[StopfordKid]

kaindub wrote:

The new strata manager cant roll you over onto a new contract if the old contract has not expired. Just cause they bought a business does not annul the previous contract

If this is a contract renewal, then just dont agree to the conditions you dont like. If the strata manager wont paly ball, then go out and find a new strata manager. You dont have to be locked in to one strata manager and there are plenty out there who do a good job and are not dodgy.

The hardest thing will be to source names of strata managers to approach, but word of mouth or even a google search will help. Then just ask them to tender for your business.

Yep, I get all of that. And the old contract has expired so they are within their rights to give us a new contract to consider.

I’d like to avoid going to market for a new manager at the present time. We did that a few years ago (after our excellent then manager sold her business back to the franchisor) and I’d like to be able to try to resolve what we have with the current manager.

[StopfordKid]

Thanks for the reply Jimmy. I wasn’t aware that he was the Strata Manager as well as everything else. It makes more sense now why he acted the way that he did.

That sort of conflict should be banned or at the very least it should be voted for approval at every AGM/contract renewal – obviously excluding the conflicted party(ies) and their associates, proxies and other hangers-on etc.

[StopfordKid]

I’ve watched the Four Corners episode and am fully supportive of what they aired – the system is a complete shambles and allows dubious schemes run by dubious individuals to infiltrate the system at all levels.

What I can’t work out, and wasn’t apparent to me in the Four Corners Episode, was:

(a) What was motivating Mr Lee to carry on like this – surely it wasn’t just some crazy power trip,

(b) What was his role at that building apart from being the committee chair (+ other committee roles). Is he also a property owner in the building? what are his other associated interests etc?, and

(c) Where else do his tentacles spread to – either directly or indirectly?

[StopfordKid]

For the OP, it’s also perhaps a situation where it’s now seen by a growing number of owners in your property to be an acceptable practice to not pay fees simply because “others are allowed to do it, so why can’t I?”.

Once lot owners come to realize how complacent their OC might be in managing defaulters and how difficult it can be to chase/recover debts it becomes an easy choice for some.

Once this evil genie is allowed out of the bottle it becomes very difficult to put it back in.

An OC is not a bank or a lender of last resort. It’s the good lot owners – the compliant, fee paying lot owners – who end up having to fund these quasi-banking activities by paying higher levies to fund the shortfalls, placing more financial pressure on these good lot owners.  This could ultimately lead to more good lot owners deciding to not to participate in paying higher levies and instead joining the list of defaulters who seem to be enjoying an easy ride at the expense of others. So the problem just gets worse and worse over time.

Firm action should be taken at the outset rather than letting the problem grow.

[StopfordKid]

If the problems being experienced by the author of this letter are widespread amongst the ownership group in their property then why don’t all of the unhappy/aggrieved lot owners group together, call a special general meeting, replace the committee then proceed to replace the OC managers? Then they can start to run the committee in the way that they expect it to be run and put the proper levels of governance and controls in place. “Get involved”.

[Author]

Replies