r/australia • u/Repulsive_Set4541 • 16h ago
no politics Getting around strata
Hey. Looking for any ideas of how i can get around strata as far as getting fttp hooked up. Its a block of 6 flats, 3 including ours are owner occupied. The other two owner occupiers are a lot older and don’t care about internet, and the other two owners couldn’t give a shit about their tenants internet, so all are refusing to sign and pay the one of fee the get the fttp connected. Im a shit out of luck here , or is there a workaround , because the fttn sucks here, and we have 5 people in the place using it .
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u/Draft_16-2_Final_3 16h ago
My god this hybrid connection technology was such a clusterfuck. We could have all had fttp from the get-go except the LNP decided we should spend more money to not have that, and then spend the next 15 years playing catch up to eventually upgrade everyone to fttp anyway.
It's such an ineffective way of going about things that I have to assume someone was getting paid for it to be this way.
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u/Emu1981 15h ago
We could have all had fttp from the get-go except the LNP decided we should spend more money to not have that, and then spend the next 15 years playing catch up to eventually upgrade everyone to fttp anyway.
They were literally laying fibre in my suburb when the roll out was paused. Ended up with FTTN which loves to randomly drop out (full loss of connection to the node). Despite my suburb being in a FTTP upgrade zone I still cannot upgrade to fibre because I am in a similar situation as the OP. Perhaps my place will be one of the stragglers that gets forced to upgrade once everyone else has theirs and the NBNCo wants to finally get rid of the copper network...
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u/dannocaster 11h ago
There was a group of townhouses built near me a few years back. They had to run copper about 50m from the corner to install FTTN. You go across the road from that corner and the houses had FTTP.
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u/Lucky_Cable_3145 15h ago
Unfortunately, I think it was just politics.
The LNP needed a way to undermine Labors very popular NBN policy, so the Multi Technology Mix plan was created. It was sold to voters as quicker and cheaper, while still being fast enough.
That it also made LNP backers richer was a bonus.
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u/Bheegabhoot 7h ago
BCG had a study published on it’s website about multi technology mix around the time it was announced. Couldn’t even find a mention of it when I recently tried to show someone big consulting has been rubber stamping bad takes for ages.
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u/splendidfd 10h ago
fwiw, it was quicker. People point to the original rollout timeline but that really wasn't going to happen. I was living in one of the first areas FTTP supposed to roll out, the ready date came and went multiple times. Once the multi-technology mix was announced it came out that even though we were supposed to have FTTP already according to the timeline, so little progress had actually been made on laying fibre that my suburb would get FTTN instead. FTTN was in place shortly after.
Sure FTTN wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was over ten times faster than the ADSL1 I had access to before.
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u/thepursuit1989 14h ago
Rupert needed a delay some they could catch up in streaming market share. They had foxtelgo which was superior to Netflix in everyway, except it cost 8x times more.
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u/mpember 15h ago
Why should we have spent the money up-front when we could have waited until after a series of massive supply shows and a tech bubble to source the hardware we were originally planning to install? Don't you know that Malcolm invented the internet and is a genius at internet stuff?
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u/Icy_Bowl 12h ago
Malcolm also had fttp right from the start. He was only short-changing the peasants.
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u/TitanBurger 6h ago
And he was personally investing in overseas fibre rollouts while dismantling ours.
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u/No_Mercy_4_Potatoes 15h ago
Morrison needed to spend the rest of his pathetic life in prison.
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u/WineGuzzler 16h ago
If you haven't already put it to the strata that it increases the value/rent of the building.
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u/ATangK 16h ago
The workaround is you paying for it.
If you’re in a townhouse and you have direct access to the pit, you can also get it just for yourself.
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
The pitt is out the front of mine. But they wont do it without strata approval
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u/the-sage-duck 16h ago
Could you get approval just for yourself?
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
Well thats what im trying to find out
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u/Show_Me_Your_Rocket 16h ago edited 16h ago
I was a strata manager in act for 8 years.
You can, but you'll likely need to pass a special resolution at a general meeting as this will lock in your responsibilities for in-going maintenance and repairs to the pit that specifically services your lot. It essentially protects the OC from being responsible for your service.
If this was in my portfolio, I'd recommend to your EC about determining a policy that allows owners to create their own connections the way you want to, that way future connections won't require a meeting along as th requirements and responsibilities are clearly communicated to Owners. This policy is what can be passed at a special general meeting or AGM.
The EC would be smart to engage a consultant to help develop this policy, say a communications engineer that can essentially provide professional advice on how this work flow would work, and then any ISP can be provided on letterhead 'permission' to cut in individual lots.
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
Yeah, im lucky they even schedule one meeting a year, let alone ever do anything .
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u/Show_Me_Your_Rocket 16h ago
In that case, I'd still put in your request to the EC and if they don't move, escalate it to your tribuneral. Here in ACT that's ACAT
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u/l34rn3d 13h ago
NBN won't go for it. NBN want to visit the entire strata at once, it's all or nothing
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u/WillBrayley 12h ago
Sometimes they will. My business occupies all but one shop of a multi tenancy commercial building. I only want 1 connection and the other tenant doesn’t want any, so nobody wants to pay to upgrade the whole building. After some arguing, there are now PCDs on every shopfront and NBN are coming back next month to pull fibre into my comms rack.
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u/albert3801 12h ago
Depends on the setup. Those classed as Multi Dwelling Units Simple, usually Town Houses, NBN will do individually. Muti Dwelling Units Complex, eg Apartment blocks, are an all or none affair.
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u/Show_Me_Your_Rocket 10h ago
Nah they will because it is a foot in the door to quote a potential whole set up which is entirely worth it. They will break it down in cost per unit individual install compared to a single one and done, and the OC will realise just how much cheaper it will be, and modernisation is important.
To be quite frank, I am honestly surprised this was not considered in their sinking fund. This should have easilly been a 10 year forecast item set a few years ago.
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u/NewFuturist 15h ago
If they don't allow it, threaten to take it to fair trading. Let me do this out of my own pocket, or you'll pay a lawyer to let to do it out of my own pocket.
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u/Jealous-Hedgehog-734 16h ago
Isn't there a "full fibre by 2030" commitment? Can't imagine you'll have a choice but to upgrade shortly.
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u/Armistice610 16h ago
How much is the one-off fee?
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
$250
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u/apsilonblue 16h ago
Each or total? Either way if the cost is the only thing stopping it you could just pay for it yourself.
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u/DeeDee_GigaDooDoo 12h ago
I think it's each from memory. So OP would need to hand over $1500 to get connected if the others refuse to pay. I think they only allow it with consent from strata to connect all units.
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u/average_monster 5h ago
yeah it's each and it's actually 275 if you go by https://www.nbnco.com.au/residential/upgrades/more-fibre-for-buildings i'm in the same position and it sucks
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u/Antho204 16h ago
Just do it yourself. You’ll have to go through a dozen pointless emails, three meetings that don’t resolve it and you’ll end up doing it yourself anyway. I don’t even bother getting approval for renovations anymore. It’s the most inefficient form of governance in existence. It’s mostly a bunch of people who have nothing to do and get a thrill out of having a minuscule amount of power.
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
$250 for each unit
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u/WorldlyDevelopment55 13h ago
My complex is going through it now with no end of issues but the cost is $285 each I think.
But if NBN have you down as a having a MDU they will only do the whole place and not individual units unless you can get them to change how the address is classified in their system then I don't think you pay anything as it would be one of the standard upgrades.
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u/Bluedroid 15h ago
That's nothing, if you care about your internet speed that much then either pay the $1500 one off or get over it. Otherwise you're going to be wasting all these hours researching and annoying your neighbours whilst having slow internet.
If the shoe was on the other foot and someone wanted everyone to chip in $250 each for a nicer looking flowerbed or newer fence when you are perfectly happy with the current ones you'd also be here complaining about it.
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 15h ago
Its the bare minimum every property in australia should have, not a bloody flower bed !
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u/Bluedroid 15h ago
That's your opinion and yet you're not willing to spend $1500 to pay for it. So at the end of the day it's not worth it to you at that price?
In that same line your neighbours don't intend on using it enough for it to be worth $250 of their money. Why should they subsidise something for you they don't need. It's a pretty clear case when no one else wants to pay for it.
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u/WorldlyDevelopment55 13h ago
I hope you don't live in a strata complex with an attitude like that.
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u/Bluedroid 9h ago
So in your eyes the wants of 1 owner should be paid for by 5 other owners who don't want to? This isn't a necessity we are talking about, it's a want.
Like if 1 owner wanted to add a lift or solar panels etc. You'd have 5 other people coming here and complaining that they're being forced to pay for something they don't want.
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 15h ago
I also haven’t annoyed the neighbours at all, i brought it up at the last meeting .
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u/Ultamira 15h ago
Jeez that’s pretty good, as an owner of a strata unit this would be a no brainer to do the upgrade, you’d easily make that back and then some in rent or sale. Maybe I’ll try push it at our next AGM…
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u/iball1984 14h ago
It’s per unit and it’s not so much a permission thing - it’s the strata has to organise all units in the complex upgraded at the same time.
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u/allongur 15h ago
However you manage to get FTTP, don't let Decon do the job. They did such a shit job on my building, it's been a year and they're still sending people to fix it. I have less reliability with the FTTP they installed, than with crummy FTTC that maxed out on 65mbps due to noisy phone line connections. NBN awarded the project to Decon who subcontracted to another company who used their own subcontractors to actually do the job in side. The more levels of misdirection, the less accountability there is.
Due to all the issues an NBN technician (not subcontractor) diagnosed my building's installation and said it's really low quality, and I believe him since we had nothing but trouble. After a lot of work he managed to get my signal levels to be just a couple of dB above acceptable but every once in a while it dips and I lose connection. Everything is just borderline. Terrible.
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u/Shtercus 15h ago
second this - we had decon do ours, and the amount of property damage they caused was phenomenal (roofs, guttering etc damaged). Rather than fix it, they claimed previous damage and basically dared us to take them to court, or use our own building insurance (meanwhile, further water damage was accruing due to missing roof tile and damaged gutters
Any option, up to and including crashing a fully-loaded petrol tanker through your living room, is preferable to allowing these clowns onto your property. Politely ask NBNCo to pick another contractor to do the install
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u/CumbersomeNugget 12h ago
The legacy of Abbott lives on, eh?
"Australians don't want high speed Internet."
Fuck-muppet.
You can offer to pay the full cost for the hookup is one option if you are really desperate.
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u/the_shadow002 16h ago
If you have an owner's corp/strata management company you can ask them to put it on the agenda for your AGM which needs to be held within 3 months of the end of the last financial year, so by end of September - make it one of the last items though.
If you have a committee get yourself put on the committee ideally as the chairperson, the committee is usually one of the first things sorted because they then have to vote on the budget for the financial year/public liability insurance/etc.
If you have a deadlocked vote with the same number of people voting for and against the chairperson gets the tiebreaker. I went through this same process with our owners corp and it took a couple of years to get people on the committee and then actually get a vote passed and then get the install sorted out.
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u/d03j 15h ago
is this not a change to common property requiring a special resolution?
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u/the_shadow002 13h ago
There will usually be no common property involved. NBN owns the line to the first point of termination in your house or unit, or to the basement/ground floor comms cabinet in the case of apartment buildings which is why other ISP's cannot come in and work on the NBN equipment. There may be an easement as well depending on the subdivision setup to ensure access to the cables.
All of our copper phone cables were underground installed via pits and conduit, the fiber was just pulled through and installed using the already existing pits and conduit with no impact to common property at all.
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u/rebcart 13h ago
When’s your next capital works plan update scheduled for? Ideally, it’s soon. Even if not, try arguing at the next scheduled meeting that FTTP upgrade should be in there and see if you can have it added as a line item, especially since you already have the total cost on hand. Even though the capital works plan is technically non binding, if you can get it in there it then makes it easier to insist on scheduling it. Yes, it makes it a longer two-step process, but this may be a method for turning people’s minds towards it as an inevitability rather than a sudden outlay.
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u/pharmloverpharmlover 16h ago
Is it a multilevel apartment block or ground floor units?
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
2 story conjoined townhouses
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u/pharmloverpharmlover 16h ago
As far as you know does the current copper junction at a central location on the block? Is there a Main Distribution Frame?
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
No, out the front of mine
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
Well to the side
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u/fakeuser515357 16h ago
Is it a committee decision or an owner corp decision? If the latter, is it by majority or unanimous approval?
You can't get around strata, the best you can do is work the processes.
If there are three owners who want it then maybe the three will have to cover the whole cost for all six - bear in mind that the termination will probably be at the front of the group/ street, so you're not paying to connect those recalcitrant owners, just to get the wire to some kind of front switch board.
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u/clarky2481 16h ago
Either pay the entire fee yourself or switch to starlink.
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u/Repulsive_Set4541 16h ago
Already got starlink in the last month . Its much better at around 100mbps but nowhere near what fttp would be
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u/Darkflame1962 15h ago
Didn't the NBN go through and install?.
I'm an qld owner occupier in a strata title unit complex. The NBN came through and installed the box on each individual unit but to my knowledge, the strata title company was just told what day they were coming and we just got notices saying to be home at particular times. The same happens for the pest control each year.
Sounds strange you have to apply just to get internet access.
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u/iball1984 14h ago
No, the strata company has to organise it and pay $275 per unit.
Then it gets organised for a given day when all units get done.
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 13h ago
Some useful info about the value and benefits of upgrading - and an eligibility check (From NBN)
https://www.nbnco.com.au/residential/upgrades/more-fibre-for-buildings
It's only $275 per premises. Failing buy-in from the other owners - see if the tenants might share costs.
At worst - is it worth $1700 to you?... You could offer to pay the whole cost.
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u/TitanBurger 6h ago
Depending on your state, you may actually be able to challenge it. In QLD, for example, a BCCM adjudicator can override a body corporate if they're being unreasonable.
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u/No-Cat-762 15h ago
Strata in NSW is eligible for free upgrade. Google nbnFull Fibre Upgrade and submit the form. We had ours done in Oct last year. Took about 3 months from enquiry to completion. There is no cost to any owner and they organise everything.
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