This arrived this morning from an unhappy reader:
From your article, I can see how naïve you are . If you think that “proxy farming” is a mechanism to be elected or the building will collapse without you, then you have never been in the thankless role of Chairmen of a Body Corporate committee.
Perhaps you haven’t lived in a strata title , or you have but you haven’t paid attention to how much work is involved, the daily phone calls , load of emails, organising workers to collect keys so emergency work can be done in their apartment, liaison with the managing agent 24/7 and all this you do out of the goodness of your heart. Mostly tenants knock on your door at any time of the day and night and treat you like a concierge – or their parent!
Attending a tribunal hearing if or when necessary is another joy and I am sure you would ask why the managing agent doesn’t get involved. I have yet to see one managing agent who is capable of executing his duty efficiently , the less work for them is the better .
Putting up with renters who break every by-law in the book, parking illegally with their invitees partying , I can go on and on,
Those by-laws are written by bureaucrats who never in their life have lived in a strata title dwelling.
I have been a chairman for the past 25 years and I could write a book about what is really going on. I sold 3 years ago and now live in a house and there is no way I will live in a unit ever again.