In the various battles and skirmishes of strata living, Strata Managers are often on the front line – that’s why it’s so frustrating when yours go AWOL.
QUESTION: I’ve become increasingly unimpressed with the work our strata manager is doing (or not, as the case may be). I know that some other members of our executive committee are also not confident in him. What are the procedures we need to follow in order to “fire” him and appoint another one? – VF, Stanmore
ANSWER: Maybe the first step is to let them know you’re not happy and tell them what you want and why.
Failing that, if you’re lucky your contract will have a reasonable exit clause that can be triggered by giving them notice. That said, the worst strata managers will have protected themselves with the worst kind of contracts – no performance benchmarks, no liabilities and no easy way out.
The Institute of Strata Titles Management (www.istm.org.au) has been working hard to clean cowboys out of the industry. But the worst strata managers probably won’t be ISTM members (for obvious reasons), so there may be little they can do.
You could take a bad contract to the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal and ask for it to be cancelled for being “unconscionable”. But they are just as likely to tell you whoever signed the contract should have read it – and you have to live with it – as they are to revoke it.
Unfortunately, your EC can’t just tear up the contract, hire someone new and invite the old strata manager to sue you, as they probably have all your financial records, access to your accounts and maybe even your strata seal, and would be unlikely to give them up.
But if they are unreasonable, a show of determination – including the threat of a complaint to Fair Trading, the CTTT and, if necessary, the District Court – might persuade them to cut their potential losses and let you go somewhere else.
Then go to the ISTM website, interview a couple of strata managers in your area who are the right size for your building and start again – and this time make sure the contract is fair to everyone.