In a nutshell, the strata manager was free to spend the owners corp money without consulting the owners corp beforehand.
So how did you fix it?
One quarter of the owners corp called an extraordinary general meeting to vote on several changes to the strata management contract. These motions were to:
- Revoke the strata manager’s authority to spend up to $500 on anything
- Instruct the strata manager to contact the strata committee for any matter (including emergencies) before they spend money.
- Instruct the strata manager to stop submitting income tax returns on our behalf (because they were unnecessary and costing us money).
After these motions were passed, the strata manager resigned from our service. We tried to find another strata manager who would not use “emergency” as the catch-all excuse to spend money. It did not happen. Now we’re self managed.