For me, if there was no alternative to sacking the manager, the process would be:
- Sit with the committee and identify areas in the SM contract where they have failed. Make a written note but don’t minute them in detail
- Find a new strata manager with good references who is prepared to take over.
- Confront the existing manager and invite them to resign rather than face a motion at a general meeting seeking their removal, at which all their alleged failures will be read into a permanent strata record.
- If they refuse, call the meeting, explain the problem and vote. Have a representative of the new strata manager there ready to take over.
As far as what happens in the interim, the law requires seven days’ notice (which is really 10 days to take into account postage and weekends). That is plenty of time for the strata manager to rethink their position but not enough to do any serious harm to the strata scheme.
The new strata manager can’t really take up the role until the previous one has been removed. Then it becomes an issue of getting the scheme’s records handed over which the previous incumbent can delay, despite the law saying they mustn’t, because Fair Trading doesn’t do anything to sanction strata managers who break strata law.