Question: An owner refuses to clean up rubbish left in their exclusive use courtyard. What can a single committee member do when the rest of the committee refuses to act?
We are a small block of 4 units, each with a dedicated courtyard. There is one investment owner, and three owner-occupiers.
One owner-occupier sold and, when they moved out, they apparently left garden rubbish in the investment owner’s courtyard. The owner has been made aware that it is their responsibility, but refuses to remove the rubbish and says the body corporate should pay for it. It is a fire and rodent hazard.
I am the sole committee member prepared to pursue this issue. What are my options if the other two committee members continue to ignore the issue?
Answer: Owners are obliged to maintain their lots in good condition, including exclusive use courtyards, and the body corporate or individual lot owners can take action against an owner who fails to comply.
Owners are obliged to maintain their lots in good condition. If they fail to do so, either the body corporate or individual lot owners can take action against the offender to ensure compliance with the legislation.
In this case, you have an owner who refuses to clear their courtyard. This is creating an eyesore and a possible hazard, so it seems the conditions exist for a complaint.
We will assume the courtyard is either the owner’s property or occupied by them under an exclusive use by-law. Either way, this places the maintenance of the courtyard as the owner’s responsibility. To confirm this, you could check the building’s Community Management Statement or plans. If the land is body corporate, the body corporate is responsible for cleaning the waste.
The offending owner’s assumption that the matter is a body corporate responsibility to resolve is likely to be incorrect. The body corporate didn’t put the waste there, and the waste is not on body corporate land, so what basis is there to say that this is a body corporate problem? If you find someone is making unsubstantiated claims like this, ask them to back up their opinion with reference to the legislation or the by-laws.
If you want the body corporate to act, you could submit a Form 1 Notice of a By-Law Contravention to the committee for their consideration. The committee can review and decide whether to take further action.
You could also submit an owner’s motion, forcing the committee to vote on the matter.
Still, your building consists of only four lots and, as you indicate, the others don’t have much interest. Even if you take these steps, you may not get much traction. In that case, it may be best to take action yourself.
As such you could submit a Form 37a Self Resolution with an Owner and/or Occupier to the offending owner.
This will allow you to formally file your complaint directly with the owner. It also sets out how they can respond and the next steps if they don’t. Formalising the issue in this way sets a pathway for resolution that is generally not allowed for in back and forth emails, so escalate to this stage and follow the process.
This post appears in Strata News #794.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
Leave a Reply