We are always telling strata owners to resolve serious problems through Fair Trading and the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal. The latter, especially, is supposed to help ordinary people resolve their issues without needing to hire lawyers.
‘Supposed to’ is the operative phrase.
We recently heard from owners in a small, self-managed block who asked the CTTT to enforce a Notice To Comply over two owners’ loud, disturbing noise and harassment and intimidation of other residents in the building.
They submitted a stack of evidence, including police reports and letters from real estate agents whose tenants had moved out because of the problem.
When the tribunal Member hearing their case couldn’t find the minutes of the first meeting at which the EC agreed to pursue the breaches, the owners asked for a brief adjournment to get the document, which they had on file. Instead he dismissed the case entirely.
“What a joke!” says our reader. “We are talking about a violent, dangerous individual who got out of jail recently and even tells the police where to go. It took a lot of guts just to go there to face him … now we live in fear in our own homes.”
The CTTT’s Deputy Chairperson Garry Wilson told us, “Based on the evidence provided to the Tribunal, the notice to comply with a by-law was issued prior to a resolution being made by the Owners Corporation approving the issue of the notice and therefore was not issued in accordance with the Act.”
The decision HAD been approved, Mr Wilson, back in March 2010. I’ve seen a copy of the minutes. It wasn’t “provided” because the owners hadn’t realised it was needed. They told the CTTT Member but he wouldn’t allow them to go and get it.
This kind of pedantic pen-pushing and trial by nitpicking ordeal while people’s lives are being ruined is exactly why the CTTT is rapidly losing what little respect it has left in the strata community.
You can read the full story and the CTTT’s official response on the Flat Chat Forum.