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When is a determined owner an email pest? Or, to put it another way, how do you tell the difference between someone with a legitimate complaint, who won’t let it go, and a resident who writes long, abusive letters and emails and then sends even more when they are not answered immediately?
Anyone who has spent a few years on a committee, or has worked as a strata manager for more than a couple of months, will recognize the dilemma.
Part of the problem is, the person with the legitimate complaint may also be a serial mud-slinger. In fact, a valid complaint adds fuel to ferocious diatribes, and the righteous letter writer may well use failure to respond to their missives as ‘proof’ that there is a conspiracy against them.
On the other hand, the committee, overwhelmed by complaints and accusations, can be forgiven for going into their collective shells, partially out of concern that if they make a misstep, they will invite even more abuse.
“We have a very difficult new investor-owner who bombards the manager, committee and other owners with emails and threats,” writes Magpie on the Flat Chat Forum.
“Long emails covering many issues and grievances may arrive on Friday afternoon but before you can respond there is a new long email on Monday … containing more allegations and threats. Any advice?”
One suggestion on the Forum was to ask the complainer what they wanted, how they thought that might be achieved, who they thought might pay for this, and if they would be prepared to give up their time to oversee the implementation of the plan.
Another was to simply write one email or letter saying “your correspondence is being considered” and then a week later, having checked to make sure it’s not a legitimate complaint as well as a rant, send another saying it has been considered and it has been decided to take no further action.
And for those of you who have been bashing away at a keyboard and getting no response from your EC, remember you can always take them to the tribunal (NCAT) for orders under Section 138 of the strata Act, forcing them to consider an issue.
But all concerned would do well to remember the old adage, “never ascribe to malice anything that can just as easily be caused by stupidity”.
There’s a lot more on this here on the Forum.
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.
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What about people that attempt to write emails and have to go into great detail of the background of the problem/s. Sometimes there is no other way and to really make sense of the issue/s, the emails have to been long. I am currently being penalised and threatened with bankruptcy even though i have done the right thing and paid it done from just over $9,7000 to around $3,400 with another payment made today 23/2/2016. However the strata manager has done 2 things illegally, 1 called an EGM to have the owners corp take legal action (at this EGM 1 owner that voted was unfinancial and allowed to vote, all votes by the way were by proxy) and 2, has not informed the owners corp of any payments as he says he was not informed by his legal team of any payment and either he is playing dumb or he really was not informed but the solicitor in question was by my solicitor.
So you see sometimes a person does need a long email to really explain and this is quite short as I could really make it long and go into further and indepth detail.
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