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Thanks so much everyone for your guidance. So do as Philcon suggests. Request NCAT to order the OC to pay for the repairs for which I have received an expert report and for the amount I paid for that expert report. Is that possible? And wouldn’t it be better to get two expert reports? However, there is one quote that the SC refuses to send me.
Meanwhile, the ponding worsens by the day; it’s now eating through the waterproof membrane.
How about interim orders? I have been asking to have the problem fixed since May last year. What about Section 232(2) Failure to exercise a function?
I believe, from quotes received, it needs repairing. In others words, laying and grading new concrete on the slab so that pooling rainwater drains efficiently away to nearby downpipes. New waterproofing paint will then be applied.
I haven’t dared touch it; besides its fenced off and I could risk certain death if I climbed over the fence as the boundary wall of the building is only 600mms or so high.
Jimmy, it’s been six months since I asked the Strata Committee and Owners Corporation at a recent meeting that ponding of rainwater on my balcony on the common property floor be repaired. The OC, including the members of the SC, have not approved my motion. In addition, I’ve been told by the SC that I’m changing common property and therefore has nothing to do with Section 106 of the SSMA 2015, which mandates that the OC has a duty to maintain and repair common property.
Where to now?
Can anyone guess the outcome? The repairs to common property was not approved. The other motions were. A suggestion that those with a conscience go to NCAT was met with retribution.
Thanks Jimmy and Sir Humphrey. I too prefer Canberra’s rules “anyone who could have voted”, assuming it’s on unit entitlements. Then, the motion would have had buckely’s chance of passing. Who is Buckley anyway?
And to set aside the politics. Impossible. An email from the SC was sent to all owners just before the meeting; on the one hand, they criticised and named one owner who had placed a motion on the agenda to repair a small area of common property, falsely suggesting it would cost owners hundreds and thousands of dollars, while on the other hand, subtly informing owners reasons why all the other motions should be accepted. Is this actually legal?
We all voted with our consciences.
Hi Jimmy, a group of owners in our strata complex have to vote on a motion that is a special resolution. The trouble is, the matter to be decided on was passed through various stages by dishonest and nefarious means. In other words, it’s null and void.
If we vote against the motion, all hell will break loose. If we abstain, our votes won’t count.
How do we stick to our moral compasses when deciding what to do?
Unfortunately Sammy, this is yet another scenario where the owner has to pay for a lawyer to get their strata committee to repair common property issues. It took me six years to have our dilapidated lift replaced, despite residents being stuck in the lift on a regular basis, some for half an hour.
Tina is right. Get copies of all emails regarding the matter. As I live in NSW, going to NCAT does not necessarily require lawyers. But you have to be well prepared and brave.
I’m a bit confused by the D & BPA quizz. There are three answers to one question in most cases. Some answers apply, but others don’t.
So I’m not sure how to respond to the question.
Only my common property balcony of four is ponding, causing damage to the membrane. I keep asking the strata committee to lay some self-levelling screed to fix it. Then later, to apply a membrane on all the four balconies.
But they have refused to do it, further damaging the membrane and lowering the value of my property.
Would the screeding come the DBPA?
Sorry Quirky but strata managers are of little use when in a stalemate. What I have said above, Fair Trading can do what NCAT does/doesn’t do. Easy peasy.
The new Amendment Bill to the SSMA 2015 includes the following powers to Fair Trading:
The Bill includes key reforms that aims to encourage owners corporations to comply with their duty to maintain and repair common property. They include:
- helping owners corporations to maintain and repair their common property by restricting an owners corporation’s ability to defer building works if safety or amenity is affected and
- prescribing requirements for the 10-year capital works fund plan, and empowering NSW Fair Trading to enter into enforceable undertakings with owners corporations or issue compliance notices where owners corporations have not met their duty to maintain and repair the building.
Fair Trading will have the power to impose substantial penalties if the content of compliance directions issued to owners corporations are not complied with. As an ultimate sanction, NSW Fair Trading also now has standing to apply to NCAT for the compulsory appointment of a strata managing agent to a scheme unable to meet its obligations under the Act.