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Owners living in a Strata complex are required to follow certain procedures & processes. When dealing with the Strata Management Co there is usually one point of contact within the Strata Plan, in this case the Secretary of the Owners Corporation (OC) to act on behalf of all owners & to contact the Strata Management Co with their concerns.
One owner refuses to follow this procedure & regularly contacts the Strata management Co. direct thereby incurring additional costs such as $500.00 worth of telephone calls in a one month period. To the point where the Strata Manager rang the Secretary to see if the Secretary could convince this owner to follow procedure as the Strata Manager could not. The Secretary contacted the errant owner without success as she was of the opinion she could & would contact the Strata Manager as often as she deemed necessary & would not communicate with the Secretary or any other member of the Executive Committee.
The Strata Plan is also in the midst of dealing with warranty work issues & a Rectification Order has been issued by Fair Trading. This one owner is of the opinion that the Strata Plan should pay for their own repairs & not go through Fair Trading & the NCAT. Some houses will cost $40,000.00 to repair.
The Building Inspector from Fair Trading also requested that there be one point of contact for him to liaise regarding this matter; the Secretary. This owner has also refused to follow this procedure & has repeatedly contacted the Fair Trading Building Inspector direct as she was of the opinion that he had not found sufficient defects in her property.
All other owners were happy with the information contained in the Rectification Order. The initial inspection of 14 houses by the Fair Trading Building Inspector took 5 & 1/4 hours. This owners house took 1 & 1/4 hours of this time. As a result the Fair Trading Inspector again attended the complex and inspected her property again. Only one minor amendment was made to the Rectification Order.
The Owners Corporation has recently been advised by the Strata Manager that this owner has dealt directly with the Strata Plans Insurance Co & the Insurance Co. has repaired this owners house without the involvement of the Strata Management Co & the Owners Corporation. These repairs took place prior to the Building Inspection by Fair Trading & cost $3,200.00.
The Owners Corporation has been advised that these moneys will be covered by Insurance & that no excess will be charged to the Owners Corporation. How can this occur ? The builder has agreed to repair some of the defects noted in the Rectification Order but not all.
One of the houses concerned is the owner who goes off on her own with no regard for the other owners in the Strata Plan. The behaviour of this owner is jeopardizing the repairs to the other properties. Is there any way the Owners Corporation can stop this owner from behaving in this manner.
If this owner can opt out of the process is the Owners Corporation entitled to remove her from the process such as ostracizing her & refusing to liaise with her as she refuses to liaise with the Owners Corporation.
can the Strata Management Co refuse to deal with her direct as she is constantly incurring additional costs to the Strata Plan by refusing to follow procedures agreed to by all other owners.
Your advice on this matter would be most appreciated.
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