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We have a building of 55 lots and our last monthly building status report showed we had about $4,000 available funds. We have a SC of 8, with no office bearers as the SM told us they were not required. Most of the 8 will not even reply to an email, however 3 of us are very concerned. I have looked through the SSM Act but can not find no mechanism to force the SM to have an audit completed. Is there some way we can do this?
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Office-bearers are required by law but it may just mean that your strata manager is fulfilling those roles.
Under Section 95 (below), if your scheme has a turnover of more than $250,000 a year, an audit is mandatory. Otherwise you can get a simple majority at a general meeting to demand one.
95 Auditing of accounts and financial statements(1) The owners corporation for a large strata scheme, or a strata scheme for which the annual budget exceeds $250,000 (or another amount prescribed for the purposes of this section by the regulations), must ensure that the accounts and financial statements of the owners corporation are audited before presentation to the annual general meeting.
(2) The owners corporation for any other strata scheme may determine that the accounts and financial statements of the owners corporation are to be audited.
(3) An audit of the accounts and financial statements of an owners corporation under this section must be carried out in accordance with the Australian Auditing Standards.
(4) The regulations may specify the manner in which the annual budget of a strata scheme is to be determined for the purposes of this section.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I’d be really worried that a building of 55 units has only $4000. An audit might not find any impropriety or errors in the accounting but you really should have more than that accumulating for planned maintenance. I.e. a sinking fund plan. Not sure how the NSW legislation puts it now but I expect it is not so different from the ACT, where an OC must have a sinking fund plan adopted by general meeting resolution and must review it at least every 5 years.
As a start why not ask for the accounts, that will give a good indication of whether an audit is necessary.
I agree with Sir Humphrey, $4K is very low for a scheme that size.
You don’t have to wait until the AGM, a general meeting is a general meeting.
G’day Flattchatters,
We recently got rid of our Strata managing agents after 17 years as our strata managers. We thought their service had become subpar and the management had become arrogant and self serving. The strata company were also owners of 3-5 commercial lots within our Strata Plan. This was an ” unhealthy setup ” but not illegal under the SSMA ( as Jimmy T pointed out ). A few owners have had suspicions about the cleaning contractors cleaning the offices of our former Strata Managers when they did the weekly clean of our building. I recently asked our new Strata Mgr to ask for a scope of works from the contractors. We received a scope which basically showed 80% of the job was cleaning the offices and property of our former strata managers. We are awaiting confirmation that it was all billed to Owner’s corporation account. Now I think this has been the case for the last 17years. Is someone in a little spot of bother? We are also thinking of a thorough audit of our accounts with a new auditor as well!
Let’s face it, 17 years of 80 percent of cleaning bills is going to amount to a lot of illicit payments. And, since they are strata managers, they can’t claim that they didn’t know they couldn’t use the strata cleaners for their own offices.
It’s tricky, but this would be my tactic:
1. Work out how many years of this you can prove.
2. Tell them that becasue of the delay in claiming, you will accept a refund of 50 per cent of the provable cleaning bills.
3. If they refuse, tell them you will take a complaint against them at Fair Trading, and action against them in the local courts (NOT NCAT) for recovery of the overpayments.
4. You will ensure maximum publicity for the case if and when it goes to court because dodgy strata managers are in the spotlight right now.
5. (which should have been 1) talk to a lawyer.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Gessus Louises,
Try for a odd Number of Strata Committee Members, maybe 7 (Preferable) or 9, this makes it easier to get a majority,
and move things along. If you have a even number of strata committee members discussion / voting could be split 50/50 causing delays.
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