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Our Strata’s by-laws are only available in PDF format, in spite of the fact that they have been consolidated previously when new by-laws have been registered. To be consolidated they would have had to be converted from PDF to WORD or similar, after which they’ve been returned to us as PDFs. This means that every time we add a by-law we have to pay for the conversion, which makes consolidation expensive, particularly if it’s a by-law for an individual lot and being paid for by the lot owner.
Is there any requirement for the by-laws to be held only as PDFs, or could a strata hold a set in WORD (or similar) as well?
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Converting Word docs to PDFs is free. Converting PDFs to Word can be done online for free or very cheaply if you have the software. I can’t really see how this would be a huge expense (unless someone is having a lend of you).
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.
Newer versions of Microsoft Word (and maybe other products) can convert a PDF to editable Word format. It’s a standard feature of Word.
Buy why not just have the original document as Word, then create a PDF from that (again, a standard feature of Word). When changes are needed you just edit the original Word document then create a new PDF from that.
It’s not just expensive, it’s a rip-off. Woodg62’s suggestion that you do the PDF conversion yourself but retain the Word version for future amendments is spot-on.
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 notice some “budget” instant by-law agents are charging $500+ to register and consolidate by-laws. One is demanding up to $750 plus another $200 for “disbursements”.
It actually costs $147.70 in government fees to register a change in a by-law. If you feel confident, you could do it yourself online using THIS FORM according to the instructions on THIS PAGE.
To be fair, the “fronts” for legal firms offering the $500+ service may be checking the by-laws are kosher and making sure it’s done properly. But more than tripling the registration fee and then charging extra for converting to PDFs is a bit steep.
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.
Hold that thought – apparently you now have to be registered with an online property transaction service called PEXA to be able to submit documents.
Stiil, you should be able to find someone to do it for less than $500.
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.
The PEXA thing has been around for a few months now.
Just makes things hard for self managed SPs and adds costs to SPs who like to be hands on to keep costs down.
Sure it is great for cashed up eastern suburbs types who just shell out whatever to the agent so they can sleep at night without having to worry about what ‘strata’ is doing but if you live in the west where the difference between a $150 process executed by the secretary and a $500 process executed by some third party (because you don’t have a choice) actual means something then PEXA is just rude.Wouldn’t block chain be nice for this type of thing.
Just makes things hard for self managed SPs and adds costs to SPs who like to be hands on to keep costs down.
Agreed. I’m running a self-managed strata plan in NSW. Last June, I travelled into the CBD and lodged the form myself. Cost $146.40.
I completed an additional “Conveyancing Rules Exemption form” to confirm that this transaction was on a list which could be waived from electronic lodgement. (See point 23 on the list).
The lodge-it-yourself method will be replaced by “electronic lodgement network” from 11 October 2021.
Our only choice will be to use a company who will add an extra fee! This isn’t progress. We’re going backwards.
Jimmy, I used the form you linked. At that time, it wasn’t possible for me to lodge it electronically.
For anyone interested, the office needs to see the Certificate of Title for the strata plan. I numbered the pages of the form, appended by-laws, appended minutes of meeting which passed the by-laws.
conversion of WORD –> PDF: use the “Export” option in the File menu.
conversion of PDF –> WORD: I keyed in the whole thing by hand.
Apologies if the formatting is off. I haven’t used HTML in ages.
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