One of the perennial problems discussed in the Flat Chat Forum is the issue of rusted-on  office-bearers who aren’t performing all that well but won’t let anyone else’s hands anywhere near the levers of power.

They start off wanting to help their communities but end up genuinely believing that the place would fall apart if they were to relinquish one iota of influence over fellow owners.

One suggestion that comes up fairly often is that the law should limit the term of strata committee office-bearers to two or three years.  The problem with that, say strata professionals, is that you dilute an already small pool of capable, experienced and committed volunteers even further.

The recent changes to the number of proxies one owner can hold will help apply some democratic WD40 to the cogs of struggling strata committees but, sooner or later, someone has to risk being scapegoated by standing up and saying “it’s time for a change.”

This whole discussion was kicked off again this week when a Flatchatter wrote about her chair who not only gets elected every year, but is given a quarter’s free levies to pay for their services.  You can follow that thread HERE.

Part of the battle in removing rusted-on committee members is persuading other owners to support you.  But how do you even get in touch if they don’t live in the building?  That’s HERE.

Are solar panels the answer to energy bill shock?  Or is it a lot simpler than that? How we saved a Flatchatter $500. That’s HERE.

The balcony balustrades in an old building don’t comply with the new safety codes – so can the committee prevent owners upgrading them because ti changes the look of the building?  That’s HERE.

Pensioner owners can’t pay catch-up levies in a run-down block.  What can you do?  That’s HERE.

By the time you read this, there will be a lot more questions and answers, so if you haven’t done so already,  please subscribe to make sure you don’t miss a trick.