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Struggler,
You have to assume that you are not alone in this and with that in mind, it may be time to get rid of your Executive Committee and strata manager and, if the owners won’t vote them out, apply to have a Strata Manager appointed by the CTTT, especially since you have reported in the past about the lack of any desire to get involved by other owners.
I deliberately chose not to use the word ‘apathy’ because that implies people don’t care. In your case, as in so many others, owners do care but not enough to get involved in doing any work themselves.
So I would be sending round a letter to all owners informing them that the poor management of your strata scheme is costing them time and money. The bleach killing the plants is just the most obvious example.
In your letter, you should point out how easy it is to organise these things – if you have the will or basic nouse to do so.
For instance, in the case of the painting, at the EC’s request an efficient strata manager would have worked out how long it was going to take to paint each unit and then given owners a phone number to book their times on a first come, first served basis. Someone in their office would have a grid and all the names and phone numbers of owners would be slotted in to vacant time slots.
Owners who called but couldn’t make any of the available time slots would be given the opportunity to organise another time slot on a catch-up day. Owners who didn’t call would be told they would have x days in which to organise a time at their convenience but there would be a special call-out fee to bring the painters back to the complex.
This is not rocket science and it’s a system that’s used in strata plans all over Australia every day.
Why, you should ask your owners, should you have to put up with third-rate service which is a false economy because the EC is incapable of doing the most basic tasks and the strata manager is no help. It is time for the owners to clear out the EC and take control themselves. Failing that, you will be applting to the CTTT for the statutory appointment of a strata manager
I would also inform them that Statutory Strata Managers are notoriously strict in their implementation of the law – they won’t cut corners and they will charge top dollar. Even so that is better for the building than a culture of saying nothing and doing less.
You could try to organise a meeting of like-minded individuals but you should be prepared to follow through on any threats to go to the CTTT iof you make them.