In these days when conspiracy theories can almost lead to the overthrow of the “greatest democracy in the world” we have to be careful not to fuel the fires of suspicion and rumour.
After all, isn’t one of our golden rules “never ascribe to malice anything that can just as easily be explained by stupidity”?
But then you get a situation like the one described by Flatchatter TrulEconcerned. He’s been struggling to get more detailed financial records from the strata managers, at their AGM, to explain spending.
After much delay and some discussion (about what, is a mystery – owners are entitled to see all owners corp records) the full financials were handed over.
There, tucked in among levies, lift maintenance and insurances, was a payment to a committee member for “continuing education” in strata matters.
The more cynical among you might think this was a sneaky way to pay the committee member concerned for the work that they do on the committee – something that can otherwise only be permitted retrospectively and via a vote of all owners at an AGM.
All we can say is that if this continuing education was of any use at all, it would have taught the committee member that what they were doing was possibly illegal and certainly has a strong whiff of dodginess about it.
You can follow the paper trail HERE.
Elsewhere in The Forum:
- Does this agent know they are risking a $550 fine by not passing on a new tenant’s details, even if they citing bogus “privacy” concerns? That’s HERE.
- How do you divide insurance premiums in a two-lot scheme? Eaksy-peaksy or on the basis of unit entitlements? That’s HERE.
- When a resident leaves their car in a parking spot and never moves it, is it parked or being stored? That’s HERE.
- More parking problems. The OC’s car park floor cleaners won’t go into parking spaces in case they damage property stored in garages. Now the parking spots are filthy. That’s HERE.
- We share the maintenance costs of a pool on an adjoining strata scheme. Do we have any say in what happens to it if they decide to shut it down and fill it in? That’s HERE.
There are a lot more ongoing questions and answers in the Flat Chat Forum. The easiest way to keep tabs on the discussions is to register, login and “subscribe” to the issues that interest you (all completely free) and you’ll be alerted when new responses roll in.
