Reform Of Nsw 50-Year-Old Strata Scheme Laws -

[labadore]

There were more than 90 proposed changes to strata laws announced by the NSW Government this week – some are big changes in the concept of property ownership, others are tweaks and finesses to existing laws, bylaws and rules.

One of the changes is for pets in apartments/units managed by Strata laws as follows:

Pets

The proposal: to change the standard or default bylaw to state that pets are allowed, provided that the strata committee approves, although that approval can't unreasonably be withheld.

The intention: to create a default situation where pet ownership, under reasonable conditions, is allowed.

The effect: this will make no difference to older building that have established bylaws, or new buildings where they have written their own bylaws. But for the many buildings that just go with the basic by-laws recommended by Fair Trading, you can have a pet unless the owners' corp has a very good reason for saying no.

Link and full article below on the changes, announced by Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello​, that will affect ordinary strata residents – owners and tenants – most?

NSW Strata Law changes

Strata laws: the 8 changes that will most affect apartment residents and owners

Date: July 17, 2015 - 9:17AM

Jimmy Thomson, Flat Chat columnist

Pets, parking and smoking: Here are the key changes to strata law that will affect you. Photo: Marina Oliphant

There were more than 90 proposed changes to strata laws announced by the NSW Government this week – some are big changes in the concept of property ownership, others are tweaks and finesses to existing laws, bylaws and rules.

But what were the changes, announced by Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello​, that will affect ordinary strata residents – owners and tenants – most?

Over-crowding

The proposal: to allow owners' corporations to create bylaws limiting the number of adults who can live in an apartment (although that limit can't be set at fewer than two adults per bedroom), with fines for over-crowding to be raised to $5500.

The intention: to curb the multi-occupancy of apartments in blocks near the city or universities, because of health, safety and the detrimental effect these "battery cage" apartments have on other residents of the buildings.

Mr Dominello is also looking to the Boarding House Act that he successfully steered through the last Parliament, which allowed council inspectors to use circumstantial evidence, such as the number of people coming and going from houses, to show there was probably overcrowding.

This allows councils to bypass rules that meant they had to give landlords advance notice that they were coming to look around their properties, thus allowing these landlords to remove any evidence of multi-occupancy.

The effect on residents: owners will be able to limit the number of people in a flat, find it easier to gather evidence, then take effective measures at the NSW Civil Administration Tribunal to get apartments cleared and fines imposed.

Parking

The proposal: to allow owners' corporations and local councils to let council parking inspectors patrol strata car parks and issue fines to people who have parked where they shouldn't.

The intention: parking is one of the most contentious areas of strata life, especially since the law seriously limits what owners' corporations can do about rogue parkers (especially non-residents). It's an area that leads to arguments and even violence. Just last week a driver was convicted and fined $2000 for "keying" the car of a woman who blocked him in for stealing her parking space.

The effect: once signs go up and the parking inspectors come in, everybody will have to be on their best behaviour. Sure, the non-resident commuter who parks in a visitor spot will get a ticket, but so may you if you park briefly in the driveway or over the lines round your space. Be careful what you wish for!

Defects Bond

The proposal: developers will have to place a bond of 2 per cent of the value of the building to cover potential defects after completion.

The Intention: to protect buyers of new units, especially first-time buyers, create more confidence in the industry and force the bad developers to have the same diligence as the good ones … or pay a price.

The effect on owners: owners of new apartments who discover defects will no longer face the choice of accepting them and paying for rectification themselves, or rolling the dice by pursuing recalcitrant developers through the courts just to get what they paid for. It will also clip the wings of fly-by-night, one-off developers who disappear as soon as the last unit is sold.

Pets

The proposal: to change the standard or default bylaw to state that pets are allowed, provided that the strata committee approves, although that approval can't unreasonably be withheld.

The intention: to create a default situation where pet ownership, under reasonable conditions, is allowed.

The effect: this will make no difference to older building that have established bylaws, or new buildings where they have written their own bylaws. But for the many buildings that just go with the basic by-laws recommended by Fair Trading, you can have a pet unless the owners' corp has a very good reason for saying no.

Smoking

The proposal: a small but significant note on the section on residents' behaviour identifies smoke drift as a potential "nuisance" under the legal meaning of the word.

The intention: rather than placing a blanket ban on all smokers, this allows strata communities to police their own buildings where, for instance, people might be able to smoke like chimneys without bothering anyone.

The effect: it's very much up to individual owners to decide what they want to do about neighbours' smoke.

"A property owner has certain rights to do as they please in their home but they also have a duty of care to ensure they don't cause a nuisance with their neighbours," says leading strata lawyer and chairman of the Owners Corporation Network, Stephen Goddard. "By identifying smoking as a nuisance, this allows owners to take action without passing a bylaw imposing a ban on people smoking in their homes, which would be a serious reduction of property rights and almost certainly illegal."

Collective Sales

The proposal: to allow 75 per cent of residents of older buildings to agree to their sale to a developer for redevelopment, regardless of the wishes of the minority. Currently this requires a 100 per cent vote.

The intention: to remove the opportunity for individual owners to prevent redevelopment of their aging and high-maintenance unit block, or even hold their neighbours to ransom by holding out for an inflated price.

The effect: simply put, about 8000 apartment blocks in established communities in NSW will be viable redevelopment sites where newer, safer and healthier buildings can be built, accommodating two or three times as many residents. An advice hotline and advocacy services are to be provided for the vulnerable and elderly, and fair compensation mechanisms will be established but, inevitably, some people will be evicted from their homes.

Karen Stiles, executive officer of the Owners Corporation Network, welcomed the additional protections for strata owners, "such as the hotline and free legal advice and advocacy for the more vulnerable members of the community", but says the policy should still have a 100 per cent vote for blocks of four units or less, and 80 per cent for larger blocks.

Charmaine Crowe, senior adviser with the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW, says this change will benefit "investors but not owner-occupiers who are not ready to sell or who just like where they live".

"Lowering the vote for termination of strata schemes … serves no public policy purpose. The NSW government is simply caving in to pressure from property developers."

Renovations

The proposal: to create a three-tier permissions regime that allows certain minor work to be done without permission, some significant renovations to be carried out just with a simple majority vote of the owners' corporation and, for major renovations, especially anything affecting common property and water proofing, the full gamut of special resolutions, bylaws and restrictions.

The Intention: to make it easier for strata owners to live in a home that suits their needs and sense of style without requiring something just short of an act of parliament to hammer a nail in a wall.

The effect: more trips to Bunnings, fewer calls to your strata manager and lawyers.

Proxy Harvesting

The proposal: owners in buildings of fewer than 20 units will be allowed to carry only one proxy vote. In larger buildings the limit will be 20 per cent of the vote or five votes, whichever is less.

The intention: to prevent committee chairmen, or women, from hoovering up the votes of the absentee investors, the uninterested and the uncommitted so they can run a building as their "personal fiefdom", to quote the minister.

The effect: the reality is that the "proxy farmers" have seen this coming for a while and will probably organise "proxy panels" of supporters who will share the votes and make sure nothing changes. But other measures including electronic meetings and voting will ensure those who want to take part but live elsewhere can participate if they want to.

"This is a long overdue protection for the minority," says Daniel Linders, a prominent strata manager with Strata Choice. "It will help to prevent situations when one person has the motivation and the ability to gather votes with the sole intention of pursuing their own agenda, often to the detriment of their strata community."

[CBL]

Strata laws were the reason we sold our townhouse. Our laws said dogs were allowed after approval from strata (i think 50%).

There were other dogs in the complex, none of who's owners had gone through the approval process to be there (all small dogs). We wanted a greyhound (our Patch-man) - took pages and pages of info about them, letters from a vet and GAP - and lost by one vote.

Strata manager told us that if we were told that if we appealed it we would win, but knowing some of the personalities in the complex, we instead sold and got out. Very frustrating to go through the right process and then it did no good (with no consequences for those who just got dogs anyway).