#51464
fight4justice
Flatchatter

    HOW TO DEAL WITH APATHETIC AND SILENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS FROM A LONE VOICE??

    It is quite frustrating  to learn that NSW office of Fair Trading and our court system are not able to protect the rights  of home owners from STRATA mismanagement by incompetent strata committees and their authorized strata management agents.

    I have undergone the same painful experience caused by apathetic strata committee members who have spoiled their authorized agents  in their joint action to frustrate my attempts by the  use of  opaque style of strata management, not following good business practice of transparency and accountability and using misrepresentation and push back strategies

    The strata and building managers have allowed illegal major events to proliferate by not performing their strata law compliance and enforcement duties with due diligence and care and even refuse to take corrective action after I  brought to their special attention of them and the strata committee members who have remained silent all the way up to the present.  The following are facts of the case from which I hope you can help me to resolve the deadlock

    FACTS OF THE CASE

    Since November, 2019, I joined the strata committee of an apartment complex in which I have lived since August, 2016 where the strata governance and the living conditions have deteriorated from bad to worst via the joint efforts of both the apathetic and non-responsive strata committee members  who allowed the authorized strata managing agents to do whatever they want and condone their neglect of statutory strata law compliance and law enforcement duties There are a number of actors leading to the present situation:

    Our apartment complex is  three apartment buildings under three strata schemes and managed by the same strata management company and serviced by a building management company under common ownership.  We have a full time on site building manager on duty on weekdays.

    The strata management company is relatively new to the NSW strata management industry.  The building manager company is the whole owned subsidiary of the strata management company as both are owned by the  same  proprietors. As a result there is no arms length checks and balances by the strata manager on the performance of the building manager.

    Over 90% of the population are non-English speaking migrants who are intraverted  afraid to assert their legal rights and lack of computer skills. As a result it is difficult to use majority votes in AGM due to the cultural and language barriers and computer tech skills

    The strata committee has been dominated mainly by two middle aged  non resident investor owner whose only concern is to keep spending low in order to minimize strata levy, totally ignoring the duty of reasonable care and due diligence.  Another  resident owner is an 80 year old resident whose only concern also to keep levy low and not to spend any money. All of them appear to be first timer in strata committee and lack NSW strata law and practice.    Their apathetic attitude is the worst I have ever seen in my 38 years strata living.  They remained silent all the way and never responded to all my emails about serious illegal breaches.

    As a result, the strata manager and building manager  have been cherrypicking their duties by doing just the easy routine jobs and refuse to do most of the important strata law compliance and enforcement duties. As a result,our living conditions have become filthy and disorderly with potential financial risks to all owners and fire hazards to all residents because of the continual existence of the following two major strata law breaches

    I have alerted to them the following major law breaches since November, 2019

    1. The proliferation of illegal structures (illegal added bedrooms) posing substantial financial risks to owners and fire hazards to all residents. A illegal cluster of over 18 apartment existed in February, 2020 which may be more now after the July fire inspection audit.
    2. From the inception,the Building manager has illegally devised his own policy of allowing residents and non-residents to recklessly dump trade wastes and unwanted bulky household items such as huge fridges or king size bed matresses,huge furniture  etc in the garbage rooms for temporary storage and use our cleaning contractors to move these heavy and bulky items  to collection location on council clean up dates at the expense of all the innocent owners WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND APPROVAL   This is a blatant departure from normal industry practice The building manager has resisted my request to account for the cost of illegal dumping for disclosure to owners and also to perform monitor and compliance duties on  such illegal dumping.
    3. Failure to repair and maintain our strata security doors and boom gates hence allowing non-residents and residents free access to our garbage rooms for free illegal dumping in our garbage rooms
    4. Our strata managing agents’ neglect has been caused since inception bythe apathetic attitude of our strata committee members. Since I became a strata committee member as Secretary, I have sent 14 emails to all the other three committee members and the strata managing agents alerting them of the  aforesaid major strata law breaches , making recommendations to rectify and remove the illegalities.
      But all the strata committee members  have remained silent, never responded or supported my initiated action.  The building manager has used their apathy as an excuse not to take any action as he claimed that though I am the Secretary, I have no mandare from the strata committee as other members have not agreed or approved by initiated proposals to rectify.
    5. The use of majority votes cannot work because there have been only a few owners about 4 to 8 owners attending out of 186 owners in the last four AGMs as nearly all of owners are not interested strata affairs.

    The strata manager and building manager have been spoiled and taking advantage of the ignorance and apathetic attitudes of both the owners and committee memebers encouraging them to keep their opaque style of management, concealing important material illegal events e using silence and push back strategies to frustrate my repeated request for corrective action.

    The other three non-resident committee members have been not co-operative by refusing to share common strata information, remaining silent and non-responsive to alerts on illegal issues.

    It appears my efforts to become a committee members in order to have a voice are in vain.  If any member of the Flat chat community with similar experience can provide me with a few effective guidance as to how to deal with my present difficult situation, I shall be most grateful and greatly relieved.