Question: Is there a reasonable time in which the committee should respond to lot owner motions for, e.g. a request to keep a pet. Six weeks appears to be unreasonably long.
The committee now has a maximum of six weeks in which to respond to a motion put by a lot owner and extended as needed. This can be seen as a standard time to respond. Is there a reasonable time in which the committee should respond in normal operational circumstances? For example, if a request to keep a pet is made, six weeks appears to be unreasonably long.
Also, could you please go over the 21 days as a ‘no vote’?
Answer: Committees can turn around decisions a lot quicker than six weeks, but the new legislation gives them six weeks to make the decision.
Committees can turn around decisions a lot quicker than six weeks, but the new legislation gives them six weeks to make the decision. If you were expecting an earlier decision, it’s going to be very hard to get an early decision if the committee does want to take six weeks. Ultimately, what your rights are is to go to the commissioner’s office and ask for a decision to be made earlier. I just can’t say an adjudicator saying within a period of less than six weeks, that the committee is being unreasonable by taking more than four weeks.
There’s a bit of balance here where a lot owner is getting a lot more out of these regulation models by setting a deadline. I think by saying we should be taking less time than what the deadline is, you’re probably not going to get that far with how it’s going to be interpreted. I think it’s going to be very hard for an owner to force a committee to take a time less than six weeks if the committee wants to take six weeks.
Concerning how the 21 days works, it is more of a drop dead date, as opposed to a no vote. If the committee makes the majority decision within those 21 days, and it’s absolutely an approved committee decision, it’s really if some committee members haven’t put their vote in – maybe we’ve only got two answers so far and we need four to get the majority resolution, it just means after those 21 days the committee’s decision is a ‘no’ against the motion. What that does, is opens it up to the owner to go and take further action down the track.
This post appears in Strata News #493.
Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753
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