› Flat Chat Strata Forum › From the Front Page › Victoria: A shambolic state of strata chaos › Current Page
I respect your opinion, but I am far from convinced. It seems to me that Victorian apartment owners are more excluded from decision-making than they are in NSW and that just makes it easier for small groups of self-interested owners to make decisions that affect the long-term value of properties.
The ABC report on the “rotting” buildings exposed by the flammable cladding remediation is, I suspect, the tip of the iceberg. I am pretty sure many of these will be buildings where defects were not pursued and repairs were not undertaken while the owners were told that the main objective was to keep fees down.
It’s only recently that Victorian strata committees didn’t require a special resolution to initiate legal action. I wonder how many suits against developers were avoided because they had enough votes in their pockets to block any action.
As for your scenario of decisions being delayed by owners being informed through the distribution of minutes and agendas, that may well happen in NSW (although the advance notice of meetings is barely a week). But even if it does happen, surely that’s better than committees meeting in “secret” – I don’t know how else to describe people meeting where outsiders can’t observe them – and then refusing to share their deliberations with other owners.
The proof is in the pudding and if Victorian strata isn’t about to be revealed as having huge systemic problems, I will cover my favourite hat in chocolate sauce and eat it.
You might be interested in this week’s podcast when I post it on Tuesday – you get an honourable mention – but I suspect you will hate it.