Re: Rogue Chairman and Strata Manager ignoring my correspondence

Ultra vires is generally used when legislation gives someone power and they act in excess of that power. I gave myself away! – I am a lawyer, a litigator. Not a property litigator but one of the benefits of partnership in a biggish firm is that fellow partners who do specialise in relevant areas will forever be happy to help ( and I know how aggressive they are as litigators and of their results!). It is interesting that the property partners’ input is consistent with my own reading of the legislation and case law, and the input from this helpful forum – I was curious about the anecdotal experience on this forum, it really is a great resource.

So another glib and dismissive response despite it now being abundantly clear none of the Committee even know what steps must be taken to make valid decisions. No idea that all owners are entitled to know everything before it is considered and decided. No idea it’s not ok for one person to just make ad hoc decisions, especially if they adversely affect one owner. But apparently couldn’t care less. I am not sure why they think my concerns are going to go away when they have been completely ignoring the legislation! Or how the Strata company thinks they can be aware that the SC is ignoring the most basic requirements and not act on that – why are we paying them, their unprofessional reaction explains why it’s been going on so long – – we need a new company appointed. Anyway it isn’t going to go away. It’s gobsmacking that SC members are apparently anxious about the ongoing ‘issue’, but no one has said ‘what are we meant to be doing, Strata company tell us and we’ll give reassurance the proper process will be followed from now on, and we’ll make decisions in a fair and transparent way and we apologise for the pruning disrupting your privacy’.

At least the court can see from the exchanges over the last few months that I have carefully raised the concerns and they have been ignored/dismissed (whoever thought those responses were clever or cute might get a rude shock when they form part of submissions; as a litigator I am always conscious what will be handed up to the court) and it’s a good basis to explain why mediation is pointless and we proceed straight for judicial intervention.

So my property brethren have some great ideas of what orders should be sought and what summons must be served to compel production of correspondence and emails etc to demonstrate that the requirements are knowingly being ignored, by the SC and Strata company, even despite me raising genuine concerns and reasonable questions months ago. First stop is reviewing the formal records- they want to chase down every cent and every piece of paperwork that should exist …and to see if any other concerns about what is going on should be raised, esp if it uncovers anomalies with $ with one person making all maintenance decisions.

I’ll report back how it all goes.

And some property in the secure garage floor (secure garage, individual cages) has been stolen so I’m now having to report that to the police in the event that it is related and becomes an ongoing issue, but fortunately I have someone coming to go through various nannycam options to monitor my car space with those hidden camera things so I can look back to the footage if anything happens But whilst I install that to monitor that area at least it makes sense to also put up cameras monitoring the balconies and trees from all my windows and balcony doors, so maybe I’ll also get evidence of why so much crap ends up on my balcony and any other relevant activity! The joys of apartment living!