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Our secretary is receiving threatening emails from a resident. What are the best steps to deal with this without escalating the problem?
- This topic was modified 2 months ago by .
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The only way to avoid escalating it is for the secretary to block the emails (easily done on most email platforms) but that doesn’t mean the sender won’t ramp up their threats. If these are serious and persistent threats of violence or doing some other harm to the recipient, the secretary can go to the police and apply for an Apprehended Personal Violence Order (APVO) which can also apply to verbal threats and abuse. Check out this link for more details.
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You’ve not provided enough information. What is the cause of these emails being sent, and what kind of threat is involved? And who is the resident – owner, tenant on strata roll, or someone else?
Assuming this involves a strata problem, the initial response would be to tell the resident to correspond with the strata manager (who would have been delegated the secretary’s tasks, including dealing with correspondence from owners and tenants on the strata roll). At some point this issue should be considered at a strata committee meeting. Everyone should remember that the strata committee secretary has a limited decision making ability – all decisions apart from a couple of mundane ones like calling meetings, are made by the committee as a whole, with an agenda motion, and the minuted decision available to all owners, with the reasoning for the decision provided. The decision should be reasonable and fair, or else NCAT can be called in to review and reconsider the situation.
A further option, that may de-escalate the situation is to refer the resident to NCAT and to make a formal complaint there, and encourage an NCAT mediation session. The NCAT mediations (whatever their other problems) act as a neutral party, and will determine the facts and will explain the law to all the parties involved.
A further option, that may de-escalate the situation is to refer the resident to NCAT and to make a formal complaint there, and encourage an NCAT mediation session.
An application to NCAT must be related to an aspect of strata law or a by-law that has been allegedly breached. In any case, applying for mediation is pretty much an escalation as it is effectively reporting the miscreant to the authorities.
To be fair, I think the OP may be kidding themselves if they think they can deal with the situation without escalating the tension. On the other hand, tackling it head on and reaching a solution may rip off the band-aid and allow things to return to normal fairly quickly.
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There is another option, but that requires both parties to agree, and that’s mediation. However, I have to be honest – the only person I know who works in mediation will deal with family and business disputes, divorce and battles over wills, but she and her organisation won’t touch strata because it’s too highly charged and requires such specialist knowledge of the law.
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It is also worth reminding the sender of the threatening emails that by sending them to the Secretary that they will form a permanent part of the OC records.
And that any other owner is entitled to see them, as is any other person entitled to access the OC records. This includes potential purchasers of units. Maybe even mention that the emails could inhibit the price paid for units being offered for sale.
And, especially important, the dispute goes to an external organisation, including NCAT then those emails will form part of the record of matters being disputed.
Therefore it behoves the sender to remain civil, factual and to seek to resolve their dispute timeously.