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We have had similar here. Our Strata Manager has carried out repairs that the EC were not advised of. I only found out as at the time I was the recipient of the cheque statements.
I have had many battles with our SM regarding unnotified/unauthorised repairs. Many transactions on our statements did not even identify the unit number involved.
When confronted with these our SM would say “don't worry we will just put it to your insurance”. It was then that we discovered that this was a regular occurence – that repairs, that we did not know were being carried out, were being paid for by the OC then claimed on our insurance. All without our knowledge.
I fought for 12 months to get a list of our insurance claims that were put through on our behalf without advising us. There was quite a list.
There were many concerns raised from these actions. If we did not know there was a problem with a unit, and it kept happening (as has happened) then how could we determine that further investigation or works need to be carried out? And what if the problem wasn't common property or the responsibility of the OC (which did happen) and yet we are paying for it?
How do we advise owners who may come to us on what to do about a problem in their units? An owner could come to the EC and be told it is the responsibility of the owner to fix, and their neighbour could go to the SM and have it fixed, paid for and claimed with the EC ever knowing the problem existed.
Then the SM sent out a notice to all owners that someone would be coming to inspect the units to address a problem (that many units including my own did not have). But the EC had not asked for such inspections or works to be carried out. The SM had taken it upon themselves to decided this needed doing.
We have only ever permitted the SM to carry out works of about $250 or if it were a life threatening/dangerous/damaging problem without referring to the EC first. Then they just started approving anything and everything.