Welcome to the blog of NSW strata investigative journalism
| From: | SP52948 owner |
|---|---|
| To: | Peter Bone BCS Strata Management |
| CC: | Solicitor Adrian Mueller, Paul Banoob Pica Group |
| Subject: | RE: ACCESS TO INSPECT RECORDS REQUESTED: SP52948 correspondence by EC members and Solicitor from January 2012 to February 2013 |
| Date: | 4/2/13, 5:55 pm |
Hello Peter,
I do not agree with your statements 1) and 2).
For 3) and 4), I can live with it. In the end,
I will claim expenses for all my hours for collecting
evidence and costs incurred, as reported to you and
the CTTT several times in the last two years.
a) The SSMA 1996 Section 108(g) is very clear:
(3) Items to be made available for inspection
The owners corporation must make the following items
available for inspection by the person who makes the
request or the person’s agent:
...
(g) any other record or document in the custody or
under the control of the owners corporation
The correspondence related to affairs of the owners corporation
are definitely records that belong to this category.
As a reminder, the DFT summarizes some of the record keeping
requirements:
BEGIN QUOTE
The owners corporation must record all details of notices
given under the Strata Schemes Management Act or any other
Act. Orders under these Acts, or by a public authority,
local council or a court, must also be recorded and kept
for at least five years.
The following must be recorded for each notice:
the date and manner of service
the part of the strata scheme it is about
the date for obeying the order
the date the order was obeyed.
The owners corporation must keep the following information
for at least five years:
details of motions passed
copies of all correspondence received and sent
notices of owners corporation and executive committee meetings.
Proxies given to the owners corporation must be kept for
at least 5 years after the proxy expires.
END QUOTE
b) The Adjudicator can make these orders as per the SSMA 1996
Section 156:
BEGIN QUOTE
156 Order to supply information or documents
(1) An Adjudicator may order an owners corporation, strata
managing
agent or office holder of an executive committee to supply to
the
applicant for the order information that the Adjudicator
considers
that the owners corporation, strata managing agent or office
holder
has wrongfully withheld from the applicant and to which the
applicant is entitled under this Act.
(2) An Adjudicator may order an owners corporation, strata managing
agent or office holder of an executive committee to supply or make
available to the applicant for the order a record or document if:
(a) the Adjudicator considers that the owners
corporation, strata managing agent or office holder has
wrongfully failed to make the record or document
available for inspection by the applicant or the
applicant’s agent, and
(b) the applicant is entitled under this Act to inspect
the record or document.
END QUOTE
c) As Strata Manager has an agency agreement with the owners
corporation, they do have a Duty of Care to the OC under the Trade
Practices Act 1974 (Commonwealth) in relation to the supply of
services and in some jurisdictions under Fair Trading Acts
(in NSW Property Stock and Business Agents Act).
d) I can also rely on the following SSMA 1996 Section 133 (c) and
(d) through the Director-General to have a dispute concerning a
strata scheme mediated:
BEGIN QUOTE
A mediator may disclose information obtained in connection with
the
administration or execution of this Part only in one or more of the
following circumstances:
...
(c) if there are reasonable grounds to believe that
the
disclosure is necessary to prevent or minimise the
danger of
injury to any person or damage to any property,
(d) if the disclosure is reasonably required for the purpose
of referring any party or parties to a mediation session to
any person, agency, organisation or other body and the
disclosure is made with the consent of the parties to the
mediation session for the purpose of aiding in the resolution
of a dispute between those parties or assisting the parties
in any other manner
END QUOTE
As you are aware, or should be aware, over the last two years these
events made my DFT and CTTT cases even more serious:
* Anonymous threat delivered in my letterbox (police case
reported to your office two years ago with a plea to
provide truthful information to owners, which was
completely ignored). You have correspondence
in regards to this issue.
* My wife was attacked by a deranged member
of the EC - Ms Sandy Quins. The witness was another
member of the EC - Ms Maureen McDonald, the
caretaker at the time, and one owner.
Both EC members did not do anything to defuse the
situation. It took police around two hours to calm
this woman down on the phone. That was another
police case.
* Screened phone-number death threat delivered on my
phone two years ago.
* Other attempts of abuse, vilification, intimidation,
and bullying for simply highlighting the errors and
management issues. For example: I am very fond of
the comment that I came from a "Communist country
which did not know what democracy was", which was
submitted by a long-standing member of the EC two
years ago. CTTT has it in evidence.
When I call somebody a liar or corrupt, I provide
EVIDENCE and stand by it. So far, I could not find
anyone to counter my claims. Sure, my evidence
in the past was not formatted in the way that
some like, but that was just a matter of time before
I learned how to do it.
e) In your Agency Agreement Number 2671:
BEGIN QUOTE
7.2 The Strata Manager may only disclose information that
is confidential to the OC if:
(a) it is necessary according to the law
(b) it is authorised by the law
END QUOTE
f) Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails are
not sufficient. You should be aware that, even if you state that
you do not wish certain information to be published, there may be
circumstances in which the Government is required by law to release
that information (for example, in accordance with the requirements
of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009. Once we
get to the CTTT case (I am confident that you will not attend
the DFT case at the end of this month), I can ensure that
access to this information is made public to all owners in the
complex.
g) Upon my return, your office can provide access to the
documents requested, or I can force it through even more
serious means available to me:
Subpoena for production and to give evidence
Regards,
On Mon, 2013-02-04 at 14:50 +1100, Peter Bone wrote:
> Good afternoon
>
> 1) Correspondence from J S Mueller & Co to Raine & Horne Strata is privileged. You are not entitled to inspect same.
>
> 2) Correspondence from executive committee members to Raine & Horne Strata that was prepared for the purpose of the Owners Corporation receiving legal advice or legal services concerning the CTTT proceedings is also privileged.
>
> 3) Raine & Horne Strata is not required to sift through and produce only specified records for you to undertake a book inspection. Raine & Horne Strata is only required to produce for your inspection the records mentioned in section 108 (except privileged documents).
>
> 4) must pay the prescribed fee before he is entitled to inspect any records of the owners corporation.
>
> Please contact our receptionist at strata@bcms.com.au to arrange a date / time for your inspection.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Peter Bone
> Raine & Horne Strata-Sydney
> Level 2, 51 Rawson Street Epping NSW 2121
> F: (02) 8216 0331
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: SP52948 owner
> Sent: Sunday, 3 February 2013 8:03 AM
> To: Peter Bone
> Subject: ACCESS TO INSPECT RECORDS REQUESTED: SP52948 correspondence by EC members and Solicitor from January 2012 to February 2013
>
> In accordance with:
>
> NSW Strata Schemes Management Act 1996
> QUOTE
> Division 4 - Inspection of records and issue of certificates
> 108 Inspection of records of owners corporation
> (1) Who may inspect records? An owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee
> of a lot, or a person authorised by the owner, mortgagee or covenant
> chargee, may request the owners corporation to allow an inspection to
> be carried out under this section.
>
> I request access to inspect and copy the following records:
>
> a) All email and written correspondence by members of the
Executive Committee sent to or received from the Strata Managers
at Raine & Horne Epping in period from 1 January 2012 to
20 February 2013.
>
> b) All email and written correspondence by Solicitors Mueller
sent to or received from the Strata Managers
at Raine & Horne Epping in period from 1 January 2012 to
20 February 2013.
>
> I specifically do not need access to any other documents at
this stage, so only those that I requested should be
made available on the agreed date.
>
> c) In accordance with the law:
>
> (5) Time and place of inspection if agreement not reached
> If an applicant and the owners corporation fail to reach an
agreement within 3 days after the owners corporation receives
the application, the owners corporation must immediately send
by post to the applicant a notice fixing a specified time
(between 9 am and 8 pm) on a specified date (not later than
10 days after the owners corporation receives the application).
>
> ... I request the inspection of files be organized for any
weekday in the following week:
>
> 25 February 2013 and 1 March 2013 inclusive
>
> Due to the nature and reasons to request this access to files,
I strongly suggest and recommend that no evidence be destroyed,
altered, or removed in the meantime.
>
> I am very satisfied with the progress of various cases I have
raised so far, and more is to come. That is what is required
to sort out issues in the complex and that is what has to be
done.