unauthorised foxtel installations

Our Plan negotiated a Simple Multiple Dwelling Unit (MDU) Agreement with Austar (now Foxtel) in 2010, and even though that process was akin to dealing with a Government bureaucracy when I tried to incorporate some specific conditions with regard to the positioning of visible components such as the satellite dish and conduit, those conditions and a site plan were eventually included.

I was originally advised by Austar that the MDU Agreement was in place to negate the requirement for them to approach the Executive Committee on every occasion that a Proprietor wished to subscribe to their service,  although they would require the written agreement of those Proprietors or their Agent (property manager) if their potential subscriber was a tenant.

 So that’s how it’s worked for our Plan, where seven (7) additional installations comprising three (3) additional satellite dishes have since occurred, the most recent being last July, and on each occasion the (different) contractors have complete the installations precisely in accordance with the specific conditions of our MDU Agreement.

Clearly your Plan has had a different experience, and whilst I don’t know the form its MDU Agreement I imagine they’re pretty standard, and ours states at Clause 2 that “Austar will repair any damage caused by any deliberate act or omission, or negligence of Austar’s employees or agents during its access to the premises including all Common Areas…..” and where “access” is defined in Clause 1 to comprise “inspecting the premises for the purposes of the installation of equipment” and “to connect equipment to units”.

I’d conclude that the original Application to which your post refers likely resulted in an MDU Agreement , and under that there’s no requirement for Foxtel to seek the consent of your Executive Committee prior to any further installations, BUT that Foxtel (in your example) is responsible for rectifying  damage of the types to which you refer.

So you shouldn’t interfere with residents’ installations, but as the conduit etc is Foxtel’s property and it was their “employees or agents” who caused damage to and defaced the Common Property during the various installations, your Owners Corporation or its Strata Managers should persist with its approach to Foxtel and request that it rectifies the damage that they caused; photographic evidence and an approach to their customer relations people would help.   

None – but I assume that in the absence of an MDU Agreement it is Austar/Foxtel’s policy to use a Plan’s Executive Committee as the conduit (sorry) to secure the required Consent, and as I recalled, their Rep. advised that they’d prefer to have the MDU Agreement in place to avoid that repetitive step; they just don’t like including conditions other than their standard ones.

Anyway…. whilst not disputing the right of the Owners Corporation (O/C) to remove unapproved additions to its Common Property, in my humble opinion (I detest internet slang) any reasonable person would regard that as being totally unreasonable, particularly if they were then paying for a pay-tv service that they couldn’t receive, and in the case of tenants, one for which they’d possibly obtained the prior consent of their Landlord.

TINALO but I believe that if UN-FAIR wants to see the whole thing and/or its consequences played out in a Court, then by all means arrange for the removal of the cabling, conduit, and satellite dishes; remembering of course that the latter are Foxtel’s property! Come to think of it, as a sanity check, if UN-FAIR has a Strata Manager then perhaps the Executive Committee could instruct them to arrange for that removal, and see what reaction results; I’ll recon they’ll run a mile! 

I still think that persistent approaches to Foxtel to encourage them to do the right thing with the past installations by their contractors would see a better outcome; but that’s just MPO. 

Oh and by the way, our O/C’s original decision to delegate me the authority to enter into a MDU Agreement covering satellite dishes and cabling on specific areas of the Common Property was specially resolved at a General Meeting.

It’s funny isn’t it – it’s ok for them (Foxtel) to vandalise/damage your property, but woe betide you if you touch theirs….

@Whale said:
Gees guys….. are you tartan-clad lot picking on the Whale?

I thought I was agreeing with you.  I am now writing out 100 times “I must make my intentions more clear when I am backing down.”

But seriously, you’re right.  It might be in the wrong place and without permission but it’s someone else’s property.

I also believe the government changed the telecommunications legislation quite radically to allow Foxtel, Optus and mobile phone companies to set up their infrastructures.  You may find that they didn’t need permission to cable on common property (but they should still make good any damage they caused).

By the way, driving to Sydney airport past these new schemes in Alexandria, you see what happens when a central cable system isn’t created for a block.  The infestation of satellite dishes on every other balcony makes these shiny new homes look like a British council house estate.

There is another possibility here.

And that is that it’s NOT Foxtel’s authorised contractors that are doing the installations.

That is what has happened in our OC, but the history needs a bit of explanation.

Foxtel initially wanted to do un ugly satellite installation in our 2 buildings:  2 satellite dishes and 2 x RG6 cables per apartment  running all over the common property from inside each apartment to a satellite dish.

We objected and got an integrated solution that used our existing MATV system.  We already had the cables for satellite dishes to the MATV area but they were not good enough for Foxtel.  So we installed Foxtel approved cables  (only 2 of them) from their dish to our MATV system and then a lot of electronics to integrate it with Free-to-Air TV.  All residents then got Foxtel to all TV outlets in their apartment.

But this was expensive to do and one of our 2 buildings objected, saying no-one in the building wanted Foxtel. So we only integrated one building (and only charged those owners).

But what happened was that Foxtel considered us as a single address.  And in their data-base the OC became marked as “satellite system installed” (even though one building wasn’t).  This meant any resident could order a Foxtel service.  New tenants in the not equipped building have managed to install a dish (on the roof) and cabling.  Foxtel was none-the-wiser that it was a pirate install and allowed them a service.  We only discovered this after the tenants moved out!  We have no idea who did the installation but it’s poorly done and NOT to Foxtel’s standards (eg they used the Sat cable that was there that Foxtel had refused to use).

So I know there can be true pirates out there!  And it can happen if Foxtel has your OC’s address as “satellite system installed”.