When neighbours hang you out to dry | Executive Committees | Flat Chat Forum

Les, there is no obligation on an executive committee or owners corporation to enforce their own by-laws. You could be, let's say, parking in visitors parking every day despite a by-law that says you are not allowed to do so. If no one complains then nothing will happen but even if someone does complain and the Executive Committee decides that this isn't an issue with which they want to trouble themselves, they can legitimately decide to do nothing.

There is a legal argument (yet to be tested, I believe) that the Owners Corp has an implied duty of care. But there is nothing in the Act that says the EC or OC has to pursue even legitimate complaints about breaches of by-laws (unless they affect the maintenance and repair of common property) hence "optional".

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Make no mistake, the single most important change the government could include in its strata law review would be to make the enforcement of by-laws compulsory (as it is in other states).

If you don't like your by-laws, you can change them.  But if you've got reasonable rules in place, enforcement shouldn't be at the whim of your executive committee or strata manager.

Take this story I was sent last week; an example of what happens when an executive committee is too gutless or lazy to do the right thing.

The couple concerned had a long-running problem with often unsupervised children squealing and shrieking on the common property roadway outside their townhouse from afternoon till late at night.

When they asked the kids to play at their own home or keep the noise down, they were threatened and abused by the parents. Police advised them to take out an Apprehended Violence Order but that made no difference.

So they recorded the noise, noted events, collected signatures from other residents and took the evidence to an executive committee meeting.  They were told it was a personal issue.

It wasn't – it was about multiple by-law breaches, but the shrinking violets on the EC didn't want to know.

Typically, the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal wasn't much help.  The adjudicator targetted only one culprit out of many – making it really personal – and dismissed one complaint on a pedantic interpretation of a by-law.  It's easy to nitpick when you're not suffering the consequences.

Now the noise is so bad that the couple have to move out at weekends. They've had filthy nappies thrown in their yard, torches shone in their windows and their front door repeatedly bashed late at night.  The so-called adults abuse them in front of the kids, who stand around cheering.

The Executive Committee could and should have sent a message to these animals that their behaviour wouldn't be tolerated. But by-law enforcement is optional so they ducked the issue and let one innocent couple suffer Hell in their own home. Wimps!

You can read the whole sorry tale  by going HERE and scrolling down to the posting by 'Mailbox'

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