Australia, Sept. 6 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on Aug. 5:

1. This appeal concerns disputes between an owners corporation constituted by the appellant (the OC) and a number of respondents.

2. The appeal is brought in respect of a decision and orders made on 8 January 2025. In addition to the 8 January 2025 orders and reasons for decision, there are two earlier Tribunal proceedings and decisions between the OC and those respondents in these proceedings who are lot owners. The earlier two proceedings were determined by Senior Member Burton SC on 14 May 2021, 8 September 2021 and 10 November 2021) and Senior Member Archibold om April 2023. In these reasons the Tribunal's decision dated 8 January 2025 which is the subject of this appeal will be referred to as the Tribunal's decision at first instance and the earlier decisions by reference to the Senior Member who made the decision and orders.

The respondent parties

3. The principal dispute in the appeal concerned the OC and the owners of lots 4, 5 and 6. The issues in dispute concerned whether the lot owners owed approximately $180,000.00 in unpaid strata levies. The registered proprietors of lot 4 are Anthony Nugent and Frances Nugent. The registered proprietor of lots 5 and 6 is Yangura Pty Ltd as trustee of the David Nugent Family Trust. These lots owners are all respondents to the appeal and it is convenient to refer to them as the Nugent parties.

4. The second dispute in the appeal is between the OC and Burredah Pty Ltd. Burredah Pty Ltd (Burredah) was the strata manager of the OC for the period 14 May 2021 to 14 May 2023 pursuant to an order under s 237 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) (SSMA). The nature of the complaints against Burredah, in broad terms, concern the discharge of its duties as the strata manager.

5. The Tribunal's decision records that Burredah was deregistered on 24 May 2024. There is no material before the Appeal Panel that would suggest that this is incorrect. Burredah was also not named as a respondent in the Notice of Appeal, likely because it was deregistered. In those circumstances, the Appellant cannot obtain any relief against Burredah.

6. The last dispute is between the OC and Deborah Harry. Ms Harry was a director and employee of Burredah when it was the strata manager of the OC.

7. During the appeal hearing, the Appeal Panel was advised by the OC's representative that Ms Harry had not been served with the Notice of Appeal. Unsurprisingly, Ms Harry did not appear at the appeal. The Appeal Panel cannot make orders which affect Ms Harry's interests in circumstances where Ms Harry was not served with the Notice of Appeal and did not appear at the hearing. To do so would deny Ms Harry procedural fairness.

8. In any event, we note the OC's submissions during the appeal hearing did not pursue relief against Ms Harry.

The other lot owners

9. The rest of the lots in the strata scheme, namely, lots 1, 2, 3 and 7-12, are owned by members of the Barrett family or companies associated with them.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1987230422df8393b98cd02d)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.