As this forum is for sharing experiences and educating owners, here is some information that will possibly shock some readers.
Your experience with not being allowed access to full financials is very frequent. It is a perfect way for strata managers (and committee members if they allow it), to hide financial mismanagement.
At least in NSW, strata laws are very weak to enforce proper financial audits for strata complexes. Owners have very poor chances to enforce better financial management UNLESS they have strong and ethical committee members. To rely on Fair Trading and NCAT is a waste of time and resources.
Let us back it up with some verifiable facts for one large strata complex in Sydney (218 properties). We will only list recent events, as they go all the way back to 1999.
a) Large strata complex was recommended to engage forensic auditors in NSW Fair Trading case 7563482 on 19 May 2015. Strata Manager and committee members ignored it.
b) Large strata complex in Sydney was recommended to engage forensic auditors in NSW Fair Trading case 7938059 on 9 October 2015. Strata Manager and committee members ignored it.
c) Annual General Meeting on 20 October 2017 did not provide audited accounts to owners. It was published two and half years after due date without any financial details in late April 2020 but backdated to 31 August 2017! It was full of errors and did not have details of what the auditor really signed off.
d) An owner offered FREE access forensic audit (would cost owners nothing) but strata manager and committee members prevented it in June 2017.
e) Annual General Meeting on 17 October 2018 did not provide audited accounts to owners. It was allegedly signed off on 18 October 2018 (1 day after due date) but not published until late May 2019. It was full of financial errors.
f) Annual General Meeting on 22 October 2020 did not provide audited accounts to owners. It was published on 3 November 2020 (13 days after due date). It had financial errors.
g) Annual General Meeting on 27 October 2022 did not provide audited accounts to owners. It was published on 7 December 2022 (43 days after due date). It had financial errors.
h) Annual General Meeting on 26 October 2023 did not provide audited accounts to owners. It was published on 11 December 2023 (46 days after due date, but only made available on 14 December 2023, 49 days after due date). It had financial errors.
i) Two NSW Fair Trading cases were opened for this in 2023 and 2024:
In first case 11138875 they confirmed the strata manager was not compliant with Clause 21 of the Strata Schemes Management Regulations 2016 which requires that the accounts and financial statements of the owners corporation with budget above $250,000.00 must be audited before presentation at Annual General Meeting (AGM) in accordance with Section 95 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Strata manager and committee members refused to share this information with owners.
The second case 11204124 is underway.