What if Joseph Heller lived in my block?

Newbie is what I am. Bought and moved into a block of 36 apartments in Sydney’s Lower North Shore eight months ago and I now know what works and what doesn’t and what really should be fixed sooner rather than later. But there’s a problem.

Although I know from my pre-purchase searches the finances are in good health, the place presents as worn and neglected, the cleaners and gardeners don’t seem to be doing what they’re paid for and furthermore there are also numerous related issues which could be described as dangerous hazards in any Occupational Health and Safety check.

I narrowly missed having an input into the Annual General Meeting and the next one is almost a year away. There are no plans to improve things in the AGM minutes, there are no Executive Committee meeting minutes on the notice board and two Executive Committee members I sought out (out of seven) both tersely told me to contact the Strata Manager who said (via emails) he would advise the Committee of my ‘complaints’ (which weren’t actually complaints per se) and report back to me. This was a month ago, now, and he does not take my calls and will not reply to emails.

I notice looking through Flat Chat my situation isn’t really that unique (if there can be degrees of unique). I also have mentioned my thoughts to a couple of the more friendly resident-owners who simply smile knowingly, while wishing me something akin to: ‘Good luck with that, dear.’ I once read Catch 22 and I am reminded of that.

Is there anything I could do to break-the-cycle of the EC referring everything and everyone to the Strata Manager who says he’ll refer things back to the EC and nothing gets addressed or attended to, because there’s quite obviously something wrong somewhere. (I am forcing myself to stop now!)