#21409
Whale
Flatchatter

    Papageno – I’m afraid that have a different interpretation; sorry to confuse.

    When the budgets upon which levies are set are determined, they’re based on the actual expenditure for the preceding year and any anticipated additional expenditures in the coming year, and that’s why the Annual General Meeting (AGM) is the best venue for Owners Corporations (O/C) to make that determination.

    I recognise that the above methodology is less accurate for the Sinking Fund, but that’s why the Sinking Fund Plan comes into play.

    So as Clause 76 of the Strata Schemes Management Act (SCMA) prescribes that the amount of the Plan’s levies must be determined at the same meeting at which the budgets are set, and Clause 75 prescribes that those budgets must be set at each Annual General Meeting, I agree with your Strata Manager.

    I appreciate why you and the other Owners would want their levies to be as low as possible, but I’d be more inclined to base those on past actuals and anticipated future expenditures, so it may be as well for you to use the time between now and the next AGM to take a closer look at that Sinking Fund Plan. There may be future expenditures required and shown in that Plan that will gobble-up what appears to be a current surplus. 

    All that said, KWP’s right in saying that your Strata Manager is contracted by the O/C, and in that regard it could instruct her to convene the EGM and, subject to a favourable resolution by those present, to adjust the sinking fund component of the levies…. but then Strata Managers are required to act in accordance with relevant laws, and as I said, in that regard I believe yours is right.