Sometimes in life, the secret of success is a question of good timing.
Strata living is no exception and this week our Flatchatters have been watching the clock or, at least, the calendar.
For a start, if someone wanted to be on the committee but they missed the AGM, can they just be added to the list?
Now, let’s just be clear, you’d have to be locked in a monastery or a Taliban jail not to be able to email your strata committee secretary to legally nominate yourself.
You don’t even have to be at the meeting to be elected. Either way, you left your run too late, so what happens now?
If a committee member leaves, the others can co-opt another owner to fill the gap, so can’t the committee just add someone else to the numbers that way? The answer is HERE.
In another date-related question, levies notices were issued the day after the AGM and owners were give just over a week to pay. It all happened so fast that a couple of owners missed the deadline.
Shouldn’t they have had a reminder and will they have to pay the compulsory penalty interest? And shouldn’t they have had more time to pay? That’s HERE.
And in an example of strata basics, we’ve been asked what kind of vote it takes to spend sinking fund cash (of which there is plenty) in carpeting a tiled lift lobby floor to match similar areas on other floors.
Does it need to be a unanimous vote of everyone on that floor, or just a simple majority of all owners? Hang on! Should they even be spending capital works cash on upgrades rather than repairs? That’s HERE.
There’s a deceptively simple but tricky question about how much you can charge a tenant for irretrievably damaging an old stone benchtop. That’s HERE.
And does the committee have to divulge the content and nature of their discussions about renovation plans that were approved but have suddenly stalled. That’s HERE.
And finally a question that’s anything but basic. How do you sack the strata manager of a Queensland block who is based in NSW? Does it come under Queensland law, NSW law, both or neither?
And what the heck is a one-year plus one, plus one contract all about anyway? This one desperately needs some smart (but basic) thinking, HERE.
You can answer Flatchatters’ questions or ask one of your own on the Flat Chat Forum.
