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  • #8590
    clive2000
    Flatchatter

      In our building, over half the units are tenanted and the landlords’ agents never notify the OC who their tenants are. Therefore, they are breaching s119 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 and are subject to getting a fine. However, does anyone know whether any landlord has ever been prosecuted for this? Can we ask Fair Trading to investigate?

      It’s a chronic problem in our building because people are moving in and out all the time, damaging common property dragging their furniture through it and dumping their unwanted goods on the common property. 

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    • #17335
      Whale
      Flatchatter

        I had the same problem, and still do very occasionally as Property Managers seem to be transient and I have to keep educating new arrivals.

        In answer to your question though, I had one Agency whose Licensee flat out refused to provide the S119 Notification on “privacy grounds”, even though I’d e-mailed his person on numerous occasions including to interpret and explain the meaning of that Clause in the context of the Strata Schemes Management Act (the Act) and of our Owners Corporation’s need to properly manage its Plan.

        I even attempted to speak with this Licensee personally when I visited the Agency in an earnest attempt to resolve her issues, and all I received in return was a tirade of verbal abuse, and in front of potential Clients of the Agency who were looking at property photos on the office display window.

        I can handle blokes who behave badly, but women leave me totally flummoxed!

        So I was left with no option other than to lodge on-line complaints to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT); one about the Licensed Person’s non compliance with S119 and the second about the verbal abuse.

        After following OFT’s procedures by again requesting the S119 Notification and this time including a date by which I expected to receive it (even though the Act prescribes 14 days from the commencement of the tenancy), matters progressed over about six (6) weeks as follows:

        1) I received a “we’ll look into it” letter from OFT.

        2) I received a letter from OFT stating that under the Act it’s the Owner who’s responsible for providing the Notification

        3) I wrote to OFT querying that as the Licensee was the Owner’s Agent for the management of the property, wouldn’t it be their responsibility to provide the Notification?

        4) I received a letter from OFT advising that it agreed that it was the Real Estate Agency / Property Manager’s responsibility to provide the Notification on behalf of the Owner (a point worth noting), and further that the Licensee had provided them with a copy of a S119 Notification dated on day 14 after the date of the Tenancy Agreement, so no further action was required.

        5) I phoned OFT’s investigator, who reluctantly agreed to provide me with a copy of the Notification, which despite all my correspondence requesting it to be provided to the Owners Corporation, was addressed by the Licensee to a Strata Management Company that our Plan ceased using 2 years previous (at that time), and which had in that time been absorbed by a much larger Strata Management Company who was trading at the original address, but under its own name and not the one to whom the Notification had allegedly been provided by the Licensee.

        6) I spoke with the Strata Management Company concerned, who denied ever receiving the Notification, and stated that if they had received it they would have advised the O/C by letter to its address at the Plan.

        7) I provided all information obtained to OFT.

        8) OFT’s investigator rang me to acknowledge that the Notification was possibly backdated, and further “off the record” that it was probably never forwarded to the Strata Management Company, but that as the O/C now had the Notification albeit at least 9 weeks late, the OFT’s investigation was at an end and that no further action was necessary.

        As for my personal complaint with regard to the verbal abuse (as opposed to the one made on behalf of the O/C), OFT’s response was that as I was not a Client of the Licensed Person (who did the abusing), there was no breach of the PropertyStock and Business Agents Act.

        Not to be denied, after a great deal of effort I eventually made contact with the head honcho of the large Real Estate Company with whom this Licensed Person had a Franchise. He agreed to make some inquiries and a few hours later contacted me by phone to advise that the Licensed Person’s franchise would not be renewed.

        I never found out what transpired between the head honcho and the Licensed person, but the former suggested to me that he too had been verbally abused – not a good idea, although the Agency’s still trading under a different name and from what I hear the Licensed Person is as prickly as ever; thankfully though not to me as the Agency no longer manages any permanent rentals in our Plan

        So back to your question once again…..

        I don’t think that the OFT prosecutes anybody unless it’s a high-profile matter, but in my experience the fear of that 5 Unit Penalty ($550) together with nicely worded reminders, and in our case a proforma Notification downloadable from our Plan’s website, will almost always achieve the desired result when you’re dealing with Agencies / Property Managers.

        Why not try a similar approach to the Property Managers instead of to the Proprietor/Landlords? 

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