› Flat Chat Strata Forum › The Professionals › Bad strata managers – and unlicensed tradespeople! › Current Page
The word “duty” only appears in the Act in relation to the Strata Manager. However, the Owners Corp has an absolute responsibility to maintain and repair common property that supersedes just about anything else that’s going on. For instance, you could be locked in a court battle with a developer over defects but still have to go ahead and effect the necessary repairs if an owner demanded it. And having no money is no excuse either – if repairs have to be done, you have to find it.
There is some excellent advice lower down this thread, from Strata managers and lawyers. The first thing I would do is to insist that the EC gets a licensed building consultant (like our sponsoprs IBC) to have a look at the work and see if it is up to scratch.
If it isn’t, you could be struggling to avoid paying a double whammy on work that’s been done badly. If the builder won’t refund the money you could threaten to report them to Fair Trading where the fines for doing unlicensed building work are hefty (see Chris Kerin’s post below).
You MIGHT be able to take a Supreme Court action against the individual EC members who ignored advice about unlicensed builders, forcing them to pay out of their own pockets.
I hasten to add, I don’t even know if that’s possible – but I do know you can take a strata case to the Supreme Court on the grounds that you are seeking damages and the CTTT doesn’t award them. Even then, this is an expensive and divisive option that could cost more than you gain.
Working back from that, perhaps the first step (after you have consulted a specialist strata lawyer, of course) is to tell the errant members of the EC that if they don’t arrange for the work to be fixed immediately at no cost, that is what you will do.
Regardless of anything else, I would also be writing to every owner – whether they live in the building or not – explaining what has been done with their money, how they face double bills for repairs and how cavalierly your EC has been operating. Just be careful not to name names or go over the top with your criticism or you could be the one who’s dragged into court.
The Strata Manager should be sacked if he or she knowingly allowed the use of unlicensed tradespeople. The EC should be asked to resign for allowing it to happen or misspending your money. And have a look at their claims of ‘immunity’ – it might sharpen their thinking if it turns out the insurance company iwon’t be coming to their rescue any time soon.