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As the title of this topic states : Dishonest Strata Committees – where to find legal obligation to be honest, to ‘act in good faith’ etc*
The SSMA2015 only seems to state :
37 Duty of members of strata committee
It is the duty of each member of a strata committee of an owners corporation to carry out his or her functions for the benefit, so far as practicable, of the owners corporation and with due care and diligence.
Note : Section 260 provides protection from personal liability for members of strata committees who act in good faith .
If you want to direct the committee to somewhere which explicitly states their legal obligations in this regard, where do you point them to ??
*It doesn’t state that any more because that’s not a title, it’s an essay. Please take a look at the other posts and try to distinguish between a headline and something that belongs in the body of the post – JT
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Hi,
Do you have evidence of dishonest strata committee conduct ?
Arrange meeting of all strata community members to discuss the issue.
Dishonest people will not care about the act.
The strata community members in joint will decide the course of action to take.
Kind Regards,
Digby.
@Digby said:
Hi,Do you have evidence of dishonest strata committee conduct ?
This is a key question along with ‘What do you think they have done that is dishonest?’
Arrange meeting of all strata community members to discuss the issue.
Yes, if practical in a small OC. More difficult to avoid a confusing bunfight if the OC is large.
In the ACT, perhaps elsewhere, there are mechanisms for forcing the committee to call a general meeting. Here, you need 25% of owners to petition to have a meeting and the petition must state the matter to be decided.
fred11 – As far as I can tell there is no such thing as a Code of Conduct in the NSW legislation. The following may be of some assistance.
SSMA 2015
37 Duty of members of strata committee
It is the duty of each member of a strata committee of an owners corporation to carry out his or her functions for the benefit, so far as practicable, of the owners corporation and with due care and diligence.
Note : Section 260 provides protection from personal liability for members of strata committees who act in good faith.
The functions of the Secretary under this Act include the following:
(a) investigating and carrying out research into matters relating to or affecting strata schemes,
(b) investigating and attempting to resolve complaints and disputes relating to strata schemes and taking any action that the Secretary thinks appropriate,
(c) prosecuting any offence established by or under this Act,
(d) providing information to owners or occupiers of lots in strata schemes, owners corporations, lessors of leasehold strata schemes, strata managing agents and the public about this Act and the services provided by the Secretary and the Tribunal,
(e) investigating and reporting on any matters, or making inquiries in relation to any matters, referred to the Secretary by the Minister in connection with this Act.
There is a Code of Conduct for Committees in QLD. See here:
https://www.mystrata.com/doc-store/Code_of_Conduct_for_Committees_Aug_07.pdf
and here:
https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/bcacma1997388/sch1a.html
The Fair Trading document Strata Living says this about committees:
“Strata committee members must act with due care and diligence and must disclose any conflict of interest at a meeting, which must also be recorded. If a strata committee member does not disclose a conflict of interest, this may result in them receiving a penalty of up to $1,100.”
“Due care and diligence” covers a multitude of sins. There is probably a very good reason or not being more specific – every time you specify unacceptable behavior, some people take non-specified behaviour as implicitly acceptable.
There are plenty of options for dealing with committees that act dishonestly but unless you are more specific in your complaints, there’s not much point is asking us for advice.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I wanna know that too.
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