r/stratachataus

Tl:dr
Dealing with a nightmare developer/ lot owner.
I don’t want to go to individual buildingcover, it sounds like a nightmare when issues occur across lots of between walls or shared roofs, but it it’s the only way to make this owner pay his minimum insurance tell me how?
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I bought a newly developed 4-unit townhouse in 2022. Developer sold 2, kept two under his business name. The developer engaged an OC manager to set up the OC and proceed with settlement, including the insurance certificate.

When the 2023 levy notices came around, I assumed we were all on the same page and paid the fees. No other lot owner paid, so the OC management company resigned immediately. I was left with no OC Manager and no strata insurance. I ended up applying to VCAT for the fees I paid the management company and got my money back before the hearing.

Managed to get a hold of the lot owners in early 2024 with strata insurance quotes covering the 4 units, common property and PL. got 3 quotes, went with GIO. We agreed that I would manage the admin for our small OC, attempted to open a bank account, which failed at the time. We agreed to BPAY our portion of the premium direct to insurer in the interest of getting the insurance activated and paid. We ended up doing the same in 2025 as i didn’t try again to open an account considering we had no expenses at the time.

New year 2026 rolls around and I send my yearly email to the owners with the policy premium details to pay our share. The developer completely ignores my calls, texts, voicemails, emails to renew the policy.
The prospect of our premium being overdue and being left uninsured had me loan the amount by paying 50% to cover his portion.

I began formal OC proceedings, issuing a notice of AGM. Held the AGM and no surprise that no one else showed up. I issued meeting minutes and interim resolution notice. These passed. I opened a bank account in the name of OC, became chairperson & secretary and issued fee notice to the developer. Final fee notice issued. I’ve followed the rules and used the CAV approved forms. I have a read receipt from the business email for the final fee notice so I know they have seen my emails all year.

The only contact I get are a couple of phone calls from his son, with no idea what he was on about, accusing me of making decisions on behalf of everyone. Here I am trying to make sure our properties are insured!

After 6 months of no contact, the developer emails me! Only to send me a screenshot of an email with a quote for “common property only cover and P/L” and also accusing me of making decisions on owners behalf!

So the fees aren’t paid and my next step is to attempt a VCAT fee recovery.

My questions:
What is the likelihood of actually getting a payment if the VCAT order is successful? I’m talking about $1500 this year, but if I don’t do this the annual fees will rack up and I’ll be out of pocket.

Should i get advice? A strata lawyer? If yes, who do I speak to in Melbourne that assist in fee recovery? This is assuming I would front the costs of this to get my own money back.

The OC Act confuses me as it says common property must be insured at a minimum. But when I attempt any quote online and select townhouse, I can’t get building/home insurance. So, can a 4-unit townhouse with common property that shares walls as a single building divided into lots, even get single lot building insurance and resolve to just have common property? I can’t see that this is normal anywhere, I can’t understand why this developer continues to try to not have the entire property under one policy.

Can we have our own home insurance when we share walls? Who would even insure me as no regular insurer does it.

I don’t want to go to individual cover, it sounds like a nightmare when issues occur across lots of between walls or shared roofs, but it it’s the only way to make this insurer pay his minimum tell me how?

Hi all

I own a middle-floor unit in an apartment in NSW. I've been entertaining the idea of having a Zen garden on my balcony, and after some research I've figured it would require a 5cm bed of gravel with appropriate drainage layers underneath (geotextile mat + drainage cells) to prevent damage to the tile/waterproof membrane beneath. All of this would sit on the tiled floor without any drilling, nailing or adhesives. The total cost of materials would be $620.

Regarding weight: I did the maths and the total weight of the garden would be 77kg/m^2 evenly distributed. I googled around and the AS1170 standard says balconies are rated for 2kPa or 200kg/m^(2), which leaves about 120kg/m^2 spare.

I've emailed my strata manager to see if any owners corporation approval is required, and they said it would require a special by-law + to obtain approval, the cost would be $2500.

This seems like a lot, especially considering it would cost 4x as much as the cost of the project itself. Is this a normal cost for obtaining approval? Would I need a special by-law in the first place for what I'm doing?

“It’s self-evident to everybody but the industry how much of an issue there is with the industry,”

"While it’s now a registered charity, for many years the alliance was a humble Facebook group – which is how I found it. I was looking for something like a DIY handbook: how to self-manage your building, perhaps a checklist of tasks to set everything up. But no such thing existed – neither in the depths of Consumer Affairs Victoria’s labyrinthine website, nor in my search feeds. Promising sources that looked independent almost invariably turned out to be businesses angling for contracts."

Hey everyone

Bought a villa at an auction. Did not see a leaky pargola. I guess they obviously cleaned it up to make sure it was not leaky

Now that settlement is done and I’m spending a bit more time in the villa I find that it’s leaky.

I’m trying to clarify with strata whether it covered under strata because I can’t get insurance for it from normal insurance companies because they will not provide structural insurance as most of the villa structure is insured under owners corporation

A few questions

1. Do I have any legal recourse either with the vendor or the real estate agent?
2. Is it considered common property and thus owners corporation? (I didn’t see any work regarding this in the by laws)
3. Any other options suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Hey guys - we own a unit in a 6-lot scheme in Brisbane that has taken on self-management after we got rid of our body corporate manager 3 years ago. Some of the admin stuff is a bit of a nightmare (and I mainly take it on) - budgeting, record-keeping and meetings etc. etc.

We mainly use excel + emails and a trust account with BOQ, and I’m interested in how others are doing it:

- What setup do you guys use to self manage? Does it work well for your body corporate size?
- has anyone ever used ourbodycorp or tracsafe? I’ve seen these companies pop up recently but I’m not sure what they’re like? Any other tools people have experience with?
- any tips and tricks?

Appreciate any insight, thanks!

My apartment building is contemplating a FTTP upgrade and as part of that upgrade there is an opportunity to ask for extra NBN outlet(s) in areas including the three level basement.

An EV charging upgrade for that basement is something currently planned for a distant day when we're bored and looking for new and expensive problems. When that day finally arrives, how many NBN outlets might we want to have across our three basement levels? We're trying to future proof.

Have no existing charging infrastructure, 20 car parks per level and expect NBN Co would charge $275 for each new outlet. If they decide to charge more than that, might it be worth it?

Hi all! Apologies if this is not the right forum to ask this Q (mods pls remove if so). Should I seek approval for the following?

I currently have quite a small, very high-up frameless bathroom mirror thats fixed via adhesive to plastered brick wall (original mirror in a 1980s red brick block). I would love to replace this with a larger mirrored-shaving cabinet. All shaving cabinets require drilling into the wall, and the size of the replacement cabinet I’d like to install would likely require drilling into tile (the bottom half of the bathroom walls are tiled). I’d have this done by my brother (a foreman and carpenter, but not a licensed plumber). The holes that drill through tile would be ~20cm above the tap/anywhere where water could reach, however, I don’t want to take risks or be irresponsible.

At the same time, I know the strata powers here are insane about even the smallest renovations and don’t want them to hate me for asking (as they have done to residents who’ve made very reasonable, often needed wet-area renovations before.

Would it be crazy to do this without telling/asking?

Hi all
Need some advice on how to go about this situation.
I live in a 10 story apartment building, my apartment is across from the fire escape stairwell door. For the last two weeks late at night I can hear banging coming from inside the fire escape. There is also a strong smell of urine emitting into the hallway from the door. I’ve opened the door to find clothes strung over the stairway guide rails, rubbish and newspaper laying about the stairwell. I’ve contacted my strata manager and have even sent pictures of the state of the stairwell but haven’t heard anything back as of yet. How should I go about escalating this issue? I’m not sure how the squatter is even getting in the building, whether they are picking the lock of the fire door from the ground floor or they are being let in.
Any advice is appreciated , thanks

How to address the amount of stuff being stored by owners behind vehicles in garage. Everyone has storage cages but bikes scooters dogfood boxes anything that doesn’t fit in cages gets let behind vehicles. How to address this without offending people. It looks untidy.

I have a relative who had their bathroom renovated probably 20+ years ago and their trades never put in a waste drain in the bathroom floor. At the time of the renovation, approval was given without any mention or requirement for a by-law.

Their strata has now asked them to reinstate the waste drain and from what I understand, it's not the easiest fix in that the whole floor would need to be re-tiled, and likely then some - probably a minimum of a few thousand to do.

Can this actually be forced on them to undertake the repair?

My apartment complex (about 150 units) has no bulletin board app or facility to provide notices to owners and/or residents. What systems are people using in other complexes? Anything to avoid too? What is working well in your complex?

Is this something I should bring to my strata committee's attention? It's a rusted metal rod sticking out of a concrete block. It's at the entry of my complex's garage. My complex has several other issues that the SC has been slow to address, so now they are finally working through those issues I'm reluctant to distract them. But if this is something that will become a bigger issue if left untreated (e.g. concrete cancer) I of course will.

edit: can't seem to post pictures but hopefully description is enough

Not Bannerman’s or PBL.