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Hi all,
I am on the EC in an 11 strata lot complex in southern Sydney. The complex is comprised of 1 villa and 10 townhouses. The villa and 4 of the townhouses face the street, which is a reasonably busy road and the remainder of the townhouses are at the rear of the property.
The property is 11 years old, and we’ve been living in our lot since the complex was brand new. We’ve had a lot of issues over the last 11 years, including nearly all bathrooms in all lots needing to be replaced under building insurance, cracking of walls and replacement of the tiles on about 90% of the common walkway (some covered by building insurance, some not). This has sucked up a lot of funds for the repairs and also legal costs which have come from the sinking fund and admin fund.
The EC has been very conscious to avoid raising any special levies, so a few years ago we raised the quarterly levies for each lot by about 10% to allow for replacement of funds into the admin and then transfer to the sinking fund after a sinking fund analysis showed that we needed to increase the value of the sinking fund.
About a year ago, one of the lots was sold to a new owner, who has not lived through the hell that was major common property works. She has now started complaining very loudly that the common property is not maintained to her satisfaction. She says that she is constantly sweeping up leaves which blow onto her front step (she wants a cleaner to do this). She has also complained about the smell of the bin area (her front door is directly behind this area), the bins are emptied each week and we had to employ someone to take them out and bring them in as it was always one or two of the same residents doing it. She also complains that rubbish is in the common undercover parking area which is blown in from the street. She further complains about garden maintenance (she feels it isn’t enough) and has very loudly complained about what she perceives as high levies.
Myself and the other EC member are at a bit of a loss. If we increase the common property services then this will increase the levies. We also disagree with her views of what is according to her a “mess”. In 11 years of living here, we’ve never had anyone raise these kind of complaints and no other owners have mentioned anything else of the kind (there is only 1 of the lots that is not owner occupied).
We’ve invited her to join the EC at our next AGM in September, however in the meantime she expresses her annoyances on a pretty much daily basis with our strata manager and therefore with us.
Any advice?
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