290% Interested / How to vote strata reform

I recently got a look at an overdue levy notice from an owner in my SP. I personally like to stay in credit because i  know that in the past interest on overdue contributions (levies) was not calculated correctly. There has been a change in Treasurer since then but I never felt that change addressed the problem.

On the levy notice is the amount overdue for the period 1-30 days. This is the amount overdue within the last month. In that period there is one contribution overdue. It was a contribution for $157. The interesting part is the owner has been charged interest of $23.71 for being 19 days overdue on a $157 contribution.

When i do the math, $23.71 of interest amounts to being charged a 290% interest rate, not 10%.

I doubt the Treasurer is aware of what is going on and i doubt the owners are.

In this SP 25% of owners are levy defualters, there is $50K in

outstanding levies which is a lot when one considers the annual levy is

generally $500-600. I doubt anyone is being charge interest correctly.

The humour in this comes from the fact that in mid Feb 2011 a CTTT Member, a senior one, when dealing with a s162 application accepted the story from the OC (actually two people on the EC hiding under the OC banner) that “the owners as a whole are working for the proper managment of the Responant”.

In fact they are not. It is a hopeless situation. Strata issues need to be removed from the portfolio of CTTT because it is clear whoever felt that strata issues were matters CTTT could handle got it very wrong.

Was the old Strata Board failing; if it was then was it as bad a failure as the current organisation?

The CTTT annual report for 2010 shows that around 1 in every 5.8 strata adjudications are appealed to the Tribunal. Compared these numbers to the other areas CTTT covers and the figure reveals that strata owners are around 12 times more likely to appeal a decision than people dealing with all the other CTTT divisions put together.

Is there something wrong with strata owners – are they really so different from the other 97.5% of CTTT applicants? (Strata is 2.5% of CTTT's portfolio)

CTTT's own report reveals serious problems within the strata division. What has occured since 2010 report – ziltch.

I believe there are a lot of strata units in the Strathfield area. The Member for Strathfield is the Hon. Minister for Fair Trading which is a portfolio which includes CTTT.

I will spell it out. If you live in strata in the Strathfield electorate- vote the Minister out of the Parliamnet. Even a seat on the back bench of a party in opposition is being to kind.

It seems strata reform and CTTT reform have been the last thing on the Ministers mind.

Have the Minister be the last thing on your mind when you stand in the polling booth if you are in her electorate and own a strata property. Put her last.