How full should strata financial reports be?

I don’t want to embarrass the Managing Agent,

Don’t worry about embarrassing them. worry about your money. Having studied  accountancy you should be aware that incomplete, inaccurate financial records always have one issue and sometimes two.

The first issue is that the people putting the records don’t know what they’re doing. This means that fees and levies may not be properly collected or appropriately spent on the proper purpose.

The second potential issue is that fraud is occurring and being covered up by poor record keeping. If this is occurring then it needs to be exposed ASAP.

As the chief cook and bottle washer for our OC (i.e. Secretary and Treasurer and everything else) I keep very detailed records on an Excel spreadsheet and make it available to owners as requested and at meetings. With scanned copies of all invoices and receipts I can justify every cent I’ve spent and where it came from.

I can quickly show the paid insurance policy etc.

I can show who paid their fees and levies and when. I have a list of outstanding fees and what is being done to get them paid.

Even on a little OC the m0ney can quickly get out of control and large amounts accumulate. Our small block turned over >$20,000 in the last three years.

Timely and accurate accounting is essential to provide assurance to owners that their money is being appropriately accounted for and properly spent, especially when there is an emergency.

So be polite but don’t be afraid to embarrass anybody. As the old bank advertisement noted:

“It’s your money Ralph!”

I too asked for a detail Financial report from the SM was told I had to go through the SC, or it would cost $34.00 to obtain a copy. The on-site rental service who was awarded a Residential  and Maintenance Contract (RM) worth $250,000 over ten years was never approved by the OC and was a member of the SC made up of 4 and rental service being 2 of that committee, ( the Rental Service and family has purchases 10 of the units so far out of 32)

The reason for my request, the budget each year has been blindly approved by the OC does not show a separate item for the payment to RM but is included in the maintenance budget.

I have requested many times for the maintenance and the monthly payment to the RM be separated however has been outvoted each time.

Of the maintenance budget, only 18% is actually spent on maintenance and 82% paid to RM. At first sight of the budget, owners or new buyers are lead to believe all of the budget is spent on the common property whereas the bulk is paid to the RM.

Our levies are extremely high because of the subsidizing of an unnecessary RM

My question is do you believe not reporting the payment to the RM accurately and separately is a breach of the Strata ACT?

I will also add the Strata Manager condone this report and also when a request for a #184 form by a potential buyer the question on the form Does the property have a Residential Manager they answered NO.