/agent, it was agreed to ask the SM to send a copy of the standard by-laws plus the Swimming Pool by-law to the agent to be passed onto the tenants for their information. This was done via an attachment to a covering letter.
There was no suggestion of a Notice to Comply.
The SM then received a 2 page letter from the tenant berating him and the EC for sending the letter using words such as “defamatory”, “invasion of privacy”, “incendiary action”, “discriminating”, “malicious” and “uncivilised”. Also trying to make the point that certain standard strata by-laws are not relevant to townhouses. This was the most unbelievable response to what we considered to be a helpful advice regarding the relevant by-laws. There are also sections of his letter which could be considered to be defamatory.
This was particularly distressing as we consider our Strata complex to be very well run and managed.
It then transpired that the tenant is a partner in the Disputes and Litigation section in a large Sydney legal practice. He is now demanding a copy of his letter be sent to all owners and insisting that any correspondence be issued directly to him and not via the owner or letting agent as is our prescribed procedure.
I appreciate that tenants have certain rights with regard to their occupation of a rental property, but I doubt this includes being able to tell the EC or Strata Manager how to operate.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
-
Replies
-
Paddy – your Executive Committee and its Strata Manager have done precisely the correct thing in all respects, both procedurally and legally!
It sounds to me like the new tenants may be are aggrieved by the fact that they received the Owners Corporation’s advisory letter so soon after moving in, and in circumstances where they may well have been in the process of unpacking and moving things out of the garage to make room for their vehicle.
Irrespective of the fact that some Lawyers like throwing their weight around by the use of legalese such as “incendiary action” because they think that impresses and/or intimidates the recipient, if this one wants to additionally distribute his correspondence then I suppose he could do that by way of a letterbox-drop to other residents/owners, but the Owners Corporation has no obligation to do anything more than to ensure that everyone who read the advisory letter reads the response, or to in future correspond directly with him or indeed any other tenant unless of course it chooses to; so again you’re on firm ground both procedurally and legally.
He’s blown of steam in an effort to cover his embarrassment, so just ignore him, and hope that the vehicle soon fits inside the garage – because those By-Laws do apply!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.