› Flat Chat Strata Forum › NCAT – the NSW Tribunal › How can we get a Royal Commission into strata managers? › Current Page
Yes, a Royal Commission to stop all shonky and unprofessional practices,
We got rid of our Strata Managers after a 17 year tenure, they had been the only managers of the building. The owner of Strata company and insurance broker run their joint business from our building ( they own 5 lots in our plan). I had questioned the legitimacy of Owner/s being the managing agent. Jimmy T said it’s not a healthy setup but it’s not illegal. The advice was to get rid of the Strata firm which wasn’t an easy task due to their long tenure, the fact they were owners of multiple lots and the form of the firm;s owner to bully and intimidate committee members if people disagreed with him.
So after 12months of garnering support it was agreed to get rid of them at the AGM. We had anticipated fireworks from the Strata owner but as luck would have it, the strata owner and his business partner did not even turn up to the AGM ( I think they were so certain their contract would be renewed ). When the motion to renew their contract came up, it was a unanimous ” NO “. We did feel for the strata manager because her boss use to intimidate her at the strata meetings, how was she going to explain this one ? I think there was a quick phone call made and a request from the boss and business partner to be allowed on the committee to which there was another unanimous ” NO ” as there was no proxies received nor were they in attendance. ”
Another reason we got rid of our strata agent was our suspicions about the strata cleaners cleaning their offices. When requested, the cleaning company could not produce a scope of works for our building but only a scope for the offices of the strata mgr and his business partner. A call was received by our new strata manager from the director of the cleaning company to say his secretary had made a mistake and he can get the cleaning scope to us in a few days. I mean after cleaning our building for 17 years isn’t it in our file?
The cleaning firm has contracts to clean many buildings managed by our old Strata company. I was also informed that a member of the strata company is related to someone in the cleaning company’s management. To further reinforce our suspicions after terminating the former cleaners, our new strata manager received a bill for items relating to cleaning of the offices of the former Strata manager and business partner which was quickly retracted and put down to another administration error but surely after 17 years of cleaning on totally separate accounts how can an invoice be mistakenly charged to our strata account?
A year has passed and the former strata agent and business partner were not going to miss this year’s AGM. They are now back on the committee, and as expected, are being as difficult as ever. Decisions and agreements made during their tenure are now being rejected, questioned or not supported anymore. We are now being blamed for delays to bylaws and repairs which were meant to be done by their company not the new managing agent.
The new managing agent has quickly got these items resolved any delays are caused by the former managing agent not agreeing to anything. The old managing agent has been so spiteful that approved repairs to the building which was going to stop some water entry into units including his own have been delayed due to constant questioning of stages by him but he has the nerve to then asks why there is a delay and he still has a small leak in one of his units.
Yes please Royal Commission and make new laws over conflicts of interests. Our former situation although ” not illegal ” wouldn’t pass any pub test even if it was a dodgy pub!