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  • 18/10/2013 at 3:32 pm in reply to: The definition of ‘dysfunctional’. #19829
    AH1.Cobra
    Flatchatter
    Chat-starter

      The implication on the CTTT form for seeking an Adjudicators Order to have a Manager appointed on the basis that “the management structure is not functioning, or not functioning satisfactorily” is that you don’t have to have been to OFT mediation first.

      My question, now, is might you take this idea to mediation first? To show the EC, Strata Manager and CTTT that you’re serious? Or just ‘go for the doctor’.

      Yep. I’m got to the ‘form’ stage.

       

      12/10/2013 at 10:22 am in reply to: Removing Office Bearers #19767
      AH1.Cobra
      Flatchatter

        Roo, I think you’re being a bit hard on Peta. It’s not difficult to imagine the situation she’s in and it’s a fair question, asked in desperation I suspect. It is my experience that sometimes an Executive Committee and its office bearers can get themselves into position through inappropriate means (proxy gathering) to feather their own nests in a variety of ways to improve their lot (double entered intended). And they do this at the expense of other owners and residents who don’t know the way the system works. By neglecting their duties as well as pushing their own, private barrows ahead of the interests of the strata.

        That’s not to say you don’t make some valid points, Roo. 

        But importantly, anyone can put an item on an agenda for a General Meeting so long as they know a General Meeting is coming up and hey, Roo, isn’t that one of the tricks? Don’t flag a meeting is coming up and ask if anyone wants to put something on the agenda?

        When it comes to Executive Committee Meetings, the type of Executive Committee poor Peta’s having to deal with probably just ignores anything she says whether it be in writing or by word of mouth. That’s the way it is where I live.

        I suggest Peta seeks mediation through the NSW Office of Fair Trading if she’s in NSW.

        09/10/2013 at 1:13 pm in reply to: The definition of ‘dysfunctional’. #19741
        AH1.Cobra
        Flatchatter
        Chat-starter

          Thank you JimmyT and Kiwipaul. But shouldn’t our Strata Manager, to whom all functions are apparently delegated in our contract, at least advise against, I’ll say ‘inappropriate’ decisions and actions by an Executive Committee and its members? And make sure of good ‘corporate governance’? 

          Let’s say, a General Meeting chaired by the SM was stacked with proxies, all in favour of having an outdoor community spa and mini bar put on an otherwise quiet lawn and garden at the back of our strata at the Owners Corporation’s expense. Yet no quotes, costings had been circulated with the agenda and very little information. In short, only those in-the-know and their toadies know the full picture. And the majority certainly wouldn’t vote for it if they really knew the cost and were interested instead of apathetic. 

          Would that sort of thing be one indication that “the management structure is not functioning, or is not functioning satisfactorily” to quote the NSW Strata Titles Act?

          08/10/2013 at 5:04 pm in reply to: The definition of ‘dysfunctional’. #19734
          AH1.Cobra
          Flatchatter
          Chat-starter

            Are my questions here out of order? Or is everyone on holidays or something?

            27/09/2013 at 4:25 pm in reply to: Apathetic owners and big buck project. #19632
            AH1.Cobra
            Flatchatter
            Chat-starter

              This all such excellent comment, thanks everyone. 

              To adapt a popular saying, ‘if something seems really wrong, it probably is’ and that’s the case here, in my view. I think I’ll grit my teeth and get out there, as Scotlandx advises; go and ‘discover’ the owners’ addresses in the strata’s files and send them a polite letter or put it under their door if they live on site, as Whale suggests.

              I might put it to the Strata Manager and Chairman and Secretary, that the meeting be put off until we have the full picture, unless someone wants to head me off at the pass.

              Thanks so much again.

              27/09/2013 at 1:10 pm in reply to: Apathetic owners and big buck project. #19626
              AH1.Cobra
              Flatchatter
              Chat-starter

                There were no costs in writing supplied with the EGM agenda and plans. There was a reply to a question over the phone to the SM that the project would cost ‘upwards of 70 grand’. Sorry if I misled you, kind contributors.

                Just to repeat, in a sense, there’s a clique traditionally holding lots of proxies which keep others off the EC and out of the process. There’s a history. They cynically try to slip things like this through, most of the time to STOP stuff being done rather than, in this instance, to get stuff done. Most owners have gotten tired and given up trying to be involved, blindly handing over their proxies and the place has generally gone downhill as a result. The SM, only when lent on, will stop stuff that is blatantly beyond the pale. Such as at the last Annual General Meeting when the EC wanted the meeting to ‘approve’ an addition to the agenda, on the night, to spend up to 40 grand the get started, with no plans circulated and no quote circulated. So, yes, this is their second go and they still ‘don’t get it’.

                But I’ve said too much.

                There are any number of things wrong here, including money being wasted all over the place you’ll just have to take my word for it.

                I really was interested in how to stop this meeting, stop the steamroller, until everything is out in the open and enough owners really know what’s going to be done and how much it will cost. Only seems the right thing to me.

                26/09/2013 at 5:10 pm in reply to: Apathetic owners and big buck project. #19610
                AH1.Cobra
                Flatchatter
                Chat-starter

                  It’s put as a Special Resolution, thank you very much Whale for being so fast, along with two others.

                  Would a complaint after the meeting about “dubious circumstances” hold water if it got through on inappropriate proxies, do you think?

                  (If you’re curious about he other two Special Resolutions, one is banning smoking and the other is about solar panels, the latter also seems on the dodgy side.)

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