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[Anonymous]

Our strata committee has seriously breached some strata laws. To make matters worse they didn’t give any other owners or the strata manager notice of any of their meetings and just started doing anything they wanted.

Other owners complained to the strata manager about what was being done to common property and inside and outside certain units owned by some people on the strata committee. They asked him why no meetings had been held for owners to vote on these works AND on several other types of breaches by the strata committee.

He replied that the strata committee had not told him about any intended works or anything else and so he couldn’t advise them on procedures. He then said, “But strata committees can really do whatever they want so there’s no point in objecting about what they’ve done.”

Other owners were incensed by this remark and consulted NSW Office of Fair Trading and other owners consulted their independent solicitors. Both said the strata manager was wrong. The solicitors recommended taking the strata committee to NCAT.

Some people on the strata committee have been owners for over ten years and already knew the necessary procedures but chose to ignore them.

Can we sack the strata manager for this reason alone?
Should we report him to the licencing authority? Who regulates licencing of strata managers?
Do we need to take action at NCAT to sack a strata manager urgently so that a new one can be appointed without delay?

Surely strata managers know not to:
1)lie to owners,or
2)to favour one owner over another, or
3)to recommend making of by-laws that disadvantage owners and which, at the same time, may be contrary to some Sections of the SSM Act.

Re what is acceptable as evidence:
In relation to para 3) above, some evidence of what the strata manager wanted owners to do is in writing in the form of motions in meeting notices and minutes of those meetings.

However when it comes to what he said in meetings, no-one videod or tape recorded meetings. So if enough owners who were at the meetings swear on oath that he said something, will NCAT accept that he really did say it?

We are writing this on behalf of several owners who all hope that you can suggest the proper action to take.

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