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Hi – I’m wondering if anyone on this thread could offer some direction for a desperate and frustrated landlord?
I own a small property and three years ago the strata agent for the block stole the sinking fund and disappeared. The owners had to inject a large amount of extra levies to bouye the fund up – and it then came to light that the agent had mis-managed the block for years. When a new agent was appointed – the admin and sinking fund fees increased from circa $350 per quarter to $950 per quarter! My unit has been on the market for the last year and a half but is not selling due to the strata fees being so high compared to other strata managed properties even across the road! IT’s located in a small country town in NSW.
A small portion of the stolen funds were returned by Dep. of Fair Trading into the sinking fund – but the inflated fees are to remain while the strata agent says they ‘recover’ from the years of mis-management. The main issue is knowing what rights we owners have in this situation – as clearly the previous agent was fraudulent and we (owners) are paying for it all – at no fault of our own.
How are we protected here or what can i do to find out what rights I have? The current agent says they don’t have records (payment advices/insurance policies/and basically anything dated before July 2012). And the only dealing with Fair Trading they had was to get the sinking fund reimbursement.
Any help you could provide me with would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
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If the SM stole your funds it should have been reported to the police as it is straight forward theft.
Also you need to look through your own records and try and find out which insurance company (if any) covered you at the time of the theft because their is generally cover for theft from Strata funds and so you could get your money back this way.
If your SM hadn’t been paying your insurance you are stuffed unless you can find this SM and take action against him for embezzlement in a civil court (expensive).
rockstar – if your current Strata Manager was appointed by a Tribunal, then under the usual terms of that appointment they’re able to autonomously exercise all functions of the Executive Committee and the Owners Corporation, including the setting of Levy Contributions.
So to borrow a KWP’ism, you’re stuffed!
So on the subject of both your Levies and how your Plan is managed in that context, perhaps some clarification of how the Strata Manager was appointed would result in some (even) more relevant replies.
A strata manager running with the funds !!! you should go and report the case to police straight away…. and try to get the funds recovered using the insurance claim … Going to civil court will be expensive and the results are not guaranteed as you say the documents are missing. In my opinion it will; be to no avail
Could a manager be appointed with the additional function (which would cost a bit extra) of sorting out what action can be taken against the previous agent and then doing that? Why is you current manager not providing advice on options to recover money embezzled by the previous agent? Perhaps they would if asked the right questions.
Peter C
I think so the new SM will only do what he is paid to do. He wont be of much help in my opinion .
And if rockstar’s Strata Manager was a statutory appointment (i.e by an Adjudicator) after the original one decamped, then much of the advice provided here is of little use because they’d have been given their brief!
How about it rockstar, how was your Strata Manager appointed; by your Owners Corporation or by an Adjudicator?
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