Felicity.L31 wrote:

Common property maintenance (like pool equipment, gym facilities, and cleaning) has been neglected for months, yet there’s no communication about what’s being done.

The Owners corporation has a dutry to maintain and repair common property which can be enforced by taking a complaint to Fair Trading and NCAT (section 232).

Defect and compliance issues (including balcony tiles and drainage) are discussed behind closed doors without any consultation or proper inspection. In some cases, owners are told they may be responsible for issues that clearly pre-date their ownership.

The OC is responsible for common property, lot owners are responsible for their lots and if they bought apartments with issues, then that comes under caveat emptor – buyer beware.  However, the OC should not shift responsibility for common property issues to lot owners because of unauthorised work done by previous owners if there is no by-law in place saying as much.

Committee meetings are not being properly communicated. Owners who are not on the committee don’t seem to be invited to observe, and minutes are often delayed or vague.

Propose a motion for your next AGM outlining how you want these matter to be dealt with.

The building manager attends committee meetings regularly and appears to influence decisions, even though I thought their role was to act under the direction of the owners corporation — not as a voting or decision-making member.

The bulding manage may be offering valuable information about the building to the committee. They shouldn’t be voting unless they are also an owner in the building … and even then.

What’s most concerning is that owners who ask questions or request clarity seem to be treated differently. When I’ve raised legitimate concerns (politely and in writing), I’ve either been ignored or subtly singled out in building communications. It’s starting to feel like there’s an effort to discourage owners from speaking up.

This is, sadly, part of strata life. The only way to fix it is to change the personel on the committee or get them to acknowledge that they have been biased (unlikely).

There’s also no clear process for raising matters for the AGM agenda, and requests for updates about the next AGM have gone unanswered — even though it’s been over 12 months since the last one.

There only has to be an AGM within each financial year, which means theoretically, they could be 23 months apart. The process for raising issues is simple – you propose a motion to the next General Meeting and it has to be put on the agenda, regardless of when that meeting is held. Or you can get the signatures of 25 per cent of owners to call a general meeting to discuss the issues that you think are  urgent.

I’m aware that under the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act, there’s a requirement for transparency, timely communication, and fair treatment of all owners, but I’m unsure how to proceed when the strata manager and committee appear to be working in tandem to avoid accountability.

The Act is much more vague than that but if you have a demonstrable concern, you can take action at Fair Trading and NCAT to resolve issues.

Is it worth lodging a complaint with NSW Fair Trading, or is mediation a better first step?

Mediation IS the first step at Fair Trading.  You can’t proceed to NCAT without it.

Should the building manager even be attending committee meetings this frequently?

You can’t really complain about “secret” meetings AND about the bulding manager attending committee meetings, which, by the way, is standard practice in many buildings.

And if past building defects were there before ownership, who is responsible — the owners corporation or the current lot owner?

Common property defects are the responsibility of the OC unless there are by-laws to say otherwise. Lot property defects are the responsibility of the lot owner, regardless of how old they are.

Finally, you have ignored requests not to post the same issue in two or more different places in the forum.  This can only lead to confusion with two different threads. I have deleted the other post.