Can anyone assist with some guidance on Strata Bylaws please? A unit I have purchased has a by law that says it is for tourist accommodation only, 76% of owners are either living there or renting out full time. There's lots of issues around this. If strata won't do anything who do I go to next? Can council help? I've called them and though they know about it they are reluctant to do much. Any advice would be welcome. Also , what's the best way to get a Strata Committee Chairperson removed ? Thanks
No idea sorry, hopefully someone here can help, or maybe try OCN _ News | Owners Corporation Network I believe the only way is at a general meeting, and then only by getting more votes for someone else
What's the problem? You want to occupy contrary to the by-laws or you want everyone to use as short stay or you want a long term rental? What are the other 24% of owners doing? Is the property in a tourist zone?
I'd like them to abide by the bylaws for tourist/short stay. During my conversations with Council they have confirmed the tourist short stay, however the planning nsw portal tells me it's zoned R3, medium density. Some of the issues, no separate metering for electricity, full time caretaker on site, he's really not needed for what we've got going on, however is if it's short term.
What will it cost to separately meter the building? Is it practical either at the main board or by installing sub meters on each sub board? Sounds like there is a due diligence failure or non disclosure.
I'd like to see the tourist accommodation only bylaw removed if I was an owner. Must be there for some reason though. No separate electricity metering... Not sure how that was able to be strata'ed. I would have thought it would need to be a given requirement.
It's hard to see how the tourist accomodation only by-law would stand up in tribunal if an owner decided to move in. On saying this, the reverse is also true (see Anti-Airbnb by-laws binned | Airbnb and other short-term lets | Flat Chat Forum: Your Questions Answered - FLAT CHAT : FLAT CHAT) If you have bought into a strata block the electricity should be separately metered, and if not there are probably some prior issues to be resolved, but your OC is probably going to have to have a special levy to cough up the 32k. As for the chairman you want removed, he/she can chair a meeting , so what? Why is this an issue?
The strata managers (if they wanted to) could fine them for breaking a bylaw but then the owners will call a meeting and vote to change the bylaw. Sounds like the change should happen and the caretaker should go, must be costing a lost in strata fees when you have a caretaker. If you get rid of the caretaker the money you save could go towards separate electricity metering.
Or towards a regular cleaner, concierge, maintenance contractors, security, key manager for incoming guests. Oh, that defeats the savings.
It depends on the size of the block as to whether these things are necessary. It does sound like a large block so yes, a caretaker may be needed - but maybe it is only needed if it's a tourist block. If it's residential, no need for things like a "key manager". I just had workers here who accidentally locked my apartment so I couldn't get in (door handle lock), so I had to call a locksmith, that doesn't come out of strata. We also don't know if the caretaker is doing all of those things you've listed. The OP has said a full time caretaker is not necessary for his building.
It's usually the other way around that causes problems. I.e - approved use is residential flat building, but being used for tourist and visitor accommodation. Tourist and visitor accommodation is the higher and better use, removing the by law may be contradicting the development consent for the building and may require a DA or s96 There are many buildings in this situation in Sydney. Most of the time it's the opposite of your situation. Usually people who own buildings that can be used for tourist and visitor accommodation have no issues because they are getting juicy yields. If the approved use of the building is for tourist and visitor accommodation, technically it's the lawful use and the people who are living there long term are the ones breaking the rules, but highly possible council will not take action, Tourist and visitor use is more intensive and has more amenity impact on permanent residents, but if residents still choose to live there long term, so be it. It's also a bit of a grey area, what's stopping someone from going to the front counter and renting out a pad for the next year?
Hetty, if your door is original then it is a part of the common property (just like your balcony sliding doors, assuming you have them...) and repairing the locks is a strata matter. Send them the bill.
Surely the By-Law would've came up in the contract therefore making finance harder (possible larger deposit required). You will find that your strata fees will be ridiculously huge, no doubt electricity is factored into this, among other things like gyms, pools and such (if there are any) Where is the unit located?
I haven't thought of it like that before, I did get them to repair my sliding doors though. We don't have anything in our sinking fund at the moment and can't raise levies without going to NCAT so we're just fixing things ourselves at the moment. The locksmith was paid for by the tilers who stuffed up so I didn't pay for that, but I have just paid $2700 for repairs to original tiles in my apartment! The joys of strata living!
Sounds a little dubious, Hetty, and you should ask whoever told you this why NCAT would need to be involved, just in case there are extenuating circumstances. And the sinking fund has a zero balance? Seriously? Assuming the Committee wont, for whatever reason, be able to transfer some money from the Capital Works (formerly called the Admin ) Fund, then get your Owners' Corp secretary (or Strata Committee members who have at least 33% of the committee vote) to call an Extraordinary General Meeting and raise a Special Levy. This might help:- Levies and capital works funds - NSW Fair Trading Note that tiles are always a bit of a contentious issue in terms of lot space, replacement, common property, OC permission to renovate, blah, blah, and there are lots of different opinions...particularly if you have a strata manager that likes to use the phrase "...Computer says No..".
It's a complicated situation. Basically, we had to spend the money in the sinking fund to fix issues in the building ($30k worth). Now we need to raise levies to fix further issues, but the SC are outvoted, mainly by the builder (who owns just under half of the lots) but also by other owners who don't want to pay more. So we will very likely have to go to NCAT to raise special levies as we will, once again, be outvoted at a meeting. I'm on the SC and we had a lot of trouble getting the $30k worth of repairs approved as the builder kept outvoting us over the course of a few years... and throw an incompetent strata manager into the mix and things are so much more difficult.
