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Victoria – Three freestanding townhouses for nearly 20 years have existed without a formal strata agreement or bylaws. A strata plan number is the only paperwork.
One owner is selling – others thought finally it might be a good idea to get some rules in place. Owner is selling because a rogue tenant caused massive problems ably assisted by VCAT.
Seller has now declined to sign any agreement as he “has a contract on the property and has given the new owner verbal advice that bills are divided 3 ways”.Settlement is in 2 weeks – would any solicitor agree to this sale without any formal agreements/bylaws?
Would anyone be silly enough to part with the cash without any strata paperwork??I’m expecting the seller to come back and humbly ask for some formal agreements to be signed to allow settlement to take place but maybe things are different in Victoria.
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Settlement is in 2 weeks – would any solicitor agree to this sale without any formal agreements/bylaws?
It happens all the time for small horizontal type stratas in Victoria that have little or no common property.
In the Sale of Land s.32F, the seller declares the OC to be “Inactive”. An inactive OC means one that in the previous 15 months has not had an annual general meeting or fixed any strata fees or held any insurance. The insurance part might not be strictly true if a casual arrangement is in place between the lot owners.
The purchaser decides if that information is sufficient to proceed. For most it is.
Considering that horizontal type stratas in Victoria often have little or no common property, there’s not so much that such an OC needs to maintain.
But the OC will still exist. There is no such thing as an “inactive” OC in the OC Act itself. And by default the Model Rules (by-laws in other states) will apply. So all OCs in VIC will have rules whether they know them or not.
The purchaser’s solicitor should assess what their client is buying.
In VIC, for a horizontal type OC with little or no common property, their client is buying into an OC which has very limited liability.
Your OC does exist. They don’t extinguish. And your OC will have rules (bylaws). The default ones if nothing else.
It seems that no-one knows about them…
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