Hi all,
I have been browsing through flat chat and thought that there could be some people here that could offer me help/suggestions with the ongoing owner’s corporation issues I am having.
I currently live in an apartment that is part of 3 apartments in total. All 3 lots have equal lot liability. Since 2010, we have employed a new owner’s corporation manager and there have been on going issues ever since. The issues mainly relate to the funds held within the owner’s corporation. Namely, the manager claims that we are always in deficit of $7,000 – $8,000 and raises levies to cover this deficit – This is done without an AGM meeting. We have a budget which covers all the expenses and there is nothing extraordinary that falls outside of this budget.
One of the other lot owners seems to have complete control over the manager’s decisions. For example, if he doesn’t want an AGM, then the AGM gets pushed back 3 months to a date of his choice. I am constantly querying various things as nothing seems right but I rarely receive a response, when I do, it is with complex figures and explanations I cannot make sense of. The other lot owner, is a very elderly person who just “doesn’t get involved in anything”. I strongly suspect that the other 2 lot owners are not paying any fees or levies. I suspect this because, the elderly person has previously told me on a number of occasions that “I have not received any bills, I haven’t paid anything.” I request proof from the manager that the fees have been paid, she just shows me a ledger which she herself has generated (who’s to say that this is actually accurate?)
I’ve been to VCAT a few times and just seem to get the general run around and get nowhere. Constant adjournments for over a year and also one of the presiding members happened to be friends with one of the lot owners! Finally, their friend was removed from presiding over the case and another member came in. The member made orders for the manager to provide records for me, the manager accordingly, put records onto a disc and gave them to me, I took the disc to an accountant – The accountant himself even had trouble examining the records – There were numerous transactions and entries he discovered that appeared to be reversed transactions back to the other lot owners. The manager could not explain these discrepancies, she kept providing new and/or different documents until finally one of the member’s accepted her submission that the entries were “a mistake” and dismissed the case.
Following this, the manager is charging a fee of some $9,000 approximately for “appearing in VCAT and photocopying”. However, the other 2 lot owners say that they have not received their portion of the bill for $3,000 approximately. I have sent her a few e-mails but she does not respond to me. I have asked her for an AGM but she refuses to hold one. She has since taken another application for fee recovery against me at VCAT.
I am completely drained of this entire situation. Any advice on what I can do from here would be greatly appreciated. I just know deep down there is something untoward going on here – It’s just a matter of proving it.