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[Ancestor]

For the last nine months. the Executive Committee of our strata has adopted a policy of telling its owners as little as possible. It has held no meetings to process its decisions (except EGMs where necessary to strike special levies or appoint strata lawyers); it no longer issues newsletters on corporate activities; now it refuses to respond to reasonable requests from owners, sheltering behind a by-law it discovered.

Under a section of the by-laws, Laws and Instruments, this subsection headed Applications, says: “Any application or other communication by an Owner or Occupier to the Owners’ Corporation must be made in writing and delivered to the Strata Manager.”

The model by-laws contain no such item; it is not known how or why the developer included it, but it could scarcely have been intended to prevent and prohibit direct communication and exchange of information. That is how it is now being applied, to frustrate access to information, refuse answers to reasonable questions, and to require owners to spend s.108 fees every time they require information about their affairs. What makes it even more unsatisfactory is that important documents and correspondence are not transmitted to the strata manager, and are therefore unobtainable by search. (The strata manager was changed; unlike the previous SM, he does not provide on-line access to strata records for all owners. This conveniently controls information and keeps owners in the dark.) 

What we have is an example of a totalitarian state, in which the Executive Committee, secured in power by farmed proxies from indifferent, complacent or compliant owners believes it has no responsibility to answer to owners. This is an issue of governance on which the Act and the CTTT seem both powerless or unwilling to provide relief.

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