@Faraway girl said:
My questions are these:1. Can the AGM or any meeting for that matter, vote to backdate costs by a different division than the lot entitlements of owners?
2. Can some owners be charged a fee based on one system and others be charged by a different system?
3. Are we correct in stating that we pay our $2400 contribution in quarterly instalments so should not be being billed for other costs of the Strata Scheme.
OK, first of all, you re-sent this (I deleted it) presumably because you didn’t get an immediate answer. By all means nudge us for a reply but please don’t re-send in the same or different forum.
Moving on, you need to get an official letter from Fair Trading with answers to all your questions which you can then pass on to the developer.
You should already be contacting a strata manager with whom you can go to NCAT asking for a section 162 statutory appointment of a strata manager.
This person is breaking the law in so many ways it’s hard to know where to begin. You need a letter from Fair Trading (Ph 13 32 20) detailing the correct procedure. Your developer is getting some very bad legal advice (I doubt if his wife will be considered a different owner for the purposes of the vote at the AGM).
I understand you found the legal advice offered too expensive so you have to do this yourself. So here is what I would do:
1. Get Fair Trading to give you a detailed letter of what the correct procedure is. Contact them by phone and fine the right person to speak to so that you get an official letter from them.
2. Send the developer a letter detailing all the breaches , including a copy of the letter, and warning him that you will challenge any decisions made at the AGM at NCAT and have then overturned because if he goes ahead on the current basis it will be unlawful.
3. Start proceedings for mediation at Fair Trading so the facts of life can be explained to this idiot. They will do a site visit if need be.
4. Find a strata manager who will go with you to NCAT, and offer them, as well, the chance to present as a viable strata manager and have their contract accepted at the AGM in the event that you don’t have to go for a Section 162.
To answer your questions, the developer can only charge levies according to the unit entitlements and he is not allowed to create debts that the owners corp has to pay (therefore he can’t backdate charges).
Once again, you really need to get some strata professionals on board – whether it’s Fair Trading, a strata manager or a lawyer – so that this idiot doesn’t just keep coming at you with another “cunning plan.”