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You are confusing roles here,
The chair of the meeting conducts the running of the meeting, ensuring everyone is able to debate any motion.
You could just as easily have the real chairman, or any other agreed party to be chairman.
I doubt whether the strata manager can speak for the motion. Firstly they are not an owner, so do not have any voting or speaking rights. Secondly, it’s clearly a conflict of interests and they should excuse themselves from the debate.
However it seems the committee is happy with this strata manager ( for whatever reason) . Sometime,just because you don’t like something, does not make it wrong.
If you want things changed, get elected to the committee. That’s where the power is and decisions are made.
As you probably know, few owners turn up to general meetings, and those that do just go with the flow.
What do you want to get out of breaching the strata manager.
You can ask the committee to speak to the strata manager to improve their performance.
The strata manager can only be removed by a court and you have to prove they breached your contract .Easier said than done.
A motion to mutually terminate the contract is not necessary. The strata manager and the committee can agree to this.
If you are so unhappy it’s better to cut the ties and put this down to experience. Remember that the outgoing strata manager has obligations under the act to do an orderly handover.
Divorced and contract terminations never go well. Usually the only winners are the lawyers. Remember try to be happy and not necessarily right. It’s the cheapest and quickest way.
I can see you have a cash flow problem.
However it’s standard practice that advertising costs and the drawing up the contract of sale are paid for upfront.
It’s not the fault of the real estate agent. He’s probably need stung too many times with unpaid bills.
I think your only option was to take out the loans.
Generally, the delineation between lot property and common property is 3mbodied in the strata plan, 2hich form part of the records.
Upon purchase each owner has a copy attached to the contract of sale.
If one is not at hand then jt can be obtained from LPS.
Sometimes the plan is badly drawn, and there is ambiguity of the dìvision.
This is an issue that NCAT can’t sort out as its the jurisdiction of the land and environment court.
If it is in fact that the plan is ambiguous, it may pay both parties to consult a lawyer to provide some guidance. This is a fairly specialised area so your local solicitor may not be the best.
A couple of things here.
As I understand, you cant be charged for things you did not know about. My experience with a few strata managers , both as owner as committee member, is that if a payment is undetermined initially who is to pay, the strata manager say to the lot owner, the OC will engage the contractor and pay for the work. If it is deemed to be owner responsibility the OC will bill you.
Did you ask for your car park space to be swept? if the OC instructed the cleaner to sweep your car space, then its an OC expenses
Same for your court yard
I think it follows a legal construct where you cant be charged for something you were not aware of or agreed to.
Secondly, any such charges cannot be added to your levy register. Its called a levy register for a reason.
The OC cannot charge you interest if you do not pay the the bill (whether it is legitimate or not).
The OC cannot pay off this debt before paying your levies. The only recourse for the OC to recover such a debt is to take it to a small claims court.
The OC cannot make you unfinancial for the purposes of voting at meetings if you do not pay this debt. Schedule 1 part 4 division 1 23(8) speaks only of contributions, which is the act means levies
Take the stance that I have outlined above. Do not pay the amounts to the OC and then let them take it to NCAT (rather than you paying the filing fee). Its up to the OC to prove that the charges are justified.
If you want to shortcut your claim, ask the strata manager for the insurer and policy number. Call the insurer and either start a new claim, or find out what the existing claim number is and make an additional clsim
No doubt some one is going to get upset, but atleast your claim will be progressing.
You answered your own question.
The act requires the landlord to notify the OC of the details of any tenant. There are prescribed monetary penalties for not doing this.
The tenants name and contact details go on the strata roll.
Every strata is required to keep accurate financial accounts.
As an owner, you can access the accounts at any time by asking the strata manager.
Just be prepared, because strata accounts are slightly different to company accounts . That’s not to say there is any funny business but you need to understand the way to read strata accounts. ( don’t ask me to explain, it takes too long).Also accounts need to be kept if all expenses. Again you can ask for these as well as the supporting invoices.
There is also a balance sheet.
The trust account should agree with the balance sheet
The outgoing strata manager should be able to prepare these documents. I doubt whether the new strata manager would take on a strata with out satisfying themselves thst the numbers add up. That does not mean thst the accounts are correct.
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There was a well documented case where a bamboo got into a neighbours yard and did damage. The court ruled thst the owner where the bamboo was growing was liable for the damage.
If it’s damage to the building, make an insurance claim through your strata insurance.
Unfortunately, because the owner is an interested party on the building insurance, the insurance company can’t recover the costs from them.
The no action committee
The act confers decision making power to elected members of the committee. In my experience, most owners do not want the burden of being on the committee. Too political; too time consuming: I don’t have time; Don’t want responsibility
All excuses I hear.
The committee then is often saddled with unqualified people or disinterested people (who just want a title).
It’s no use sitting on the sideline and complaining if you yourself won’t get onto the committee . And I can tell you in most buildings its not that hard because there are less takers than positions.
Once you’re on the inside you can see what’s happening and start to effect some changes. It takes time.
I had an issue with my building that took 3 years to finally get resolved in my favour.
And finally. To break the status quo, there needs to be an agent of change. That person does not need to be the chairman. If you are passionate and influential, you can persuade, over time, the majority of the committee to see your way.
How very unprofessional of the strata manager.
The strata managers job is to assist the owners, Sometimes the recommendations of the strata manager are knocked back by the owners. Thats life.
A professional strata manager will just take it on.
Maybe in this case the strata manager is considering their “liability”
The strata act absolves the strata manager of the decisions of the owners. It’s their decision and the owners are accountable for it.
A good strata manager would make a note in the meeting minutes that the recommendation of the SM was rejected and that the owners voted an amended motion
And in my opinion, a large part of a SMs job is to manage the “personal” part . That means managing peole and the various tribes and factions that exist. But never to intervene
Reports of lithium battery fires are limited to hoverboard and electric cycles. Some of these devices use very cheap and unsophisticated chargers. The batteries get overcharged and light up.
EV chargers are actually inside the car. These chargers are highly sophisticated, and ensure that the battery is charged correctly. It’s highly unlikely that an aEV on charge will catch fire.
EVs are most likely to have a battery fire when the battery is damaged, most likely due to a motor vehicle accident. But again the manufacturers encase the batteries to protect the batteries.
Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation out there, as well as prejudice to EVs.
The short answer is yes. See section 72 of the act.
However the burden of proof is on the owners corporation, and the act does not specify the actions of lack of actions that qualify the strata manager to be terminated.
BTW the termination is by an order of the court.
My information is that terminating a strata manager is very difficult, and can take a long time and be quite expensive.
From my experience, to minimise the losses of the owners corporation the committee can do the work the strata manager should be doing. I know you are paying a strata manager but doing something yourself is better than doing nothing by the strata manager. Also by the way the act is written, even if the strata manager does nothing the ultimate responsibility is for all acts of the OC is borne by the OC.
Your committee should consider meeting the principal of the strata management company and voice forcefully what your expectations are.
Sorry Jimmy and Charger
only a registered energy provider can charge for electricity. So the OC cant put an electricty meter on a power point and charge a lot owner.
Also how do they know it was that lot owner who used the electricty. etc etc
Until an EV charging system is installed you have to consider the situation as this.
In many older building, the water is metered at the incoming point to the building. Each lot is not metered. The OC pays the water bill for the building and recovers the cost of water usage through the levies.
No different if its electricity.
A standard power point will be adequate to for level 1/ mode 2 chargers which allows overnight charging of vehicles.
Any other systems will require an augmented supply. In this case, a whole of strata approach should be taken as its likely in the future more users will want this capability.
The new owner is responsible for any special levies passed and not collected yet, and any future special levies.
You are worrying unduly. Just treat it as if the unit was never sold. It’s up to the solicitor of the buyer to negotiate any monetary differences at the time of sale.