› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Finance, budgeting and loans › Strata’s financial statements withheld from OC › Current Page
Jimmy T wrote
I fail to see how the membership of a reputable strata online service (and I know the one you’re referring to) is only of personal benefit to the secretary/treasurer, since it can only be of any use in their dealings with the committee and owners corporation. They don’t need to be sitting repeating chapter and verse everything they have heard or read on the website for it to be of benefit to the committee and community as a whole.
There is no real committee. The strata has 5 lots. The committee is made of two persons where one is an echo and mostly answers queries with “talk to the Secretary/Treasurer or the Managing Agent”. The other is the Sec/Tsr (who has at least one owner’s – who does not seem alert – proxy in his pocket). Neither SC members are involved in administering the strata: that was outsourced to a managing agent. I can only guess that the benefit the Sec/Tsr derives from the subscription is for his other possible properties where maybe there is no managing agent and perhaps he cannot get a lock on the votes so easily.
Regarding payment of expenses (in NSW), there is nothing I can find under strata law to prevent the OC paying legitimate expenses retrospectively, just as there is nothing to prevent them placing restrictions on these expenses.
I understand that any payment must be approved at a AGM and paid retrospectively. I have no issue with that. NSWFT focused on the word “retrospectively” in my discussions. In the case I mention, payment was made mid 2020 in secret without informing let alone allowing the OC to vote. The Chair approved paying the Sec/Tsr and passed her approval to the managing agent to pay. That is how the 2 person SC worked. The AGM some months afterwards was not informed of the pmt, let alone given the chance to vote. Also if someone invoices the SC for 60 visits to the strata (without starting over what period), asking the OC to pay the bridge toll etc, is it too much to ask for details of why he visited each time and what he did? Is it too much to ask for original invoices for items claimed to have been purchased?
If the committee member is a valued contributor to the workings of the committee, I can’t see why they should have to be out of pocket to fulfill their role.
Nobody should be out of pocket for legitimate provable required expenses. But that does not seem to be the case here.
I don’t value any committee member who seems to be allergic to transparency; had me removed from the SC because I insisted that tradesmen and SC members (including him) who want to do work for the OC submit their quotes before they are engaged by the SC/OC (and not be hired and paid until the quote is accepted) and an individual who was found to have used OC funds to pay for a neighbour’s kitchen appliance in the past. As for work claimed to have been performed for the OC: there is no proof. For instance, he claims he purchased paint and other items for work at the premises. But there are no original invoices/receipts; there is no mention of what was the condition of whatever was painted before it was painted and how it looks after the said painting was done. I have no idea what was painted, assuming something was painted as the SC reported nothing about this to the OC.
NSWFT asked me to question the agent about paying this invoice in breach of the Act and to establish how many times the agent has paid this way. I sense NSWFT is finally growing some fangs.
On the other hand, the ATO does not permit expenses incurred in attending strata committee meetings as legitimate deductions. However, some would say that’s a good reason why expenses SHOULD be paid – since theywould be out of pocket otherwise.
I have no issue with reimbursing folk. If it follows the law. I have an issue when one SC member asking the other SC member to sign off on his request for reimbursement and the agent paying in breach of the SSMA requirement that such payments need OC approval before being paid. And keeping that pmt a secret from the OC. The AGM that four months later in 2020 followed the payment made no reference to the payment.
The simple solution is to propose a motion to your next general meeting that expenses to committee members no longer be paid, and see how that flies.
I think you miss my point, or I was unclear. I have no issue with reimbursement so long as it is a per the Act; when retrospective approval is given by the OC; not done in secret and not done without evidence of purchases; without reports on 60 trips to the strata indicating what was done and photos before and after of work performed.
By the way, in Queensland, body corporate law allows for a maximum expenses claim of $50 per meeting and $300 per year.
Way to go Anastasia!