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We feel our strata management company is not earning his keep.Things limp along – using the same tradespeople we’ve used for years simply because we don’t have time to search for more competitive prices. The tradespeople are complacent as they assume it’s “job for life”.Surely it’s the responsibility of the strata management company to source more competitive pricing & generally be more proactive in assisting run our building.Also, are the 10 year plans legally enforceable?
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I’m guessing from the reference to 10 year contracts that you aren’t in NSW. Or that you’re talking about a building services manager.If neither of these is the case, and you’re referring to a strata managing agent in NSW, you certainly have options.
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Strata managing agents’ contracts are limited to three years at a time by law in NSW. For now, you should talk to your neighbours and committee members about what they expect from your strata managers and how that measures up to the services you get. Then take the results of that conversation to the strata managers and ask them how they plan to bring their service up to scratch.If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Goldie, you are not on your own! Since you live only a few kilometres away from me, I wonder if we are sharing the same appalling strata manager. See my thread on Costly Petty Repairs by doing a search on this forum and you shall see the responses so far. At least your SM sends an email asking you to ‘please pay this invoice’. Mine just issues work orders on the instructions of tenants who are responsible for the problem in the first place.
I wonder if we are sharing the same appalling strata manager.
You can always message each other privately by going on the other person’s post and clicking on “Send a Message” on the left
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Also, are the 10 year plans legally enforceable?Are you talking about the 10 year capital works fund plan? The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) requires you to have a plan and to review it every five years. The owners corporation could review and change the plan more frequently than that.
Are you talking about the 10 year capital works fund plan?
D’OH! I completely misread that and thought the OP was referring to 10-year management contracts.
Section 80 of the Act says schemes must, by law, have a 10-year maintenance plan and it must be reviewed at least every five years. As for enforcement, any owner could take their committee to NCAT seeking orders that they comply or, presumably, face removal and replacement with a compulsory manager.
Section 81 merely says that schemes have to estimate how much money they want to put into the funds. Therefore a scheme could ignore potential big ticket items like lift replacement and instead agree to maintain a small fund for minor works but reserve the right to apply for strata loans or issue special levies as and when they are required.
The importance of this is that it is discussed and minuted so the future purchasers know they may be up for repairs of equipment worn out by previous owners, some of whom may be selling out before the bid ticket items come around. This is an issue that should be raised and minuted at your AGM, if only for the sake of transparency.
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