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We are always telling strata owners to resolve serious problems through Fair Trading and the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal. The latter, especially, is supposed to help ordinary people resolve their issues without needing to hire lawyers.
‘Supposed to’ is the operative phrase.
We recently heard from owners in a small, self-managed block who asked the CTTT to enforce a Notice To Comply over two owners’ loud, disturbing noise and harassment and intimidation of other residents in the building.
They submitted a stack of evidence, including police reports and letters from real estate agents whose tenants had moved out because of the problem.
When the tribunal Member hearing their case couldn’t find the minutes of the first meeting at which the EC agreed to pursue the breaches, the owners asked for a brief adjournment to get the document, which they had on file. Instead he dismissed the case entirely.
“What a joke!” says our reader. “We are talking about a violent, dangerous individual who got out of jail recently and even tells the police where to go. It took a lot of guts just to go there to face him … now we live in fear in our own homes.”
The CTTT’s Deputy Chairperson Garry Wilson told us, “Based on the evidence provided to the Tribunal, the notice to comply with a by-law was issued prior to a resolution being made by the Owners Corporation approving the issue of the notice and therefore was not issued in accordance with the Act.”
The decision HAD been approved, Mr Wilson, back in March 2010. I’ve seen a copy of the minutes. It wasn’t “provided” because the owners hadn’t realised it was needed. They told the CTTT Member but he wouldn’t allow them to go and get it.
This kind of pedantic pen-pushing and trial by nitpicking ordeal while people’s lives are being ruined is exactly why the CTTT is rapidly losing what little respect it has left in the strata community.
You can read the full story and the CTTT’s official response on the Flat Chat Forum.
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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It is my understanding that there are no re-hearings now for strata matters. Appeals are only on the grounds of an error of law or fact and I understand it is at the CTTT's discretion to allow new evidence for an appeal. That puts the onus on the applicant to follow due process in their applications and that is what the CTTT has suggested here – that due process was not followed. In this case I agree it is dreadful that an adjournment was not allowed to get the minutes of the meeting and this seems to be very unreasonable and a case of a denial of natural justice. A strata lawyer recently told me that the CTTT members are under pressure to process cases quickly – seems that is what has happened here. Not enough members, inadequate pay, inadequate legal training, part-time members all contribute to the problem at the CTTT.
There is something very wrong with the system and the Minister should be looking at this. As applications are in writing and it is becoming abundantly clear – a knowledge of strata law is a prerequisite before lodging applications – how does the average person fare? Many owners are aged – they are not computer literate – they are frail – they do not have a lot of money. How can they go through this system to get justice?
After my experience with the CTTT over many years, I have formed the conclusion that in strata matters, it is not the people's court. I would now advise any one lodging applications to get legal advice from a strata lawyer first. People should not have to spend thousands of dollars and be put through this to get justice in their own homes.
Jimmy
You must be making the assumption that the CTTT provides justice to strata stakeholders … rather than simply a mechanism by which disputes are moved from start to fininsh in the most time effective way.
Unfortunately, the CTTT and the strata dispute systems suffers the following problems.
1. Strata disputes are inherently complex because the rules are very detailed, each strata building is unique, each dispute is peculiar to the parties involved, small things can make a big difference and very few people really understand the details.
2. The OFT and CTTT dispute resolution system is inherently compromised by trying to determine complex disputes quickly, cheaply and by formalised processes.
3. Encouraging (or forcing) parties to be unrepresented by not allowing costs orders in most cases leaves participants at a serious disadvantage to each other and the Tribunal members.
4. Tribunal members are both overly legalistic and personal in their handling of strata disputes. Making them both Solomon and Judge Roy Bean (the hanging judge).
5. Since appeals from the CTTT have gone to the District Court which does not publish its judgements (rather than the NSW Supreme Court) CTTT decisions are not subject to oublic scrutiny.
6. The lack of understanding of legal processes, strata laws and evidentiary burdens means that none of the people involved in strata disputes often have anything like the material they need to establish their cases.
7. A bureaucratic mentality that values processing disputes as much (of more) than solving them.
Unfortunately, in my experience, having the CTTT resolve strata disputes left everyone unhappy.
Your example is just one of many situations where the right outcome could easily have been achieved but, instead, nothing is resolved and the people involved are less sure about what to do next time they have a problem.
These days, you need to know how to work the CTTT system as well as the usual facts, law and techniques to win strata disputes.
Francesco Andreone …
Sometimes(many times)after I come out of CTTT hearings I ask myself questions like:
1. Is the tribunal member a tenant himself and behind in the rent?
2. Has the member ever owned a property or had a lousy neighbour?
3. Is he/she working in the CTTT because he/she would not survive in the real world?
4.Why does the member seem to be biased towards the (obvious to most people)offender?
and finally
5. Am I getting to old with this rubbish and should I start messing around in boats?
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