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  • #66890
    tonytran2015
    Flatchatter

      In its current form with no transparency, Victorian Owners Corporation Act 2006 had facilitated overcharging lot owners by service providers supplied and chosen by Committee members. It is a form of robbery in daylight of lot owners by their elected Chairman and with the acquiescence by the Manager.

      These robbery in daylight of lot owners is currently one terrible features of Victorian OC Act 2006. It may be bad enough to send property investors out of the Victorian flats/units market.

      • This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by .
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    • #66896
      86_strata
      Flatchatter

        @TonyTran. I hear you, but I don’t really understand what you are asking of the forum.  Have you applied to join the committee/s? It is hard work to be on the committee and to do the job well, but someone has to do it.  Of course, the selection of service providers for minor things and maintenance is done by someone – if not the manager putting some names forward of providers they have relationships with, the committee members may do so if it is small enough that it is not a tender.  Then it is an agreement of the committee as to how they want to proceed.  If you think you can do better, then put your hand up at the next AGM and give it a go.  And if the Chair or the committee are really acting against the spirit of the OC Act, then there should be ways for you to seek remedies of that if you have proof of overcharging or bad faith.

        #66898
        tonytran2015
        Flatchatter
        Chat-starter

          @86_strata, Thank you for your response.

          At this Owners Corporation in Footscray (near to Melbourne City) 24 pairs of Aluminium framed windows had been actually replaced at the price of $6000 per pair while market price were and is still only $800/pair (totalling 4 square meters), plus labour of at most $1200/pair. Someone had made an overcharge of $4000×24 just for replacing 24 pairs of windows with aluminium frames. Everything has been recorded in the AGM Minutes and the payment records from the Manager. Chairman and Manager passed the buck around. They don’t deny the facts but they admitted absolutely no responsibility. I know that another large blocks of flats in Sunshine (also around Melbourne City) also got its windows replaced after that by the same Chairman! It is clear that he bought one flat in each large block only to secure the contracts for his service providers. According to the Owners Corporation Act it looks like Manager have to supply service providers and Committee should not. However, a corrupt Manager and corrupt Committee maliciously SWITCH their functions: It is incredible that Manager often claim that he knows no better service providers and delegated back the job of selecting service providers to the Chairman. Please note that lawful delegation can only be made by Manager to his employees (section 124 of OCA).

          At the buildings my people invested in, there are 3 owners who want to get total control of three blocks with 36 owners. I stood for the election for Committee (I own 4 lots). The Manager and the Committee even engaged in ELECTION FRAUDS to eliminate me and retain their grip on the Committee. They maliciously changed the election rules at the AGM without a quorum to eliminate me. The minutes of that meeting reads:
          “12. APPOINTMENT OF MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 12.1. Nominations for the committee are as follows: …12.2. It was resolved that rather than following the voting procedure set as pet item 2.2, the Owners Corporation will vote on which of the committee nominee’s (set out in item 12.1) will be elected by temporarily moving each nominee into the Zoom Waiting Room while the other members are casting their vote on whether to elect that nominee as a member of the committee, so that votes can be cast by those members without any direct or perceived influence by way of the nominee being present during their vote. Voting will be via verbal indication. ”
          Changing of election rules their way is blatantly unlawful (by section 78(1) and (4)).
          Application was made in July 2022 to the regulating body (called the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) to determine if the election was conducted lawfully and the regulating body (Tribunal) gave one direction hearing after another then scheduled a Compulsory Mediation in April 2023, adding a time delay totalling to 12 months without any real hearing happening yet. The term of a Committee is normally 12 months and it would expires long before any real hearing. Justice delayed is justice denied.

          Any moral support or suggestions by fellow unit owners are highly appreciated.

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