[WoodWalker]

optusJo wrote:

I am in Victoria.  We have a web portal – we only see a one-line entry – which is  the accumulation of receipts for a particular category –  in the AGM agenda- nothing throughout the year.

Several years ago, we had a Strata Manager who provided no financial information to owners other than a Word table with one line entry for each category e.g. “gardening” at the AGM.

When we asked for more detail about OUR finances in the AGM, they said it would take many hours to generate, and they would bill us (an undisclosed amount) for this as an additional charge.

The AGM elected a more engaged committee who then sent a email asking for a ledger of all transactions (and quoting enough of the legislation to show that we knew what we were talking about). The Strata Manager responded by terminating the contract with 7 days notice and a statement that no correspondence would be entered into. Several months later, the new strata manager sent us a bank statement showing all transactions. This revealed several charges which we were unaware of.

An engaged committee should be aware of the financial operation of the owners’ corporation. It is OUR money and OUR information.

How many committees approve payments without seeing a scan of the Tax Invoice?

Take care out there,
Woodwalker (in the ACT)

[WoodWalker]

Given the recent example of a Strata Manager extracting ~$2 million from ~60 stratas over ~400 transactions, I looked at our portal and noticed that it DOES NOT show a scan of the original Tax Invoice.  We see only the date, payee, and the amount and date we paid it.  We are pretty sure that the amount paid is the same as the amount payable on the tax invoice … but it would be nice to confirm this.

The StrataMax portal (used by our Strata Manager) has an Invoice Approval Hub (this option is NOT turned on by our Strata Manager), allowing committee members to see the Tax Invoices and approve payments.  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS5OQFTv8Dw&t=70s

Does anyone have positive or negative experiences of viewing the Tax Invoices before the SM makes the payment?  Does your portal show the Tax Invoices?

[WoodWalker]

A quick update on our current situation.

We are VERY pleased with our new SM company. They send the committee monthly financial reports and the Financial  Statemenyt presented to the AGM contains a list of all tractions.

After the 2024 AGM, all owners are now on the committee and the 3 office holders are now taking their roles seriously.

The most important steps to improve our sitaution were:

• getting owners involved to the extent they wanted to be. We fully expect some owners will be fairly passive but at least they will have the information if they want to use it
• electing 3 office holders who take their positions seriously

Life is good,
Woodwalker

[WoodWalker]

We submitted written motions to the 2024 AGM to rescind the motions to charge us the full cost of the General Meeting and repay the $2586.09 to us.

These motions were carried with one person abstaining and one not attending.

Our owners are now much more aware of their responsbility to govren for the good of all.  (And having a more professional SM helps as well).

[WoodWalker]

Did you vote to select the Chair of the AGM? Or is the chair automatically set to the chair of the outgoing committee? And then doesn’t the Chair have (another) deciding vote?

Of course there might have been a tie before selecting the chair?

[WoodWalker]

Thanks Sir Humphrey,

It seems a lottle strange (but true) that the bar is lower in an EC meeting than in a General Meeting …

[WoodWalker]

Thanks Sir Humphery.

Your suggestion is a good one. Given that 25% of members requesting a General Meeting to discuss an issue is a provision of the Act, it (probably) should not be regarded as a “billable offence” under section 31 i.e. “a wilful or negligent act or omission or … a breach of its rules”.

All that said, with only 10 owners, and if the 3 owners wanted an update on a cost recovery action, was it not possible to just informally ask the members of the EC how things were going? Were they not forthcoming? Was it suspected that they were not acting and this was a move to force some action? It sounds like there might have been more to this story.

There was much more to the story (as there almost always is). We asked but did not receive any information. The Act requires the EC to monitor the financial operation of the OC, but as far as we were aware it had no such oversight, or if they did, it was not communicated to other owners.

We are now in a much better place.

[WoodWalker]

A quick update on our situation:

• our Strata Manager presented a Financial Statement to the AGM which did not include a ledger of all transactions and only a summary in a Word table (19 Dec 2023)
• we asked questions about some of the totals that did not seem to make sense (to us). We also asked for the underlying ledger and were told that the ledger would be produced at a (unspecified) cost to the OC
• the SM did not generate or send the AGM minutes to all members within the required 14 working days
• on 20 Feb our strata committee asked (in writing) for the ledger or the reasons why it could not be provided and the AGM minutes
• 2 days later we received a termination letter with 7 days notice
• our new Strata Manager requested the books on 6 Mar and is still waiting …

The end of the relationship was a lottle brutal.  It appears that our relationship with the old SM was not one where they saw that it was the Owners Corporation that employs the Strata Manager to help manage OUR affairs.

Of course, this history is from our Strata Committee’s perspective. I am sure our old SM has a different view.

I am thankful that this forum provides a place for owners and residents to share their experiences of strata living.
Woodwalker

[WoodWalker]

Sorry for the ambiguity … only the first option … it seems to me that many service providers can get away with dubious practices in the certain knowledge that their clients are (mostly) isolated and can’t compare notes and share experiences.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was some sort of reverse strata lookup wiki … there be dragons there!

If you have a Canberra based strata manager who refuses to provide the EC with the full ledger unless a fee is paid and then refuses to say what the fee is, please contact me … we may have much to share (including the same manager).

And thanks Jimmy-T for providing this platform,

[WoodWalker]

Jimmy-T, I totally agree, we can all benefit from the experience and knowledge of others without knowing names and identities.

BUT I find it a lottle hard to believe that all the committees and treasurers that this manager has worked with over the last 14 years are happy NOT seeing the raw ledger of transactions.

[WoodWalker]

Thanks for your timely reply Sir Humphrey,

Yes, the second paragraph is the case … presumptuous in the extreme! The owners who are concerned about due process will put a motion that the levy notice is redrafted and sent AFTER the OC approves the budget at the AGM on Dec 19.

Thanks again,
Woodwalker

[WoodWalker]

Thanks Sir Humphrey,

Unfortunately, in my opinion, our current EC appears to be being vindictive and obstructive to several owners. The modification has been judged to be medically necessary for safety reasons (fall risk), funding is available, the request was submitted to the EC 7 weeks ago and so far nothing other than a long and fruitless email thread has resulted.

I wonder what would happen if an injury was to occur.

 

 

[WoodWalker]

• Thanks everyone.

[WoodWalker]

Thanks for your reply Sir Humphery.

Yes, the “a wilful or negligent act or omission of a member” or “breach of its rules” does not seem to apply in relation to calling a General Meeting … but we will see how things unfold at the meeting tonight.

Kind regards,
Woodwalker

[WoodWalker]

Informal chats leading up to a more involved OC and EC would be excellent … unfortunately 2 factions have developed with little open communication between them.

It is possible that the collective “hip pocket nerve” might motivate more engagement e.g. insurance premium increases or if there is a demand for legal costs before the bankruptcy is finalized.  Lets see what develops.

And thanks to the people who run this EXCELLENT site.

Woodwalker

[Author]

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