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Further, the Committee would be addressing a hazard – namely, a risk of someone tripping on an uneven floor. it would be very hard for anyone to make a case that the Committee should not take urgent action.
What about installing several smoke alarms at the Owner’s Corp expense? It doesn’t sound as if there would be much resistance from the owner. Simple battery-powered ones would be legal, if there was also a mains-backed alarm. Quick, cheap and simple to install – we’ll see if Granny can sleep with four of them going off at once.
“Laundry chute”? In a residential strata? What on ever for?
It’s a resort, Joyce – meaning the apartments are designed to be serviced daily. Having laundry chutes makes good sense if the bedding is being changed frequently.
Strata Board?
Do you mean Strata Committee?
If you have a normally-constituted Committee, you need to start writing to them stating your concerns.
I’m familiar with these trees – IMHO they should NEVER be allowed to grow where the blossoms can rain on a walkway. Blowing or sweeping by hand would have to be done twice a day for weeks to keep the hazard in check.
I suggest that the insurer be contacted for their take on the situation. They might threaten a premium increase.
That would motivate the Strata Committee.
If you are not happy with the OC’s arrangement with the SM, or the fees that they charge, you could always suggest that the OC use another method.
Quite. Talk to your local key-cutting operator – the larger ones often can duplicate fobs cheaply.
The resolution takes effect at the time it is passed, unless the resolution specifically provides otherwise.
Was the resolution in the form of a by-law? If so, you would have to wait until that by-law was registered for it to be valid.
Agree completely with JT – you need someone competent to review the whole system and fix it properly. That won’t please the Committee at all!
It sounds a curious system, having one fan for the whole building. That fan would have to run 24/7, and chew a lot of power. It’s likely that the conduits are clogged with lint, or that the fan was always too weak, to keep the power bill down.
What to do? If the downstairs neighbour’s fan only runs when the light is on in her bathroom, you could partially fix your problem by installing a butterfly valve in your own vent. When her fan is pumping pressurised air into the system, your valve closes and doesn’t let air/pong into your unit. When her fan turns off, the butterfly opens and allows the roof fan to extract the air from your bathroom as per normal.
I don’t know if these butterflies are available without buying the extraction fan as well, but you can ask at the hardware store.
If you followed your neighbour’s example and fitted your own extraction fan, that would solve the problem for you, but make it worse for the rest of the building. Better get the whole thing seen to and fixed, and make the neighbour disconnect her fan.
In my experience, auditors appointed at AGMs do one thing only – check that there is an invoice for every payment. They do NOT go “through the books.” You might have to gather all the financial information you can and place it with an accountant – at your expense.
“Also, scrutinise the nominations – for instance, if the disruptive owner is actually a co-owner, he can’t self-nominate, and he can’t self-nominate if he’s behind in his levies.”
Is that correct, JT? Does one have to be a full 100% owner? Can a co-owner nominate another co-owner?
Another problem is (in my case, see below) that neither have lived in strata before and had no idea there were “rules”, so there is an ongoing explanation for everything. I would never condone anyone but owners attending an AGM or being voted onto the SC.
Print out a copy of Dept. of Fair Trading’s excellent “Strata Living” and give it to them to read – or just send them the link and let them print it.
Then, when they want explanations of bread-and-butter strata concepts and procedures, just reply “Please refer to your booklet” and plough on.
I am assuming that the Chair is running the Scheme by the book!
One starts by gathering information – email addresses of residents, copies of SC and AGM minutes, full set of by-laws etc. Send the Secretary an email and hope he/she copies in the other Committee members in his/her reply. Then you will have all their addresses. Bombard them with complaints, but don’t say anything that might be defamatory – it is a favourite tactic nowadays to threaten defamation action to shut people up.
Check the SC and AGM minutes on the SM’s website against those posted on your noticeboard. I caught our Committee out for having two sets of minutes, one for them and one for public consumption. Caused them no end of embarrassment. Good luck!