Hi Millie
We are in the same boat. When we ask for information we are given the response you must come in to the office and pay for an hour and then search through the papers. I believe in this day and age of emails this rule is obsolete. It was more than likely put in place when snail mail was the only way to communicate. This rule is also punishing the many for the sins of the few . Yes there are people who would take advantage and ring up every second day for info. But most people don’t do that. The reality of going in and searching paperwork of a large apartment block is ridiculous. We have many issues and much paper work it would take someone far more than an hour to work out where anything is and usually the paper work is in a dishevelled mess!
Recently our committee made a financial settlement in a dispute with an owner of over $100,00. No minutes recorded this, nor were any owners informed in writing. When I emailed asking for the information and how much did the owners have to pay all up I was refused.
I also went to the council for information on a contract my building has with another party through “freedom of information” (ain’t that a contradiction in terms). Even though I am a member of the owners corporation I was not allowed a copy of the contract as it was only accessible to the secretary of the owners corporation. Yet when this contract goes pear shaped, as it is about to, I will be asked to put in for a special levy. Our committee are just putting their heads in the sand and hoping it will go away. So basically they have access to your money and we have access to nothing!
We have asked to be included in the mail out and they always say yes of course, then they stop sending the emails. We have an online access but it is never updated we have not seen any financial information since last year.
Things really do need to change, Committees and managers are working together to keep owners in the dark. VOTE 1 for transparency.