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Topic
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Our duplex neighbour has been handling the finances up until he resigned from his honorary position effective July 1 due to a dispute with us over the relocation of a garage door. He did not approve of us taking over his duties so we are having to engage a strata manager who has been selected but not yet officially engaged.
While making the books ready for hand-over, he has advised us that he has paid himself over $600 for “management expenses” over the last 13 years. We have asked several times for details but none have been made available to us.
Is this legal? If not, do we deal with it directly or let the new strata manager sort it out?
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Expenses really should come with receipts and a prior agreement to pay them. An unofficial treasurer paying himself expenses can’t be done without some sort of agreement from the Owners Corp.
An owners corp can agree at an AGM to pay ex gratia payments to EC members retrospectively for work done the previous year. That’s it.
To answer your question, is it legal – the answer is probably not. You could let the new guys sort it out but this will be outside the scope of their normal duties and I wonder how much they’re going to charge.
Is $600 expenses for 13 years of voluntary work really that much? Some accountants charge $50 an hour, rather than a year.
Frankly, bearing in mind that your relationship with your one and only neighbour is in serious strife, I’d be tempted to say that you are prepared to let this go as a gesture of conciliation – it’s a small price to pay to begin repairing your relationships.If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Hi,
13 years as the OC treasurer with only $600 of out of pocket expensers I would say give the guy a trophy, truly get things into perspective. You need to live with this person and I would suggest that you leave it well alone. Appointing a SM will hopefully allow both of you to be at least run your little scheme in a harmonious way to the betterment of you both.
@JimmyT said:
Expenses really should come with receipts and a prior agreement to pay them. An unofficial treasurer paying himself expenses can’t be done without some sort of agreement from the Owners Corp.
An owners corp can agree at an AGM to pay ex gratia payments to EC members retrospectively for work done the previous year. That’s it.
To answer your question, is it legal – the answer is probably not. You could let the new guys sort it out but this will be outside the scope of their normal duties and I wonder how much they’re going to charge.
Is $600 expenses for 13 years of voluntary work really that much? Some accountants charge $50 an hour, rather than a year.
Frankly, bearing in mind that your relationship with your one and only neighbour is in serious strife, I’d be tempted to say that you are prepared to let this go as a gesture of conciliation – it’s a small price to pay to begin repairing your relationships.I agree with Jimmy, the correct way that this should be handled is for the EC member to keep all his receipts and advise of the amounts that he has reimbursed himself at each AGM. Any large amounts should be run past the EC and a note made. If the EC agree to pay a nominal amount each year then make sure it’s in the minutes. That way – you wont get this sort of of trivial complaint over $600.00 in 13 years !!
$50 per hour for an accountant? my mechanic charges $110.00 and most professional accountants would charge $200 per hour. Pay peanuts etc etc