A couple of interesting posts in the Forum this week, one of which raises one of those “how long is a piece of string” questions.
Flatchatter Blueman wants to know how strata records are filed and stored and how much detail must be kept or can be removed.
The simple answer is that records must be kept for at least seven years and longer if they are likely to be used as evidence in a legal dispute.
The strata roll, with its list of owners and tenants, but be kept for the life of the scheme while strata committee agendas and minutes must be retained for only five years, for some reason, but are often kept for a lot longer just so that there’s a record of how the strata scheme has evolved.
This makes sense. We get a remarkable number of questions about changes to common property that were made with “permission” of a previous committee or strata manager but for which there is no documentation.
And then there’s the fact that the legislation does not say how much detail there needs to be in the documents – just that it should be an accurate record. Some secretaries will record only that there was a motion on the agenda and whether it passed or failed.
Others provide a level of detail that would put Hansard to shame, though remarkably few record how many owners, let alone who, voted for and against,
My own tussles with the minutes of a scheme included presenting a motion to the AGM asking the owners to instruct the secretary only to identify residents by their lot number in recording details of a dispute.
I couched it in terms of protecting people’s privacy but in fact it was to put a curb on our chair’s habit of “naming and shaming” anyone she had an issue with, including yours truly whenever I had an idea that she didn’t like.
At the meeting, she gave a rousing speech about everybody in the block having a legal right to know exactly who was doing what. Then she and her personally appointed toadies on the committee used their block vote and harvested proxies to kill the motion.
Ironically, the chair said it was a matter of the highest principles that people be named in the minutes. The very next month she chose not to name a friend who was in financial difficulties. So much for the “accurate record” that the legislation demands. You can record your thoughts HERE.
The other big news this week is that Tasmania now has a branch of the Owners Corporation Network (OCN). Given the stories that filter out of the only state where the strata committee can create by-laws, it’s not a moment too soon. Taswegians can get in touch HERE.
How to ask and answer questions
Anyone can read our posts at any time, and now you can also ask questions anonymously on this link, but you must be registered to answer questions, and you can do that using the green “register and sign in …” box on this page.
The easiest way is to post new topics is to click on the yellow “Click Here For The Forum” box, find the category you think applies to your issue, click on that then click on “Start new topic”.
If you want to reply to a recent post, they are listed on the right on a computer screen or after the ads on a phone. Click on the links and the reply box appears at the end.
Whichever route you take to get there, the best way to keep up to speed with what’s happening is to register (if you haven’t already done so), then login and subscribe for free to the topics that interest you most.
That way you’ll get an alert whenever the discussion moves forward, and you can also chip in with your own comments and questions. See you in the Forum soon.