Firstly it is great to see someone paying some attention to this sort of thing as most owners let it just wash over them.
I believe your levies are too low by at least a couple of hundred dollars per quarter. My reasoning for this is that:
– you should not be running a negative balance in the admin fund
– $50,000 in the capital works fund is very low for a 45 year old 12 apartment complex. This is less than $5,000 per unit. Imagine living in a house and only have $5,000 available to you in case of a major emergency.
– The $15,000 spent out of the Capital Works Fund may well have been normal, what should be expected maintenance, and therefore should have been out of the Admin Fund, but due to lack of money had to be taken from Capital Works. I see this commonly occurring.
As scotlandx asked, is there a 10 year Captial Works Plan in place? In many small complexes such as yours there is not, and everyone is very suprised when a large “unexpected” expense comes along.
I have moved into a number of Strata complexes where the levies were 20% to 100% under what they realistically should have been, and had been for many years. This lack of funds had resulted in tired buildings, with large irregular emergency “fixes” having to be done in a rush, because proper maintenance was not in place. The knock on effect was lower sale prices, lower rents, and unhappy residents due to the complexes not being up to par. I hope that as you appear to have a number of interested residents in your complex, that this has not been allowed to occur.