Re: Bully Chairman

Well, our AGM proceeded on 27 March 2017.  I did not attend as I had a medical procedure that day and didn’t feel up to it.  My neighbour, who also did not receive a Notice of AGM attended and told me the only other people present were the strata committee (old/new).  In due course I received the minutes of the meeting.  Unbelievably, they proceeded without a quorum – including the number of a utility lot as a person attending.  The minutes stated that all SC members had self-nominated, but one I know was interstate and had not given her proxy to anyone because she had included me in an email advising that she was out of town.

I was so enraged that things proceeded with all my objections, I investigated my options.  Unfortunately, you can’t take people to NCAT without first attempting mediation through Fair Trading (which, unfortunately has moved from the city to Parramatta, involving a long train trip for me), so I got all my information together and filed an application for mediation with Fair Trading (who can knock back the application if they consider it frivolous).  They took about a week to get back to me with a date a further three weeks away.  So that was a week ago.

The OC was represented by the Chairman and the Strata Manager as respondents, with me (alone) as the applicant.  Obviously, the Chairman and the Strata Manager were hostile and repeatedly told me that everything had been in order and the AGM was legitimate.  They lied, told fairy tales, told me the Notice of AGM had been mailed to everyone (it still hasn’t turned up and my neighbour even made enquiries at our post office).  The mediator, who was already acquainted with the Strata Manager, told me several times to be quiet and listen to the Strata Manager. The Chairman told me what I said about him was defamatory (it isn’t).  The Strata Manager said the AGM was early mostly because she was going on holiday, to which I replied that an email to that effect should have been sent to the committee members.  The Chairman said an email was sent (oh sorry, somehow your name was left off).  I told them the AGM was invalid because they didn’t have a quorum and the usual SC member who was unfinancial couldn’t be on the SC, to which the Strata Manager replied that (of course) the levies were paid prior to the meeting. I have yet to see evidence of this.

The mediators at Fair Trading are elderly, semi-retired legal people and I felt our session was hindered by a “let’s stick to the rules” approach.  Both the Chairman and the Strata Manager are aggressive people and I ended up just accepting the outcome was not going to go my way and all that was resolved was that the Strata Manager would email me when documents were available and I could go to her office and pick them up. 

The whole episode was very disappointing.  I’m right back to where I was with a now cliquey SC in place, who will continue to let the Chairman make all decisions.