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If you had to make cuts in your strata spending, where would the axe fall first? Budgetting is crucially important today with the cost of living going
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I’m infuriated that we have to pay for a service to come by every week and put the bins out, then move them back in. If these residents and tenants lived in a house, they would be putting out their own bins. When did apartment-dwellers get the idea that they are living in some kind of hotel situation? I was staying in an apartment recently in Utrecht and there was a cleaning roster for common areas with a list of what needed to be done. This kept strata costs down and presumably anyone who didn’t want to take their turn could hire a cleaner at their own expense. I grit my teeth when tenants complain about rental costs while walking past the cleaners, gardeners and bin-service people who are working for them.
Ah yes!!!…….a roster would certainly keep costs down, except when 1. Residents don’t do their fare share of tasks on their rostered day and slack off 2. Residents go away on holidays and have to find someone else to cover for them on the roster, or the task is left undone 3. Residents forget about bin night on their rostered day, and the bins don’t go out. Putrescible waste causes maggots to spawn and the bins are overflowing because they haven’t been emptied for at least a week. 4. What is one persons idea of cleaning stairwells and common property areas i.e a quick flick with a broom, doesn’t match up to another persons expectations. 5. Some residents are elderly or have mobility issues and can’t swipe with a mop. 6. getting someone who didn’t want to ‘take their turn and hire a cleaner at their own expense’ is fine in theory, but in practice would never happen, because all people are tight with money and in getting things done. 7. Rosters require co-operation, and the main gripe on the Flat Chat forum is a ‘lack of co-operation’ in strata apartment blocks.
I don’t think there is anything I would cut but then I would say that as the treasurer who drew up our budget. I think it is just right. We already have quite a few things that are handled by volunteers. The services we pay for are tasks that really do need a professional.
Totally agree with everything, but still infuriated that people who won’t clean up or put their own bins out then complain about high strata fees (owner occupiers) and rents (tenants).