This article discusses how occupiers can protect tenant rights body corporate bylaws when breaches continue and there is no active body corporate committee.
Question: In our small building, a visitor continuously breaches bylaws. The committee has disbanded. As a tenant in the property, what can I do?
I am a tenant in a building of six units. An owner’s husband, who doesn’t live here, is continually breaching the bylaws. The Body Corporate Committee disbanded, as it was too difficult to deal with him.
He sells used cars on the street, parks multiple used cars out the back of the property, keeps the security doors wedged open, keeps the security garage door open, let’s their cat urinate and defecate in common areas, and stores flammable materials in his garage space, which is now overflowing. What can we do now that there is no body corporate?
Answer: The body corporate is supposed to enforce by-laws. If there’s no committee to do that, then you as an individual can take action directly against the offending person.
First up, you have my empathy. This sounds like a really unpleasant situation.
So, what to do? As a tenant, you are known as an ‘occupier’ under strata legislation and you have rights. One of those rights is to have by-laws enforced, as well as issues relating to nuisance. You would have to think what is going on here, based on your description, would be a nuisance and he is likely breaching several by-laws.
The body corporate is supposed to enforce by-laws. If there’s no committee to do that, then you as an individual can take action directly against the offending person. There is a set process for you to follow to do this and I suggest you contact the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management to get some assistance to do that.
Put that to one side for a minute and think about this: not everything that happens in strata, is a strata problem to solve. You could raise issues about the fire doors with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. You could raise issues about the cars with the local Council. You could also raise issues about flammable issues with the relevant authority. My point is, try to address the problem from other angles, including speaking with agencies such as the Residential Tenancies Authority or Tenants Qld.
Finally, start talking to the other residents, be they owners or occupiers. The things you describe would surely be bothering them. If you are on good terms with your landlord or real estate agent, you could also bring it up with them. While I totally appreciate that things are seemingly happening there because of the apathy involved, there are things you can do to make it different.
This post appears in the August 2022 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Chris Irons
Strata Solve
E: chris@stratasolve.com.au
P: 0419 805 898
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