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Hi All
This is a grizzle, hope you all don’t mind. I am in Sydney. I am two years into a long term dispute with my Committee. $30,000 down the drain and more expense to come. Probably looking at $60,000 by the time I get to the tribunal. Whether I am judged right or wrong by the tribunal I truly believe this System is geared against the individual and leans far too heavily on relying on Committees and owners and Strata Managers doing the right thing when we all know from reading the forum they don’t. This dispute has taken a toll on my work my relationships my health and my happiness.
What is the point of having Strata Laws when the only way to enforce them is with the Tribunal. Please don’t even suggest going without a lawyer as you would be eaten alive. We lodged almost a year ago and it has dragged on and on. Going to the Tribunal without a lawyer is like having brain surgery without a Doctor.
If we break road rules we get pulled over by the police. If we break council rules the council inspector comes along and issues a warning. That can be followed through to a fine .
When someone in Strata community particularly the Committee breaks a law, they answer to no one, unless an owner takes them to the Tribunal. If you call Fair Trading their answer is go to the Tribunal. Where one member decides who is right or wrong. Fair trading can investigate Strata managers but have no power to investigate Committees … That is ridiculous and the experienced Committee members know it!
I have even written to the State member who has now been replaced and he sent me to guess where? Fair Trading who said go to the Tribunal.
So an individual owner is up against Committees who have sometimes been in office for scores of years. Who have each others backs or in this case have ‘something’ on each committee member so they toe the line. Who have proxy farmed the investors who don’t give a hoot, have access to all of the owners phone numbers, emails and addresses and use them to manipulate votes and also slander you while they are at it so even if you try to speak to owners they look at you as if you murdered a kitten. Who write ‘Empire Strikes Back’ minutes like: ‘We must defend the owners corporation against this individual owners application’ So not only do you have a major issue and conflict you also become alienated and isolated in your own home.
We had a general meeting to discuss and vote on the funds for the Tribunal and no owners showed up. When asked how could the owners have voted with a full understanding of the issues without hearing our side of it . I was told: The Committee had told them what was happening. Of course the committee are completely biased and also hiding what is really happening. No one wanted to go to an EGM and they feed on that as well.
Solution:
Wouldn’t it be easier if we could call a Fair Trading inspector, just like a Safe work inspector to come out to a building and investigate the dispute on site. Make a recommendation that goes to all of the owners. Give these inspectors the power to give fines or warnings. Settle it then and there. No lawyers. As an owner I feel totally unsupported by the system. If I lose at the tribunal I won’t even be able to sell, as all of the issues have been documented now and the issues run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Strata laws are pointless because they are not instantly and effectively enforced.
So frustrated, it shouldn’t be this hard. Rant over, Thanks for listening.
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I totally concur with Whoopi and Penny Hill, regarding the impossibility of bringing rogue, incompetent and arrogant E.C.’s to account.
Our E.C. takes the attitude that the Strata Management Act doesn’t apply to them and they know that nobody can force them. For anything less than fraud (which has to be taken to the courts) there is no enforcement or penalty, so E.C.’s are a law unto themselves.
I spent $36,000 attempting to get our E.C. to manage our strata in accordance with the Act, but after mediation (was ignored), 2 tribunal hearings, letters to Fair Trading, and the Minister and the Chairperson of CTTT (all of whom gave pathetic excuses to do nothing), I eventually had to admit defeat. The Minister wrote in reply: “The management of a strata scheme is democratic and is the responsibility of the owners corporation. Fair Trading provides information to owners on their rights and responsibilities under the Act as well as mediation service [which is unenforceable] for strata issues.”
In other words, it is your problem, and the government refuses to have any involvement.
The regulator (Office of Fair Trading) is a toothless tiger (on purpose) with no inspectors or auditors and no facility to police or monitor strata administration or prosecute where required. The government knows that to do so would cost money, so it is a case of ‘industry self regulation’ which everyone knows is a contradiction in terms.
Just another example of how hopeless and incompetent our politicians, bureaucrats and regulators are.
Does anybody know someone at the ABC who could do a expose on this?
Gee Whoopi. Do we live in the same building? Our mediation at Fair Trading was stopped because the rep from the SC kept making faces, repeating our words, interrupting and generally belittling us. The mediator was useless.
@Whoopi said:
The owners were not notified that committee member did not attend. Plus he is paid an enormous honorarium.If the payment is agreed in advance, he and the committee are breaking the law.
You are not even allowed to report to owners what happened in mediation as it is all confidential. This makes no sense at all to me.
Are you sure? The owners are party to the mediation (as members of the Owners Corporation) so they are entitled to be told. And even if they weren’t, what’s going to happen? Off to strata prison with you!?! Seriously, if the other side refuses to play by the rules, why would you feel the need to follow them in such minute detail?
… the committee were able to control the information that filtered back.
So find a way of letting the owners know. It takes about $25 to set up a website and $1 a unit to send postcards directing people to it (nothing if you have their email addresses).
I am amazed at how many unhappy strata bunnies are out there. I have worried about you since your private message and think about you a lot. Hang in there Ziggy…… Call Four Corners !!!!! Insight !!!!! Would love to see my committee chased down the road by Current Affair !!!
Having been on several TV news magazine items about strata, I can tell you they usually don’t get it. I did a thing for Helen Wellings on Seven about “forced sales” legislation – the promo for the item was headlined “Strata Body Corporates out of control!”
Why? Because the 12-year-olds in the promo department assumed that’s what it must be about. They don’t know and, more to the point, (apart from Ms Wellings) they don’t care.
You have all the ammunition you need to take your strata committee members to NCAT and you have already had the mediation. So apply to NCAT and
a) ask for them to be removed from the committee
b) order them to pay back the honorarium
c) order the committee to do the things they should have been doing.
In the meantime, it has never been easier to get your message out to your fellow owners – don’t wait for a TV show to do it for you because, apart from the unlikelihood of them doing it in the first place, their agenda may be very different from yours.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
@Whoopi said:
Honorariums are usually retrospective he has been getting it for so many years no one knows.
If they are genuinely retrospective – voted at the AGM for the previous year – then they aren’t illegal. But you could argue that the recurring nature of them, allied to his expectation that he will get one every year, puts them into a grey area and for clarity’s sake, you should not have one at the next AGM.
If he blows up and demands one, it proves your point. It also gives you a chance to show how much money his decisions have cost owners, by way of a motion to the AGM (with explanatory notes that they must send to owners for the agenda to be valid).
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Whoopi – (1) Honorarium.
Why don’t you submit a Motion to be included at the next AGM that states what you believe the Honorarium should be? It may not be wise for you raise a Motion stating that the Honorarium should be $0 but you could word it something like this:
Motion to grant Honorarium.
That the Owners Corporation approves the granting of an honorarium of $xxxxxxx to xxxxxxxx for services rendered to the Owners Corporation since the previous AGM.
You could make the amount a small sum e.g. $100.00 or $200.00.
Submitting your Motion in words of your own choosing puts you in the ‘driving seat’. The other owners can either vote YES or NO.
(2) Tribunal findings.
Do you have a copy of the Tribunal findings? If the SM refuses to circulate the Tribunal findings then why don’t you circulate the findings to all the owners in your building via a letter box drop?
You have a right to view the Strata Roll. You could mail the findings to the owners who do not live on site. You could include an explanatory covering letter. Make sure that any letter that you include is not defamatory in any way.
(3) Incomplete Minutes
If you believe the Minutes are not correct then you have the right to correct the Minutes by way of correspondence to the SM. Corrections should be reflected in the Minutes of the next meeting. If the SC refuses to include any corrections then your correspondence will, at least, be on file.
It appears that the SM may be sending a rough draft of the Minutes to the Chairperson or the Secretary, who may then be ‘bleaching’ them to reflect their own agenda.
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