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JimmyT is absolutely right and there are great additional points here.

No matter how savvy you are or how well you think you know the building, NOBODY should buy an apartment without a proper check by a professional of the strata records which covers the good points, the bad points and just as importantly, what might be missing from the records that should be there. I have learnt lately that some of the biggest names in strata management have the worst kept records, unfortunately.

Buying into a strata really is a case of ‘let the buyer beware’ in this day and age. Someone I know bought a unit without realizing it was actually still owned by the owner who had sold it to the current vendor because the mortgage had not been discharged. This can actually happen and happened because of crookerdness and solicitors inexperienced in conveyancing. A nightmare for all concerned.

A real estate guru says he is astounded at the number of people who buy places for huge amounts without getting proper checks done. Even more important with apartments.

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Thanks and great of you to sort this out JimmyT.

I have started to think strata managers keeping owners’ contact details ‘private’ and insisting everything goes through them is a way they protect their turf

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Great points relevant to me in last two items by PeterC and excathedra.

Our finances were ‘very healthy’ according to our Strata Manager. So the EC engineered a reduction of levies but at the same time, they have allowed the place to degrade substantially over two years. Less than the bare minimum is done here. Even the EC’s new cleaners and gardeners soon discovered the lack of supervision means they don’t have to do much at all for their fees which are blindly handed over by the strata manager.

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I am the original poster who started this topic which has grown into something very informative, worthwhile, thought-provoking and helpful..Thanks all! Keep going please.

Maybe I could add something to JimmyT’s list of the only things people in strata are concerned with: the value of their property, whether they are living in it or not. Or is this to abstract or long-term for your average owner?

Our finances are healthy, so healthy that the power-base succeeded in having the levies reduced which was a very attractive proposition to shortsighted, unthinking owners, but our place looks like a badly managed, run-down trailer-park with a few ongoing extra issues such as concrete cancer.

Thus when my web site goes ‘live’ it will have a section comparing what places here fetch when they sell or are let, to what other comparable places are fetching. Ours get less because the place looks so crook.

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In answer to scotlandx, and thanks, I am not currently on the Executive Committee but once was. As alluded to below, our building has quite a few of the problems I have read about on Flat Chat including a proxy a five year old proxy situation protecting the Executive Committee which is a mixture of self-interest and lcck-of-interest.

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Further to my two paragraphs below about a stroller under the stairs, not in the lock–up garage 5 metres away, now there are two. Shouldn’t something be done? I’m afraid ‘zero tolerance’ for this sort of thing might be the only unfortunate way.

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Agree with scotlandx and whale but we have a difficult one. Even though there have been several babies born here over the last 10 years, nobody has ever been so presumptuous as to leave strollers or prams in the halls or under the stairs. Until now.

The Secretary of the EC, who already takes some liberties as he thinks he’s special, leaves their stroller under the stairs even though he has a lock up garage about 5 metres away. Other residents think this is unfair and taking advantage of his position but he won’t hear of that and plays the ‘new baby’ card. What do we do?

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Thank you all very much. I will write to our Strata Manager and Executive Committee about this.

I have just posted again in the Green section of Flat Chat with a question about solar panels, and would be grateful for any advice.

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That’s fantastic thank you Jimmy. I’ve checked out ‘web hosting’ and WordPress. Seems too easy. As you probably already know the hard part, I now think, will be figuring out exactly what to say or actually what NOT to say might be just as important.

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It seems to me with regard to this issue more exact facts need to be known before comments such as ScotlandX’s can be put forward as worth taking and notice of. Those types of odous can definitely make people ill. The new owner should have been more concillatory than offering ‘a bottle of red’.

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Yes I went to the Annual General Meetings and I know who the Executive Committee are and as I said I know they don’t want to be contacted and take responsibility day-to-day and don’t ensure the Strata Manager does what he should AND make anyone who complains about obvious problems feel guilty and unreasonable.

I also said our block was 36 units, thanks though, Cosmo, for your most constructive reply.

I was hoping someone might suggest guerilla tactics might be good such as an ‘anonymous note’ to all owners maybe or an ‘anonymous’ web site people could email complaints and support too ‘anonymously’. Would these be wrong, considering.

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