r/stratachataus

Basically the title. Bought into a block of 16 last year, first AGM at the end of June.

Nominating myself to the strata committee, and suspect I may be the only active one on there (there’s other owner-occupiers but they don’t seem bothered + don’t think they’re on the committee after the last remaining member has just sold their unit).

Any advice for what to look out for, by laws to consider changing, etc?

I’ve also noticed the strata manager isn’t the best when it comes to actioning work, and would like to get the bloke to be a bit more proactive/ quicker with sorting stuff out.

Any advice is welcome! Cheers!

NSW strata scheme, 6 lots. Our manager arranges all maintenance and just sends us the invoice after the fact. We've asked multiple times to see quotes before work is approved and they basically ignore us or say "it was urgent."

The new disclosure reforms from Feb 2025 are supposed to mean more transparency but nothing's changed.Does the committee actually have the right to require the manager to get multiple quotes and show them to us before approving work? Can we pass a resolution at the AGM to enforce this? Has anyone actually done it?

Not looking to fire the manager (yet...) just want to understand our options.

a member of our strata committee emailed committee members and our strata manager that they were taking over control of our strata committee and making all decisions. our strata manager approved all spending that this member has requested without any acknowledgment or advice to the rest of the strata committee or owners. Should our strata manager have advised us of the legality of this? As a strata how does this affect our insurance? Can we trust our strata manager? Struggling with court paperwork for an injunction

Our strata committee of a 1976 16 unit double brick building in St George area is looking at getting some of our balconies sorted out. No obvious signs of concrete cancer but some tiles are drummy. We were doing some preliminary investigations to see what costs are like.

One company came back with $2500-$3000/m². Removal of existing tiles, waterproofing and tiling. Chat GPT suggested $700/m².

Anyone done a similar project in Sydney?

Interested in pricing.

I have a small gas leak from the pipe before the meter control valve. As the leak is in the pipe before the meter/control valve could it be argued it is still common property? Or technically is that pipe not deemed to be servicing only my lot until it passes pass the meter control valve?

I could be reaching here but was having trouble finding similar info online. Thanks

I'm working on a project that would give stratas and managed housing communities one area where they can go to for bylaws, updates, complaints, maintenance requests etc.

Is there a demand for this? I'm reading about a lot of complaints that residents have that seem to just go unnoticed or ignored, but I'm not sure if this is a general issue or just one in mismanaged communities.

Another thing is, that there are lots of 'smaller' communities that are self managed by someone living on site, where all updates and such are sent via email. Would this be of interest to these communities?

P.S. I'm not trying to hype or sell anything in this thread, just genuinely asking if this is a common problem I can help solve.

Hi All,

Just trying to get a general gauge on insurance costs for similar-sized strata complexes.

Our complex consists of 9 modern brick veneer units, built approximately around 2010.

Last year our insurance premium was approximately $7,000, based on an insured value of around $5.5 million. We also had a previous claim on record, which should no longer be impacting this year’s renewal.

We have recently received an updated valuation of approximately $7 million and will now be renewing with no claims history.

Would be interested to hear what similar complexes are currently paying and what insured values they are carrying.

location : Bankstown Area NSW

I recently bought into a large complex in Sydney that has an open plan carpark.

Some owners have been building enclosed garages in their parking space with committee approval. Can the committee approve that sort of structure?

I've also noticed that some owners have been tapping into the light circuit to power the door opener. Is this normal practise? How do we prevent misuse of the common property power for charging EV and other items?

Hey there,
Just wondering if anyone else is having issues with a certain Manager allowing bullying and harassment in committees as well as charging people per email sent to him? Don’t want to name names but RN should be enough to go by…
Kind regards,
A frustrated, stressed citizen who wishes she could sell and move but financially can’t. 😩

Hi all

The unit next door is available for sale and we are looking to purchase it for the extra space and parking spot.

We'd like to add a door or arch to one of the common walls so we can open the space up to make one bigger unit but retain separate titles.

Has anyone gone through this process before and do you have any advice to share? Our strata manager has recommended consulting a lawyer but beyond that we don't know where to start.

Would be great if you could recommend a strata lawyer in Sydney NSW and a reliable building inspector/engineer to assess if feasible.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

Would love to get some thoughts and feedback on my current situation, any suggestions for handling the situation also welcome! This issue is slated for our upcoming strata AGM.

TLDR; neighbour wants free use of a common use area directly in front of our house for parking his car or having his trades park there, but demands the space be kept free if we use it. Is it reasonable for us to request a bylaw/rule from the strata group to ensure free access to the space at all times?

Apologies in advance for the long post - sharing as much detail as I can.

My family and I have moved into a new home in a strata group (not our first time in one). We have been here less than a month.

We are located at the back of our group with another property. There is a space directly in front of our front porch that is part of the shared driveway/common use area. It is not designated parking and we believe the purpose of it is to allow us to reverse out of our garage more easily. If our driveway is shaped like an "L" we are located right at the end of the bottom line, and our neighbour is located at the right angle. Parking in the space also means the driver stares directly into our front room.

Within our first few days of moving in, our neighbour approached us several times about not having our car parked there. He demanded we park on the street to keep the space free "for vendors" and visitors (its not visitor parking). We agreed and parked directly in front of our garage. This was apparently not acceptable either, and neither was my grandmother parking in the "visitors" spot.

We are now parking on the street as much as possible while we clear out our garage (where our car was always going to be parked) of junk after the move.

Since these interactions, our neighour has freely used the spot for his own car and demands that it be kept free for his tradies. We would be fine with this if cars being in this spot didn't a) make it difficult for us to get out of our garage, and b) if he didn’t treat the space as an extension of his own home for free use.

In talking to the other members of the strata group, we are not the first people to have issues with this neighbour and both of them have had their share of run ins with him over the years.

My question is - is it reasonable for us to ask for a rule or bylaw to be put in place by the strata group to clearly define use of this space? Is it possible for the strata group to apply rules to common use areas?

We are more than happy not to use the space and avoid doing so as much as possible - we are just hoping for some equal rules around use.

Any other suggestions on how to manage this situation would be much appreciated!

**EDIT: important for context on the dynamic with the neighbour but not relevant to the question. His demenour towards me on the first day we moved in was very friendly and welcoming. While I was unpacking on the first day, I called the police because I could hear what sounded like a serious domestic incident between him and his wife. He started in on the parking issue the next day.