Have just purchased my first townhouse and am due to settle on the 21st October. The upstairs (bedrooms) have no air conditioning and I wanted to get AC installed. I'm also very keen on getting solar installed because of how few years it would take to pay off the investment.
Unfortunately both of these improvements cost over $3000 each and include work on common property, so are subject to body corp rules. This means that they would need to be put before the entire owners group as a motion at a general meeting as opposed to getting approved by the committee.
I wanted to get a multi-split AC so that there's a single inverter with 3 separate heads (potentially less issues getting approval because it would be 1 external inverter, instead of 3). There's already one inverter on the East side of the house for the downstairs AC, so some precedent exists there. Solar might be more of an issue because the roof is relatively small with East-West facing so would need to have panels on both sides with the East side facing other houses/the culdesac.
The way I see it, there's 3 possible options here and just wanted to get some feedback on what the best way to go about this would be.
1) Pay the $600 fee to call a general meeting to hopefully get all the works approved at once. This couldn't happen until at least a month after we move in, and would be dead in the middle of summer - so not likely to get AC or Solar installed at that stage until the end of summer.
2) Get a single split system installed in the main bed with the aim of installing 2 more in the spare rooms in the coming months. These improvements could be approved by committee, but would require 3 separate inverters - with each approval adding more detractors to the appearance of common property (potentially decreasing chance of approval every time). That being said, only one (main bed) would be on the externally-visible side of the building, with the extra 2 being on the private yard side. Would also put a standard motion in for solar installation and enquire around the owners to see if anyone wanted to split the cost of calling an extraordinary general meeting.
3) Struggle through summer with an old portable/window unit that I currently have and just put the motions in for the next AGM (wouldn't be until end of October 2020).
I'm leaning towards option 1 or option 2 because I stand to save around $1200 a year just by getting solar installed ASAP, which kind of offsets the cost of calling an extraordinary general meeting.
Just wanted to get some feedback on how likely it would be that owners would approve these improvements based on people's past experiences, and which direction I should head. I'm a bit fearful of solar approval because there aren't that many townhouses in the complex which do have solar (looks to be 4 out of around 80). If it helps, the Strata management group is QBS Management, who were acquired by PICA Group back in April of this year.
TIA for any tips!
Another option: Email strata manager and ask them to conduct an email ballot to see if you have majority of owners in favour. If so, then you can pay to hold a meeting to get formal approval.
If others don't have solar or AC, may be worth also raising with other owners where each lot is to put solar panels on the roof and/or AC units should other owners want to do the same as you. Also consider addressing any costs should common roof tiles be damaged if you are allowed to put solar on - just shows other owners that you are trying to be thoughtful and proactively addressing any fears they may have.