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I live in a Sydney apartment block comprising almost 200 apartments. I was secretary for several years and stood down 6 months ago due to a toxic atmosphere which developed with some malcontent owners.
As Secretary I was bombarded with 2 and 3 page questions which was strategy from the malcontents to upset the committee and replace them with like thinking owners. My response met with disagreeing with my answers and asking for more information. When one malcontent owner was exhausted they would have another with the same Dorothy Dix questions.
Several of the committee stood down and the others were voted out and replaced by malcontents. When installed as committee they did not want the same barrage of questions that we were faced with so they all changed their email addresses and directed that all enquiries be directed through the Strata Manager. The SM would direct the question to the appropriate committee member who would respond to SR and then back to the enquirer. Expensive and unnecessary.
I started a Newsletter informing owners from the Strata Roll of their tactics, ensuring all accusations were fact and true. They have responded with claiming I have breached by-laws as I should not be writing direct to owners. No owner has complained or requested removal from the distribution. I have been issued with a Notice to Comply invoice amounting to $220.00 which I will challenge through Fair Trading and NCAT.
I have the opinion that free speech is being railroaded by the committee claiming I cannot communicate direct with owner. Can I please have your opinion and perhaps even recommend a solicitor conversant with strata law for my contact.
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I can’t imagine a by-law that banned owners from writing to each other would survive much scrutiny at a Tribunal, and your strata committee can’t just issue fines or costs claims with a Notice To Comply.
Does the NTC mention a specific by-law (it should) and what does that by-law say?
Either of our strata law sponsors – Sachs Gerace or Bannermans would handle this with ease. Give them a call and ask how much it would cost.
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.
A Notice To Comply would (I assume from familiarity only with ACT legislation) only be valid if it specified exactly which by-law it was requiring you to comply with. Assuming that your communications could not be construed as harassment or libel, I can’t imagine what valid by-law you could be infringing.
I agree that you need to investigate the wording of the by-law involved, since it is unlikely to be valid. But your question raises another issue, that the strata committee for your building has become a battleground between groups of owners, which does the building as a whole no good at all. It is a big building with 200 lots, so having the strata manager doing much of the work makes sense, especially spread over 200 strata fees being collected.
“As Secretary I was bombarded with 2 and 3 page questions which was strategy from the malcontents to upset the committee and replace them with like thinking owners. My response met with disagreeing with my answers and asking for more information.” Why are you involved with this? This would be better referred to the strata manager to prepare answers. Or just prepare a quarterly newsletter combining all the issues. The secretary of a large strata plan should be managing the strata committee and handling large issues, not sparring with individual owners.I agree with much of the above. It is highly unlikely that a by-law exists that restricts your communication. If you want to defend your position – that is not comply with a NTC – as Jimmy recommends, get a lawyer. Follow Jimmy’s suggestion and get a quote from the lawyers. In your email to them summarise your issue and the responses you received from the SC and strata manager.
From my experience at NCAT, if the OC takes an owner to NCAT, it is likely that NCAT will grant an owner’s leave to be represented by a lawyer (i.e you request permission to have a lawyer represent you). You must request permission to be represented, if you want to be represented. It is not assumed by NCAT that you will be represented.
After all, you could inform NCAT in your request – as the defendant – that you are at a significant disadvantage given the OC has a raft of members who together will prepare their case with the assistance of the strata mgr and the OC can also make use of the strata’s lawyer if they choose to represent them at NCAT.
While NCAT in publications gives the impression that it prefers that no party is represented, I found the opposite. Especially when the defendant, be it an owner or the OC asks for leave to be represented in a complex case.
With reference to lot owners bombarding you when on the SC or other committee members with chronic emails, please note that in my experience on several strata schemes, I discovered that the SC is under no obligation to reply to owners emails. I am not stating that behaviour such as that by SCs is acceptable, I am saying that such an attitude by SCs is widespread.
One SC even wrote to all owners indicating that any communication that the SC deems “rude, intolerant, unjust etc” will not be replied to at all. This of course allowed the SC to define those terms and hence, ignore countless emails.
… claiming I have breached by-laws as I should not be writing direct to owners. No owner has complained or requested removal from the distribution.
Imagine if you wanted to invite all the owners to a party. Would it be illegal to write to them with an invitation?
I have been issued with a Notice to Comply invoice amounting to $220.00 which I will challenge through Fair Trading and NCAT.
This sounds like a bluff. There is no such thing as a “Notice to Comply invoice”. Did the strata committee give you a form which looks like NSW Fair Trading’s Notice to Comply with a By-Law Form (see below)?
https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-03/notice-to-comply.pdf
You need to see the exact wording of your by-laws to confirm whether such a by-law exists. If such a by-law does exist, you could apply to NCAT to have it invalidated for being “harsh, unconscionable or oppressive”.
Next, one of the earlier chats between David Bannerman and Jimmy noted that the owners corporation cannot issue a fine or a Notice to Comply invoice unless NCAT first makes an order for your to pay.
Finally, I suggest you familiarise yourself with Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW). Google it. Scroll down to “Part 7. By-Laws for Strata Schemes”. Sections 146 to 150 are most relevant to your question.
CTTT, now NCAT, say if you have a copy of the strata roll then there is no issue with using it for contacting other owners.
Hard to imagine it would be a problem to contact other owners regardless of if one had a copy of the strata roll..“Secondly, even if an address for service of notice is “information … about an individual”, part of the primary purpose of the collection of lot owners’ addresses and their inclusion on the strata roll is so they can be contacted by other lot owners and the Executive Committee of the Owners Corporation. … ”
Legge v Network Strata Services Pty Ltd (Strata and Community Schemes) [2013] NSWCTTT 45 (8 January 2013)
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