Reply To: Strata records – said to have gone missing

Update – email 2 of 2

Sorry for the late posting, but I had hoped for replies to questions in “Update – email 1 of 2” as those replies would impact my questions in this “Update – email 2 of 2”.

Mr X raised the possibility of something that I think is way out of line and ask for Flatchatters’ views.

He says, “assuming the SM has few records and (current and former) SC members claim they have none, I will ask every owner in the building to pass to me any record they find in their possession”.

* He said that he’ll give owners say half a year to search for any documentation relating to the strata, from any time. Whatever is found and passed to him will be aggregated into a “library”. He will charge the OC for his work in aggregating;


Q3: Can he ask for payment? I think doing so breaches the recent reforms and s. 46 SSM Act.

* At our fortnightly tennis match I told him that I (an owner) have some papers but am not sure how relevant they are they are. They may be in one of 3 locations. Traveling to the storage sites, accessing them and sorting them out (so they make sense to Mr X) before handing them over, will take a time. Many hours. I don’t know how many. Maybe 6 hrs?


Q4: Can Mr X expect uninvolved folk like me to spend time and money searching in different places for historic paperwork? And do it for free? Or for payment we consider insufficient? Most of us work full time and have not the time, energy or inclination for this.

Q5: Can other members of the SC be expected to spend their time searching their files for OC documents, so Mr X will have a better picture of the scheme? They claim they doubt they have any records (odd given they’ve been on the SC for 5 years or so), but they will search, but not for free;

Here is the kicker.

Can Mr X insist that by a certain date (say 6 mths from now), he will draw a line. Whatever was found and handed in to him by that date will constitute the scheme’s library. Anything found by anyone after that date, even if it’s indisputably a true record, will not be considered in any decision making of the SC or OC.

He gave an example: “Mr Z, a senior citizen passes 25 records (all he could find) to Mr X within the 6-month window. They are a jumble of papers spanning 10 years that do not tell the full story about any matter. They may well add to understanding of an issue if read in tandem with documents unearthed by other owners and passed on to Mr X. Who knows”?

Mr X continues: “suppose the senior citizen passes away in a year. His daughter, two years from now, wants to renovate and suddenly finds historic OC documents backing up her view on a certain matter”. According to Mr X, “the document found by the daughter will be ignored by the SC and OC”.

Q6: Can the SC or OC choose to ignore that recently found (and indisputably genuine) document?

All perspectives are welcome.