Investigative Journalism and Learning Hub - Waratah Strata Management ignored case FRN16/829 BFS20/252 and Fair Trading files 9363613 and 9761719 - SP52948 persistent fire safety issues and lack of actions on 3 April 2020

Bcc-ed:
Ryde Council:            Files BSF16/666(10242) and FRN16/829 BFS20/252 (SRID 10317)
Fire NSW
Fair Trading NSW:    Files 9363613 and 9761719 as initiated in late 2017 by Hon Matthew Kean MP, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation

Apart from 70 units that required Eagle Fire Protection to organize second visit to SP52948 in March, next week the third visit is required for 11 owners:

Attachment "SP52948-third-fire-safety-visit-to-11-units-31Mar2020.webp"

Both Waratah Strata Management and maintenance staff are fully aware that many owners, including Lot 158, still have smoke detectors that either work intermittently, or expired due to age. The decision not to maintain smoke alarms from common funds after 23 years of them being part of common property (in March 2019) was made at non-compliant meeting which contained misconstrued statements for owners (part of Fair Trading NSW investigations).

Fire safety is a serious issue that has dire consequences for those who repeatedly ignore it.

Regards,

a) Repeated email sent in most recent time to Waratah Strata Management about smoke detectors on 8 March 2020 was not responded to, acted upon, or owners notified about the complex-wide risks and issues.

b) Lot 158 sent one of many reminders about smoke detectors on 1 March 2019, which Waratah Strata Management  and maintenance staff ignored.

c) As reported last week, SP52948 did not have a single legally-organized EC meetings and AGM in 2019 and 2020 (Lot 158 has full evidence), including:

Agenda for EC meeting scheduled for 21 March 2019 was created on 18 March 2019 at 19:05 hours (we even know the hour when the agenda was created).

The meeting failed to comply with:

• Interpretation Act 1987 (NSW) for postal rule which stipulates that a document is deemed served on the seventh (7th) working day after the day of postage (neither the day of postage nor the day of the meeting may be counted).
  
• Not sent to Lot 158 (and possibly some other owners).
• Strata Schemes Management Act, 2015 (NSW), the notice period for a general meeting (other than the first) is seven (7) days and ordinary EC meeting is three (3) days).  In addition, allowance must also be made for the postal rule, which is a further seven (7) day period. The day of postage cannot be included nor can the day of the meeting itself (Section 36 of the IA) – in other words, those days must be left clear and not be counted in either the postal or strata period. The seven (7) day postal rule is for seven (7) working days – working days are not public holidays, bank holidays in the state to which the agenda applies, Saturdays or Sundays.
  

Waratah Strata Management so far refused to respond, notify owners, or take corrective action.

That was the only meeting which stated that smoke detectors were owners' private problem, in complete denial of 20-years of being common property. In addition, Waratah Strata Management provided misleading, inaccurate, and plainly wrong statement that they had never used common funds to replace smoke detectors.

d) Waratah Strata Management and maintenance staff, submitted a report to Ryde Council in 2019 with direct knowledge of non-compliance with number of fire safety regulations.

e) On 17 June 2019, email was sent to Waratah Strata Management to correct misleading statement given to owners at EC meeting on 21 March 2019. Waratah Strata Management ignored it.

f) At Annual General Meeting on 17 October 2019, owners were disallowed to vote on Motion about smoke detectors, without any valid reason.

g) Ryde Council and Fire NSW gave SP52948 until January 2020 to rectify the problems, as per file BSF16/666(10242).

h) The deterioration of fire safety issues in the complex is evident more than ever before. Here is an drastic example:

• In 2017, only 18 out of 192 units in four buildings did not organize access to their property during the first fire safety inspection for the year.
• In 2019, 34 out of 192 units in four buildings did not organize access to their property during the first fire safety inspection for the year.
• In 2020, 70 out of 192 units in four buildings did not organize access to their property during the first fire safety inspection for the year.

i) At present, both smoke detectors in Lot 158 (and possibly many others) are obsolete and partially out of order. Upon our persistence, Eagle Fire Protection verification in our unit in January 2020 confirmed that one of the smoke alarms was actually manufactured in 1994 and never replaced, in spite of numerous complaints over the years.

j) Waratah Strata Management and maintenance staff refuse to provide owners with the results of the fire safety inspections for 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 and the documents could not be found in searches on the website or in strata manager's office.

Regards,

On 10/3/20 8:20 pm, SP52948 owner wrote:

Terrible concern with repeated outcomes, ignoring safety compliance requirements and common sense:

More than 36% of owners in four buildings (192 units) did not allow or properly enable fire safety inspections on 21 January 2020, in spite of advanced notices.

As of today, 70 owners (some are even current or previous EC members) must provide access during the second visit by Eagle Fire Protection.

The cost of such visit should be covered from owners directly, as stipulated in the past.

• SP52948-third-fire-safety-visit-to-11-units-31Mar2020.webp