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[stratamember100]

Hi all,

A quick and general question.

I am now a member of strata and have picked up that our building has been consistently invoiced ‘facade maintenance’ charges over the past year and a bit. Putting aside the fact that I can see no evidence that anyone has ever done any work to the facade, and that the company doing the work has not provided details in respect to what they actually do, is this a common occurrence for new residential flat buildings? Any comments or experiences would be appreciated.

Thank you.

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[Lady Penelope]

Is the contract for ‘facade maintenance’ an ongoing  maintenance contract? If it is then you may be being charged an annual maintenance fee even if no maintenance is required.

If that is the case then try and get a copy of the contract and discuss with your committee whether this type of contract is the best one for your situation.

If you have a proactive committee and a good idea of the maintenance schedule then you should be able to identify what needs doing and organise your own individual contractors for specific tasks.

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[Lady Penelope]

Is the contract for ‘facade maintenance’ an ongoing  maintenance contract? If it is then you may be being charged an annual maintenance fee even if no maintenance is required.

If that is the case then try and get a copy of the contract and discuss with your committee whether this type of contract is the best one for your situation.

If you have a proactive committee and a good idea of the maintenance schedule then you should be able to identify what needs doing and organise your own individual contractors for specific tasks.

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[stratamember100]

Thanks for your response Lady Penelope,

The fee is not annual (without being specific it is significantly more frequent than that) and there is a contract that has been signed is for 5 years (signed by a previous member of the committee).

It sounds like this is not the norm and that is just what I wanted to confirm.

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[Jimmy-T]

JK91 said:

… there is a contract that has been signed is for 5 years (signed by a previous member of the committee).

Is there an agenda item and minute of the committee meeting that agreed to this?  If there is no agenda item and related minute, the contract is invalid (unless it was agreed by the strata manager acting for the strata committee).

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[stratamember100]

Hi Jimmy-T,

No agenda items or related minutes. The contract appeared to have been signed prior to the first strata committee being formed (the person who signed on behalf of the Strata Plan joined the inaugural strata committee in the following months…). Thanks for your advice.

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[Jimmy-T]

The strata committee is initially formed at the end of the first AGM. Any contracts signed before the first AGM are invalid unless they are ratified by a majority of owners at the first AGM.

Sounds like someone is on the fiddle.

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.

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