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Hi Strata gurus….
What is common practice and what is actual law?
With one of the properties I own, the strata manager is not sending through invoices for review/approval for payment by the executive committee. I am concerned anything can be happening from paying for works that haven’t been completed to the strata manager earning himself some dodgy commissions!
Anyway, I am going to raise a motion for the executive committee to vote on ensuring we view and sign off payments of invoices moving forward. Could (if law) someone point me to that area of the ACT, or any suggestions on how to go about this, this strata manager is running his own agenda and not assisting us in anyway.
I am very worried that something dodgy is going on. Yes I am also pushing for a change at next AGM but until then, we need to make do with what we have.
Thank you all in advance.
OverIt
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Replies
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You’re on the right track. Your Owner’s Corporation has a Management Agreement for a specified period with the Strata Manager. Unless the Executive Committee has delegated all its powers to the Managing Agent it may limit the extent of the Managing Agent’s authority to expend money. Under Clause 7 d of our agreement “The Owners Corporation may limit the amount that the Strata Manager may incur on behalf of the Owners Corporation without obtaining the Owners Corporation approval, by notice in writing to the Strata Manager.” So refer to your Agreement, and send a written instruction with your requirement to your Strata Manager.
@DaveB said:
Unless the Executive Committee has delegated all its powers to the Managing Agent it may limit the extent of the Managing Agent’s authority to expend money … so refer to your Agreement, and send a written instruction with your requirement to your Strata Manager.DaveB is 100 percent correct – but the other side of the coin is that the Owners Corp may well have delegated all its EC powers to the strata manager. A lot of schemes do this because the people who would otherwise approve invoices are often too busy or too disorganised to get things done themselves.
And just because the SM isn’t telling you the detail of what he or she is doing, doesn’t mean they are up to no good. A simple phone call to the SM about what the process is and what their arrangement with the scheme is (in their contract) could save everyone a lot of unneccessary grief.
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