Ownership notification

You should be able to discover the information you need at Lands NSW which has an online search facility costing $11.90 per search – you will find that HERE. Let us know if you have tried than and it didn’t work.

There are a couple of legal requirements to notify the Owners Corporation (reproduced below) but the problem arises of how you enforce them when you don’t know who to write to.

In the first instance, Section 118, the owner of a unit is required to inform the Owners Corp of who they are and where they can be contacted.  The penalty for not doing so is that you don’t get to vote at general meetings (big deal!).

Under Section 119, owners are required to inform the OC when they lease their unit and to whom.  The penalty for failing to do that is a whopping five units ($550).  But, once again, if they won’t say who they are, how do you enforce that?

If this is in fact Housing NSW and they are deliberately and systematically avoiding their legal duties so as to take over strata buildings by stealth, whoever made that decision should called to account. Any system where a bureaucracy plays fast and loose with the law is bad.  And a situation like this where landlords  have rendered themselves uncontactable and therefore unaccountable is bad for the community and for tenants.

The whole question of Housing NSW tenats in private strata has been hotly debated HERE.

Meanwhile, this is what the Act says about notification:

Part 2 Notices required to be given by owners, occupiers and other persons

118 Notice to be given to owners corporation of right to cast vote at meeting

(1) Person with right to vote at meetings must notify owners corporation
A person who has an interest in a lot that, subject to this Act, gives the person a right to cast a vote either personally or by nominee at meetings of the owners corporation must notify the owners corporation in writing of that interest.

(2) Contents of notice
The notice must specify the following information and, if the interest is a mortgage, include confirmation by the mortgagor or be verified by statutory declaration of the mortgagee:

(a)  the person’s full name and an Australian address for service of notices,

(b)  the lot concerned and the exact nature of the person’s interest in it,

(c)  the date on which the person acquired the interest,

(d)  if the voting entitlement conferred by the interest is one that, according to Schedule 2, is to be exercised by a nominee, the nominee’s full name and address for service of notices.

(3) Other matters to be specified in notice
The notice must specify the manner in which the interest arose and be verified by statutory declaration if any of the following applies to the interest:

(a)  the interest is that of the executor or administrator of the estate of a deceased person,

(b)  the interest is that of the liquidator or receiver in bankruptcy of any person,

(c)  the interest has arisen by operation of law or the order of any court,

(d)  the interest has arisen in any manner otherwise than by transfer of the interest from some other person or the discharge of a mortgage.

(4) Owners corporation may require notice to be given
The secretary of the owners corporation, if of the opinion that a person obliged to give notice under this section has not done so, may by a requisition in writing served on the person, require the person:

(a)  to state, within 14 days, whether or not the person is a person required to give notice under this section, and

(b)  if the person is such a person, to give that notice.

(5) Person prevented from casting vote if certain requirements not met
A person is not entitled to cast a vote at a meeting of the owners corporation if the person has not complied with a requisition served on the person under subsection (4) or, in the case of a vote to be tendered through a nominee, if the nominee’s full name and address for service of notices have not been notified under this section.

(6) Changes in certain information to be notified
A person who has given notice under this section may by further notice advise any change of nominee or of the person’s or any nominee’s address for service.

119   Notice to be given to owners corporation of leases or subleases

(1)  If a lot is leased, the lessor must give notice of the lease, in accordance with this section, to the owners corporation within 14 days after the commencement of the lease.

Maximum penalty: 5 penalty units.

(2)  If a lot is subleased, the sublessor must give notice of the sublease, in accordance with this section, to the owners corporation within 14 days after the commencement of the sublease.

Maximum penalty: 5 penalty units.

(3)  If a lease or sublease of a lot is assigned, the assignor must give notice of the assignment, in accordance with this section, to the owners corporation within 14 days after the execution of the assignment.

Maximum penalty: 5 penalty units.

(4)  The notice must specify:

(a)  the name of the lessee, sublessee or assignee, and

(b)  the date of commencement or assignment of the lease or sublease, as the case requires, and

(c)  the name of any agent acting for the owner in respect of the lease or sublease.