Denied access to critical information under s108 of the SSMA

We currently have many issues within our strata scheme including specific breaches of the SSMA:

• Legal cases being run without a S80D and without owners having knowledge of these cases and the amount of money that is being spent from the OC’s funds
• Long standing common property issues within individual lots and common areas not being fixed – some dating back many years.  Owners are being given the run around and can not getting answers as to why things are not getting fixed.
• Serious life threatening defects being left for almost three years (fire) 
• Common property being altered at significant cost and without approval under s65A of the SSMA

These issues have been raised with our strata manager and they have stated that they are there to take direction from the Executive Committee providing it is within legislation!  It is evident that legislation is not being followed.

We had requested copies of the schemes financials to try to find out where all of the levies are being spent because alarm bells are ringing on many fronts.  We were told we could only access them via a strata search.  We are aware other owners have also requested this information both this year and in previous years to no avail.

We booked and paid for a strata search under s108 of the act.  However when we went to the strata office to view the records, we were unable to obtain access to the records and were told that the scheme is contentious and so we would have to send a list of things we couldn’t see on file for the strata manager to ask special permission of the EC.  This was specifically in relation to the financials, however any meaningful records of any kind were absent from the search.

When we could not get a copy of the detailed expense and revenue report we asked to view all copies of invoices from the last two years.  We were told we would need to search for them, however when we looked in the invoice files there was only 2 invoices for the whole of 2015 and 4 from 2014.  We requested them however were told that is where they usually are but that we were denied access to see them.

Having further looked into the legislation following our search we sent a written request for this information, including copies of our current account statements (under s 108) and requested they be supplied in digital format within ten days.

We received a response from our Strata Manager saying that we can not view these records and instead we can find out about the financial position of the scheme at the AGM.  

We find this odd that we are unable to obtain financial information and documents, such as invoices, for our strata scheme given s108 (g) clearly states we can view any document under the control of the Owners Corporation, not least because this is our money and seems to be spent very willy nilly.

Could you please advise if we have misinterpreted the act, or if in fact we can request any document such as these that were not available during the strata search?  If we have interpreted the act correctly, could you please help us with the process to officially view our financial records, documents and statements pertaining to our Owners Corporation funds under s108 (g) (for which we obviously pay substantial levies).

Many thanks in advance for your assistance.