Deryck Walker
Two decades of strata industry experience, qualified trainer and assessor, strata industry consultant and mentor. Developing and delivering high quality training for the strata industry.
Can a body corporate committee delegate minor spending decisions to a single member?
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We have been advised by the BCCM team that all committee decisions, including expenditure, must be voted on either at a committee meeting or by a vote outside a committee meeting. Including an item of expenditure in a budget does not give authority to spend the money, and the legislation does not provide a delegation process to permit an individual committee member to make body corporate decisions on their own.
Can a body corporate resolve that lot owners are responsible for the maintenance of the boundary fence?
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We live in a townhouse complex of 52 homes. Each unit has a fenced courtyard between the garage and the house, with a dividing fence between neighbouring homes. The courtyards are common property with no exclusive use, even though they are fully fenced and not accessible to other residents.
What action should the OC take if an occupier disables their smoke alarm?
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A tenant in our complex covered the smoke alarm with a plastic bag, apparently because it keeps going off when they cook. Their property manager has been notified, but nothing has happened.
Can a disabled owner use the visitor disabled car space?
A disabled apartment owner uses the disabled visitor car park as their permanent car space. This causes a problem for any other owners who may have visitors who also qualify for that spot.
What are the laws regarding the use of disabled visitor spots in apartment complexes? Can the committee take any action to make this spot available to visitors on an ongoing basis?
Can a non-owner have invoice approval rights in strata?
How can the partner of our council of owners chairperson be an external approver of invoices when our bylaws clearly state one vote per lot owner? Despite the partner having no voting rights, both the chairperson and their partner have approval rights. How does that work?
Can our strata manager remove a valid by-law during strata consolidation?
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Our strata scheme includes a by-law that places maintenance responsibility for each unit on the individual owner, given that the units are for their exclusive use.
The strata manager deleted this when they rewrote our by-laws for consolidation. Did they have a right to do this? If an owner claims their maintenance on the strata, so will all owners, which will result in higher strata fees.