Majority owner paying non Admin cost from Admin

Hi awinner
Based on what you write i would agree with the strata manager (SM) that the stand alone hws in a townhouse is the owners problem if an issue arises.

My initiate feeling when i read the post was that the motion to have the OC pay for the owners hws seems out of order as the responsibility lies with the owner of the town house, not the OC, but i then felt the owner with the 5 units was probably the Chair of the AGM so ruling the motion out of order was not in his interest.

In fact if he was ethical he probably should have excluded himself from voting given he was going to derive “financial benefit” from the motion if it passed; in that case there would have been one vote against (you), none for and 5 abstaining; motion lost.

Is it legal ??? I am more inclined to ask can he get away with it.
It is bogus at best and is a matter that could easily be destine for CTTT if you and he are the only owners involved in the running of the OC.

You should seek to find out how the other owners feel about paying for his hot water service.

Do you feel this owner with 5 units would pay 5/16 of someone else's stand alone hws if it went on the fritz? If you do not think so then you can use that in your argument to get others involved.

You also need to ask yourself is this worth pursuing. You can pay 1/16 of the cost of this blokes new hws or you can spend $x trying to get an equitable outcome from an unreliable dispute resolution mechanism (Office of Fair Trading  & CTTT) and end up paying for both if things do not work out. I would like your chances of getting the resolution invalidated by CTTT but CTTT are not predictible so i really have no idea what would occur if they got involved.

You will be out of pocket for going to OFT and CTTT even if they do determine the resolution was “illegal”.

It sounds like this bloke has used his dominant position to look after himself and have the OC pay for an expense that is not genuinely the responsibility of the OC. That in itself should be enough to encourage other owners to give you a proxy in future to keep their levies lower.

The question is do you want to pursue this matter or just have people tell you the other bloke has stuck the OC with an expense that was actually his.

I personally would look into the balances of the admin and sinking fund and find out what you can do to rectify this before selling.  No one wants to purchase a property in a complex that has no money in the bank.  They could be up for a huge special levy the day they move in!  Buyers like to know that there are sufficient funds for any upcoming repairs/maintenance as well as the unexpected.  Low funds in the bank could result in a low offer on your property!  Perhaps forget about the hot water system and pursue this instead.