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The owners corporation of our 32 unit, 4-storey, 5 year old block commissioned a building defects report nearly 2 years ago and it identified 100s of defects which have been costed at approximately $500,000 to repair, mostly on common property. There is no insurance thanks to our stupid laws and regulations and after lawyers contracted by the strata manager contacted the builder/developer, he declared himself bankrupt. So the owners have to pay and have a legal responsibility for repairs. Since then, through a combination of ignorance, stupidity, inertia, apathy, avoidance and pig-headedness little has happened and no funds have yet been raised to rectify the defects. I want to get the work done and could afford the levy required but there is the concern that many owners could not find the funds. Nevertheless, I believe the OC should be making a plan to raise special levies over a period of a year or so to get the work done but there is an inability on the part of the OC, for the reasons stated above, to move forward.
My question is, can I go to Fair Trading/CTTT to force the OC to act?
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Yes you can take action against the OC and s 62 of the act sums it up nicely
62 What are the duties of an owners corporation to maintain and repair
property?
(1) An owners corporation must properly maintain and keep in a state of
good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal
property vested in the owners corporation.The disadvantage of going to NCAT is that the adjudicator might rule that the levy must be raised immediately whereas if the OC can compromise it can be done over x months.
Well the first thing you need is a motion that has been voted down proposing a special levy to pay for the repairs or a motion that voted against repairing the damage. This needs to be voted on by the owners (because the EC doesn’t have the authority to approve this level of spending).
Then you lodge a conciliation request with NCAT if that fails you lodge a Adjudication against the OC. Cost to you about $150 for lodging fees.
Prufrock – placing a motion on the Agenda is as easy as drafting it, and then providing it to the Secretary of your Executive Committee (cc Strata Manager) with a note that you’d like it to be placed on the Agenda for the next General Meeting of your Owners Corporation under the provisions of Schedule 2 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) – which states at Clause 36:
(1) Any person entitled to vote at a general meeting of an owners corporation on a motion that does not require a unanimous resolution may, by notice in writing served on the secretary of the executive committee, require inclusion in the agenda of the next general meeting of the owners corporation of a motion set out in the notice and the secretary must comply with the notice.
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