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Does anyone know if the General Ledger Transaction Report must be provided to owners with the AGM Notice?
The SSMAct (106) is not specific about the type of financial information that must be provided to owners with the AGM documents. Apparently, according to an email received from the NSW Fair Trading in May 2013, Sect 106 (4) (c) does not mean the General Ledger Transaction Report.
As a large scheme (over 100 lots) we receive an audited report but this does not include the individual transactions that make up the items in the report. An example last year was when over $130,000 was paid for consultants. The strata manager was contacted before the meeting and asked for the General Ledger Transaction Report (emailed as a PDF) but declined advising in the email that the Owners Corporation had instructed that this document was not to be made available to owners. At the AGM this was discussed and it was later posted on StrataMax. I have asked for this to be available (on StrataMax – no printing costs) before the next AGM in 2014 but the strata manager will not respond to my email.
I have also wriiten to the Minister asking that the revised SSMAct be more specific about the financial information that should be available to owners at AGMs. The NSW OFT was also contacted and suggested I inspect the OCs records. The strata manager has also offered that I conduct an inspection of the OCs records but I would need to take time from work which like most owners is not practical and I consider unnecessary to find out how our levies are being spent. This information could easily be made available on StrataMax for owners once a year to access by secure log in.
In response to –
66. Are annual financial statements sufficient?
The Act needs to be more specific about the contents and availability to owners. I would pay for the General Ledger Transaction Report to be printed and posted.
We recently had a problem where the Executive Committee instructed the strata manager not to make available the General Ledger Transaction list to owners with the May 2013 AGM Notice or on the website for owners tpo access. When challenged at the AGM the EC made it available after the meeting on StrataMax. An owner set up a facebook community page in late April 2013 to put pressure on the EC and strata manager to be more transparent with finances. This has had a positive effect and has become a growing community of 25 likes and we do not know how many hits. Perhaps you could start your own facebook community page and engage with other owners and also the Executive Committee. Going to the CTTT is time consuming which is why it is rarely taken up by owners with grievances. Our facebook page is at facebook.com/coryulegardens and is administered by one of the younger owners.