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We have a 3 year contract with our strata management company, that has a 12 months initial ‘trial’ period clause that allows us to leave without penalty with 3 months notice. The reason we had this is that we moved strata companies mid contract from a strata company under the same umbrella – we had been having a terrible time with this company during a warranty defect claim that we had very little time to prepare and submit. They moved us to this other company with a really good strata manager and we managed to get the warranty claim in better shape.
Unfortunately in the last month the strata manager has quit for unknown reasons, and the management company haven’t replied to requests for info on some very urgent matters around the defects, or given us a new strata manager. We are really concerned that the level of service will deteriorate to the same as the previous one…and unfortunately the 12 months trial period expires in 2 weeks – so we have no chance to trigger the clause.
Do we have any options at all in this situation?
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Three things come to mind:
1. You wrote that you liked the most recent strata manager. In your shoes I would try to hunt him down. If he has moved to another agency and is still a strata manager, he may be able to guide you. Guide you in terminating the contract and perhaps offering to take you as a client;
2. If the contract spells out how you can terminate without penalty and you do so in the time allowed, then you should be on safe ground to exit. If the current strata manager contacts you querying why you want to cancel tell him your grievances. He may then act appropriately and address your concerns. If he starts to act in your interest about fixing defects, you may want to give him a 1 year contract; and
3. Having found the only way to get satisfaction from non performing strata managers is to complain to Fair Trading, I suggest you complain online about the agent not doing his job, see
https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/help-centre/online-tools/make-a-complaint
scroll to
real estate, property management and strata
click on
complaint form
and fill it in.
There is no cost and FT will look into the matter.
As you have no idea what will happen with the former and current strata managers, I would file the complaint ASAP. It’ll take time for FT to get to it and of course you can always withdraw it if matters settle down to your satisfaction.
Why not just write a letter saying you are terminating their contract for non performance
That might get their attention.
Once you have their attention you can start to get your grievances addressed.
If they fail to reply because clearly such a request is outside the contract, I think you may have a good case in court to have them removed.
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