FAQs

Annual General Meetings must be held each year with no more than 15 months passing between meetings (see section 127 of the Act). Ideally the Strata Company will attempt to hold their meeting at approximately the same time each year.

The levies are required for the maintenance and upkeep of the scheme. This maintenance may include but is not limited to:

• Gardening & Cleaning
• Utilities
• General Repairs
• Insurance Premiums

This depends on the specifics of your strata plan and by-laws so there is no simple answer. The Act imposes a number of obligations on the strata company, particularly in relation to common areas. These obligations are primarily carried out by the strata council, assisted in many cases by a strata manager. The Act also imposes obligations on lot owners. If you are unclear who has responsibility for a matter, you may need to raise the matter at a strata company meeting or discuss the matter with your Strata Manager.

The Act recognises that in some schemes, it may be impractical for all owners to participate in the day-to-day management of the scheme and therefore provides for the strata company to be operated by a Council of Owners to manage the scheme’s day to day affairs.

A strata manager is a person who is authorised by a strata company to perform a specified scheme function. A scheme function means a function of the strata company, the strata council, or an officer of the strata company.

These functions may include:

• Financial management
• Arranging repairs to the common property
• Arranging the annual general meeting

Generally, the strata manager cannot make decisions on behalf of the strata company and cannot do anything that requires a resolution of the strata company.

The insurable assets of a strata titles scheme include:

• the common property of the scheme (including the fixtures and improvements on common property)
• the parts of scheme buildings that comprise lots in the scheme (including the paint and wallpaper)
• carpet and floor coverings on common property that are permanent
• for a strata scheme, buildings on the parcel (including those buildings not shown on the scheme plan).

But does not include:

• fixtures or improvements on the common property that are not themselves common property
• carpet and temporary wall, floor and ceiling coverings in a scheme building
• fixtures removable by a lessee at the expiration of a tenancy
• temporary wall, floor, and ceiling coverings on common property.

Owners may make certain alterations within the lot at their discretion where it does not affect common property.

We do however note that there are a few exceptions which can be applied depending on the work involved, as such all renovation proposals should be referred to your strata manager first who can advise whether any approval is required.

At SVN Strata we offer an after-hours service. In case of emergencies, tradespeople are available to attend to urgent repairs that require prompt action and cannot be delayed.

The after-hours emergency service is managed by an experienced team of professionals. This team can determine urgent and non-urgent jobs, ensuring that the strata scheme does not have to pay after hour rates for jobs which can be referred during operating hours.

For strata emergencies, please call our office on 08 9427 7955 and follow the prompts.

Dial 000 – For police, fire or ambulance in a life or property threatening time critical emergency situations.

This is a Text Emergency Call, NOT SMS.

If you have a hearing or speech impairment and your life or property is in danger, you can contact police, fire, or ambulance on 106 directly through a TTY (also known as a teletypewriter or textphone).

You can request a new key, swipe tag or remote HERE and by completing and returning the form to our office.

Please be aware that there may be special by-laws or conditions that may be applicable to your Strata. If there are any additional by-laws or conditions that apply, your Strata Manager will advise your accordingly.

The Strata Titles Act advise that as per Schedule 2 By-law 9:

An owner or occupier of a lot must not transport any furniture or large object through or on common property within the building unless that person has first given to the council sufficient notice of their intention to do so to enable the council to arrange for its nominee to be present at the time when that person does so.

Please note that you should contact your strata manager in the first instance to check if any other rules may apply as each property is different from the next.

SVN Strata will provide the Council of Owners with regular reports and all owners will receive a copy of the full year’s annual reports as a part of the Annual General Meeting documentation.