Flat Chat Strata Forum The Professionals Current Page

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #9775
    Curly
    Flatchatter

      Our complex of 22 villas has been with the same management company since 2005. I bought here a year ago and have only experienced poor service from our current strata management company. Over the year I have spoken with EC members and other owners and they agree our strata management company is hopeless. I have asked numerous times why we don’t change and been told by the EC that it is too hard. Unfortunately I have now realised that our current EC are also hopeless.

      Not one to be put off I obtained 4 quotes from local strata companies and have written to all owners who live on site including the EC (16 on site owners) and provided them with a table comparing the quotes with our current company. In my letter I also state that I have passed the quotes on to the EC to make a decision on behalf of all of us and that I have prepared motions for the upcoming December AGM to appoint whichever company the Executive Committee nominates and to terminate the current management contract three months from the date of our 2014 AGM.

      While I hope that the current EC will be able to do this I doubt they will so I will also include a motion at the AGM for the OC to request the Secretary to hold an EGM in the new year. This is a backup if for whatever reason the current EC are unable to nominate a new company at the 2014 AGM then this EGM will be held in February with the new EC to make the nomination.

      To date I have received support from five other owners. I have asked them to let the EC know that they would also like to change strata management.

      I have emailed the EC with offers to assist them with interviewing or obtaining more quotes and received no response.

    Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
    • Author
      Replies
    • #22502
      kiwipaul
      Flatchatter

        @dan3101 said:

        While I hope that the current EC will be able to do this I doubt they will so I will also include a motion at the AGM for the OC to request the Secretary to hold an EGM in the new year. This is a backup if for whatever reason the current EC are unable to nominate a new company at the 2014 AGM then this EGM will be held in February with the new EC to make the nomination.

        Forget submitting a motion at the AGM for an EGM you have provided everyone with all the relevant data so just submit a motion to the AGM for the current SM to be terminated and for one of the 4 alternatives you have found to be selected at the AGM.

        Not sure how you handle motions with alternatives in NSW but in QLD if the motion to terminate current SM is passed alll those who voted to terminate get to vote for one of the alternatives and the one with the most votes wins.

        If the current EC do make a decision that can be brought up at the AGM with a recommendation of which quote to accept.

        Check your current contract to see what is required to terminate current SM.

        #22510
        Curly
        Flatchatter
        Chat-starter

          @kiwipaul said:

          Forget submitting a motion at the AGM for an EGM you have provided everyone with all the relevant data so just submit a motion to the AGM for the current SM to be terminated and for one of the 4 alternatives you have found to be selected at the AGM.

          Thank you for your response and suggestion. While I have provided owners with a comparison table of the quotes and an email if they would like copies of the quote documentation I feel that by asking them to decide at the AGM they would solely base the decision to change on whichever was the cheapest. Having said that the current EC might also just select the cheapest and not interview.

          The quotes range from $3200 to $5500 and our current company charges towards the high end.

          The current agreement requires no less than 3 months written notice to terminate.

          #22518
          Whale
          Flatchatter

            dan – the EGM is a good back-stop in the circumstances, but if you think that your Executive Committee (E/C) will be unable to make a recommendation at the AGM, then if it’s not too late, why not change your Motion to include the name of the Strata Management Company who you believe should be appointed?

            In that way, if the E/C actually puts forward an opinion, or other owners have one, and they’re different from yours, then the Motion can be amended at the Meeting, and be resolved accordingly if that’s the majority vote.

            That’s quite acceptable, as the objective of the Motion is to terminate the Strata Manager, and who the Meeting resolves to replace them with is secondary.

            Remember, that Owners who provide proxies to the Meeting must nominate how they want their vote to be exercised on a Motion to terminate the services of the Strata Manager; any proxy forms that don’t show that are invalid for that Motion – that may or may not work in your favour but in any case keep lobbying

            #22566
            Curly
            Flatchatter
            Chat-starter

              @Whale said:
               if it’s not too late, why not change your Motion to include the name of the Strata Management Company who you believe should be appointed?

              That’s quite acceptable, as the objective of the Motion is to terminate the Strata Manager, and who the Meeting resolves to replace them with is secondary.

               

              Thanks I submitted 2 motions on Monday, one to terminate and the other with the following wording …..

              That the Owner’s Corporation, pursuant to Section 27(1) of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, appoint a Managing Agent of Strata Plan xxx effective from the termination of xxx with the delegated duties and terms and conditions of appointment as specified in the Management Agency Agreement tabled at the meeting, and that the common seal be affixed to the Management Agency Agreement which is to be signed by two members of the executive committee.

              Will this wording suffice. I still have a few days before the motion deadline to amend it.  

              #22569
              kiwipaul
              Flatchatter

                @dan3101 said:

                That the Owner’s Corporation, pursuant to Section 27(1) of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, appoint a Managing Agent of Strata Plan xxx effective from the termination of xxx with the delegated duties and terms and conditions of appointment as specified in the Management Agency Agreement tabled at the meeting,

                Who is going to supply this Management Agency Agreement you??

                I would have thought that you would submit a motion to choose agency

                a, b or c and the one that gets the vote gets the job.

                Just ask your preferred agency for a suitable motion to get rid of your current SM and appoint them. You can then modify this to include agency b or c unless you only want 1 choice.

                #22570
                Whale
                Flatchatter

                  As Owners should be as well informed as is practicable prior to the Meeting, if it was MY Motion, like KWP (post #6) I’d ensure that something was actually resolved by referencing the names those Strata Managers who have submitted proposals and the costs of those, and that Owners have an opportunity for input to a new Strata Management Agency Agreement that I assume was the basis of those proposals.

                  Something like:

                  That the Owners Corporation, pursuant to Section 27(1) of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, resolves to select a new Strata Managing Agent (SMA) for Strata Plan xxxx from those (number) who submitted the proposals included at Appendix X of this Agenda, with the appointment of the selected SMA being effective from the date of termination of the current Strata Management Agency Agreement (SMAG) with xxx, and with the delegated duties and terms and conditions of that appointment being as specified in a new SMAG, a draft of which is included at Appendix Y of this Agenda, and that the common seal be affixed to that SMAG which is to be signed by two members of the executive committee.

                  But that’s me!

                  #22575
                  Curly
                  Flatchatter
                  Chat-starter

                    kiwipaul said 

                    Who is going to supply this Management Agency Agreement you??……….

                    Just ask your preferred agency for a suitable motion to get rid of your current SM and appoint them. You can then modify this to include agency b or c unless you only want 1 choice.

                    I will table the Agency Agreement at the meeting as we are still in the process of making a recommendation.  I am waiting on the agencies to provide references to chat to about performance. Between now and our AGM in mid December I will also keep the 16 onsite owners updated on the selection process and the reasons why company x is being recommended. 

                    I ran this idea past one of the potential agencies and got them to assist me to draft the two motions. 

                    I originally provided the 16 onsite owners with the quotes from four local agencies.

                    Some good news is I now have one EC member who agrees we need to change and is willing to work with me and some other owners to select one of the four companies so that we do provide one recommendation at the December AGM

                    #22803
                    Curly
                    Flatchatter
                    Chat-starter

                      Well we had our AGM this week and we terminated our Strata Manager. When it came to the motion to appoint the new Strata, the terminated Manager wouldn’t allow a change to the motion to add the name of the one we wanted to appoint and dismissed my attempts to explain that the meeting had a majority of owners present and through proxy that wanted the new one appointed. I suppose we’ll now have to have an Extraordinary General Meeting to appoint them. Was he correct to not allow the change to the motion? The wording of the motion is three replies down and all we wanted to do was change appoint a managing agent to appoint xxx pty ltd?

                      #22805
                      Whale
                      Flatchatter

                        Dan – I could suggest that if you’d used wording even similar to that put forward in post #7 then the current impasse would have been avoided, but then that wouldn’t be very helpful would it?

                        So in an effort to be helpful ….. 

                        Your previous Strata Manager was doubtless aggrieved by the whole process, and that may have prompted their autonomous decision to rule an amendment to the Motion out-of-order.

                        Those present at the AGM could have challenged that decision and overruled the Strata Manager as it’s quite legal for a Motion to be amended “on the floor” so long as its intent is not altered (and it would not have been), but I’m afraid it’s too late now as the Meeting’s concluded.

                        So as you now suggest, an Extraordinary General Meeting is a means to specifically appoint the new Strata Manager, but an alternate means would be for an Executive Committee Meeting to vote on a Motion to do so and to concurrently execute the Agency Agreement PROVIDED the AGM Motion to appoint a person as opposed to the specific person most favoured by a majority of Owners was still properly resolved and minuted. 

                      Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
                      • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                      Flat Chat Strata Forum The Professionals Current Page