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Topic
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We are in a small complex of 8 apartments in Melbourne
The common areas falling between the cracks. The Rental Agents only look at the interior of the apartments. The Body Corporate has personnel changes and are not really aware of the common areas. They gather OH&S reports, Asbestos Reports but nobody actually checks that the work is done and to what standard.
Owners are only really interested when they need to rent or sell their unit. How do other complexes manage in this situation?
Body Corporate has planned a Council pick up of abandoned items in common areas. What they have done is send a letter to owners and hopefully to tenants and agents that the pickup will be in a certain week – some owners have suggested a working bee.
Can those owners who come to the working bee be compensated … or is it just too hard to organise?
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Can those owners who come to the working bee be compensated … or is it just too hard to organise?
The answer to both is probably yes. Better than pay, how about organising a sausage sizzle (don’t forget the veggo options) and give a bottle of wine to everyone who’s there for more than an hour. That way it’s a community building social event, rather than paid employment.
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If I were you, I would present a plan of action to your committee, gently pointing out that you all have a legal obligation maintain and repair common property. I would also point out that apartment rents and property prices are falling and rental availability has never been higher, so not maintaining the property is affecting the rents and values of properties that look run-down and neglected.
Stage 1 would be a clean-up, which they can all either agree to help with on a voluntary basis or there are services (like Jim’s Gardening) that will do it for a fee, which would come out of strata funds. I think in this instance a financial stick will work better than carrot.
Stage 2 would be a survey of what needs to be done to the block and when to bring iot up to a decent standard.
Step 3 would be to devise a 10-year maintenace budget to make Stage 2 a reality rather than a wish-list.
You may find that the majority of owners will be on-board, all they needed was for aomeone to do the legwork.
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