Take care when the caretaker takes over

Deep in the heart of strata living there’s a grubby little secret … a stain on the whole business that politicians ignore and Fair Trading and the CTTT won’t or can’t do anything about.

QUESTION: I own a unit in a very large block where the caretaker has a 25-year contract. The previous executive looked through the caretaker agreement and identified various activities that were not being performed.

The caretakers then obtained proxies and used this to vote out the previous committee and got one of themselves elected to the committee, with the intent to continue their merry way without owners interference.

The strata manager does not see an issue with this as they are not voting on giving themselves a direct benefit. Do we have any recourse or we have to get all proxies cancelled and vote them out at the next AGM?

ANSWER:  Firstly, there are plenty of good caretakers out there who are valued members of their communities. There are also cowboys, chancers, crooks and lead swingers.

The latter have often paid a lot of money get the contracts  so they then charge their owners high fees to recoup their investment – and that’s before they even start charging you for the services they actually perform. If, in fact, they do.

You need to tell owners what this person is doing to your building.  But remember, non-resident owners generally respond to only one issue – the value of their property.

So don’t make it about personalities or historical grudges. Instead, get quotes from local real estate agents about how much more owners could get in rents and sales if the building was properly managed.

If you can raise 25 percent of votes,  call an EGM to sack the EC then you and your supporters should send this information out by mail, plus your list of preferred members, with proxy forms and stamped addresses envelopes for their return.

All new proxies cancel out previous ones so your “slate” should be elected and you can start getting your caretaker back to work.

Too hard on caretakers? Join the discussion HERE.


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