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[Anonymous]

Please allow me to post my first question on Flat Chat.

I live in what I think is referred to as 'a medium sized block of 40 units' in Sydney. We have a Strata Manager, one of the big firms, and an Executive Committee of seven.

After a coup and a changing-of-the-guard three years ago, everything is supposed to be referred to the Strata Manager. You have to work hard to find anyone who is a member of the Executive Committee, get their phone number or email address or even their unit number.

And you guessed it… the Strata Manager is slow to address any problem, if he addresses it at all, is terse and rude. (Recently leaking sewerage reported by four different residents took four days to be fixed.) He blames the EC for its tardiness, and they blame him. Our strata is on the slide.

Flat Chatters, is there any way we can improve things here in the short term?

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[Anonymous]

Thanks again to all for attention so far.

'Considerate band fair' and anyone else who may be wondering, you are wrong if you think I am a passenger in my block.

I have been on the Executive Committee for large chunks of time and contributing through altruism and not self-interest, and have always tried to have things done properly here.

However, I and other like-minded members, were rolled in the 'coup' mentioned in the first post here, by disgruntled, self-interested owners with outraegeously obtained proxies, some of whom have since done such things as renovations against by-laws we have, commandeered tracts of common property for themselves and more… while not overseeing things and not maintaining the common areas properly as an owners corporation is required to. Hence my original question.

I DO like 'Gilgal 1's ideas on communication above and reckon this could be the key to it all.

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[easty]

I forgot to add one other observation about unit living which I call the “I pay my taxes (levies) syndrome”.  It puts EC’s on the back foot from the day they take office.

I would suggest the majority of unit owners believe their responsibilities
start and finish with the payment of their levies.  And like taxes most think levies are too high.  Consequently many take the view that because they pay their levies on time it gives them the right to do basically what they want as far as strata living goes. 

I have felt for a long time the term levies has such a negative connotation that someone has to come up with a better term to describe the contributions owners must make to the running of the building.  In our plan we have from time to time prepared simple spreadsheets breaking up the levy component for each owner e.g. how much of their levy goes to water, electricity, insurance, cleaning, gardening, fire services, repairs and maintenance but still most owners think the levies are too high and like a tax they are more often than not hated. 

There are also some owners who have no idea what levies are used for. They are suprised when you tell them that we have to pay water rates, insurance and other statutory costs.

Ironically when I have sat down with owners who have moved from a house and gone through the levies in detail and compared their contributions with what they paid on their house on a year to year basis almost universally the levies were much lower.  But the still the view persists i.e. levies are no different to taxes and rates.

So I think we should try to come up with a better name than levies – something which recognises it is not an impost but rather a planned contribution to the running of a building, minor repairs and major replacements and capital works.

Or maybe when levy notices are sent out we need to indicate on the notice just how levies are spent for each individual owner.

Any ideas?

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[struggler]

I thought communication would be the key as did other EC members.  I said hello to everyone.  Those who had been told “no” by the committee ignored me.  When anyone moved in they were given a welcome notice with details about the place and items of interest.  Residents were told that they should contact the SM in writing/email with any problems or issues.  They still prefer to wait until the AGM about the EC not doing anything about the issues they haven't written in about!  So I give up. But not only do they not communicate with EC members, most don't even communicate with each other.  

I, along with other ex EC members who have bailed, am pleased with what we did achieve, improvements we made, decisions we came to that protected the complex and its residents.  But doing a good job in this EC is like peeing your pants whilst wearing a dark suit – you get a nice warm feeling………….but nobody notices.

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[considerate and fair]

Dear Unexpexted Leigh,

Apologies if they are necessary, I assumed from your reply and question in recent post to struggler and considerate band fair “I wonder why Committee Members put their hands up? that you had not been involved in your building. I assumed if you had been on a Committee you would know why people put their hands up. I now see that question from a different perspective. I now see more information from your most recent post which changes my understanding of your situation. I still believe you have an incompetent Strata Manager, is it possible for you to do some door knocking? You clearly need to make some changes if you can within the building and of course last course of action you can request another 'change of the guard' via CTTT.

Best Of Luck As Always,

CBF

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[Author]

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