Paul H

Thank you for your responses. I have been ill this week so not following what has been happening, but that interest is shown and suggestions made is greatly appreciated.

As it happens, I do have contact details for the owner and in the 6 or so years we have lived here, had a good relationship with him. Hence my surprise to get a far more terse and unreasonable reply than usual,  but it would seem that the real estate may be putting words in his mouth.

I will contact him directly and see of I can sort a few things out. I will update this when I have a response

Thank you

We did not take up the offer of reduction of rent as we are already paying under market. We are long term tenants and have a good relationship with our landlord and he wants to keep us.

However, I will start rattling cages…

I don’t have contact details for the owner, but discovered by accident that the 6 degrees of separation rule applies and we have a mutual friend. Facebook can be a good thing sometimes. However, I do not want to involve my friend in something that does not concern them.

I mentioned that to the rental agent and her reaction was to say that I was threatening her and that she would discuss it with the owner, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Maybe the rental agent is not very bright as well as lying and lazy.

And I have been clinging to the “calm and informative” approach, notwithstanding the urge to be otherwise.

But will investigate the Fair Trading option. I thought of NCAT but that is a bit like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant. Whatever happens, we won’t be renewing the lease in September and I am looking at what it would cost to break the lease.

It would be a pity to leave early but the rental agent seems unable to take any responsibility. 

I appreciate the feedback

Many thanks

The bylaw requires that changes to the type of flooring in a unit must be approved by the EC.

Such approval not to be unreasonably withheld etc

The bylaw does not specify the type of flooring required but if there is a change from the type of flooring installed when the bylaw was introduced, the the EC must approve, so the owner does not need OC approval, only EC

I checked with the SM about the possibility that non attendance at two EC meetings was enough to get an owner thrown off the EC, and was told that  there is no provision for this under the Act

It may be that some of our committee members think that a position on the EC is decorative, particularly since there are only 2 members of the 5 that actually do anything

However, the strong thread through many of these posts is that active EC members should expect everything except appreciation

The SM was quite prepared to advise the owner who wishes to lay the timber floor that he should go to the CTTT at this stage and seemed surprised when I said that his case would be thrown out as there has been no decision of the EC on the matter yet and he can only go to the CTTT after a decision is made that rejects his application

We have scheduled another postal vote and will see what happens

Calling a General Meeting to try to vote the recalcitrant members off the EC is unlikely to work. They are the only ones who attend the annual meetings so it is more likely that they would vote as a bloc and I would find myself voted off….

Not that there is anything wrong with that

Your interest and advice is much appreciated and I will let you know what happens

Thanks for your comments and advice

The owner requesting the timber floor has been told that he will have to wait for a decision

The other owner who put down the timber floor without permission sold up soon after

So, we introduced (with the agreement of the required 75% of owners) the new by law with the express purpose of stopping any further timber floors. Those same owners that agreed to that by law now seem to have changed their minds – perhaps because they will not be affected by the extra noise in this case. I certainly do not regret that the by law was introduced

I realise that getting signatures on a letter to the SM and producing a doctor’s certificate are irrelevant but there are some bleeding hearts on our committee

We have been given no details about insulation for the proposed timber floor

I have been trying to control the situation – by pointing out to the EC members that a meeting must be held. and by scheduling a physical meeting that lapsed. I have asked the SM to carry out another postal vote

I have a question though. At the last postal vote, the EC members that did vote gave their proxies to the meeting chairman who was our SM. How do I make sure that I am the chairman for the next postal vote? Is it as simple as just telling the SM?

Thanks again

The garage is reasonably secure and has only 5 car spaces so is accessed only by those residents who park there

There is nothing of any great value that I keep there and so have taken Jimmy’s very sensible advice and said nothing and moved on

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