When things are bad … but not bad enough

There have been a few postings to the Flat Chat Forum recently about how to change things when your executive committee seems to operate only for the benefit of a chosen few but stays in power thanks to rusted-on proxy votes.

It is possible to get the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal to impose a strata manager to take over all the responsibilities of a dysfunctional owners corporation but things have to be really, really bad for that to happen.

Realistically, if bills are being paid, insurances are in place, the building isn’t falling down, there’s no large scale corruption and the AGM is held once a year,  the CTTT is unlikely to get involved. Arguments over the chairman having annexed a visitors spot won’t cut the mustard.

So what do you do if things are bad but not bad enough? The answer may be to get together with other unhappy owners and mount a ‘coup’.

First get the addresses and phone numbers of all owners and tell them how the value of their property is being eroded, backed up by comments from local real estate agents. And, yes, signs of a badly run and fractious building will deter savvy purchasers and renters.

Then point to any holes in the accounts, inflated contracts and economies that aren’t being made and tell them what you and your supporters plan to do about it.

Once you have enough support, call an Extraordinary General Meeting, sack the incumbent EC, propose your group as a “ticket” and if you’ve got your numbers right, take over.

Then work your backsides off to show that people were right to have faith in you.

But don’t attack the incumbents personally – no one wants to hear that and you could be sued for defamation.

And don’t get bogged down in petty politics – investor owners, especially, are only interested in making money.  Everything else is hot air.

Finally, if you can’t get enough people to support your coup, maybe it means things aren’t as bad as you think.