Legal advice in regards to EC’s

Less than 20 units. It should not be hard to talk to a fair proportion of owners to find out it there are others who feel likewise. Perhaps many owners thought it was only them? Encourage some like-minded people to go onto the EC with you. The secretary has only one vote on the EC. 

I feel your pain! I experienced one guy who was ‘like that’. Fortunately, he was not chair, treasurer or secretary, but he was there to save us from ourselves and explain in no uncertain term how and why we were completely incompetent or worse. He had bought a unit not long before joining the EC and as soon as he joined the EC he proceeded to explain how everything he saw about him was done incorrectly. He gave the impression of gravitas and competence but was not above making incorrect assertions of easily disproven ‘fact’. I think he was not accustomed to being disagreed with. He eventually resigned from the EC without explanation. There were multiple possible triggers. While he was there he was a constant source of stress for other EC members.

Do you have a managing agent? It could be good to talk to the agent. He/she might be just as frustrated by the secretary and might be pleased to see a change of personnel. However, the agent just has to work with and take direction from whoever is in place on the EC. The agent might agree to mail a letter to all owners. That would get around any reluctance to hand out the mailing list. What about the chair or treasurer? Do they get on with the secretary? Is it a case of nobody else wanting to do the work so the secretary does everything, however he feels it should be done?

Well, Supersleuth, as they say in all the best crime novels, the answer is to follow the money.

I’m not saying your EC secretary is corrupt (even if you are) but if he isn’t doing the right thing it will almost certainly be costing you money.

The simplest way is to find a local real estate agent who says if you had done A, B and C rather than X, Y and Z, your properties would be worth more.  Then you get that message out to the other owners.

The simplest way is to look at your sinking fund and sinking fund plan.  If either is inadequate, it will diminish the future sales value of homes (as well as taking you down the slippery slope to special levies).

If you want to play hardball, start issuing a monthly newsletter about problems and, most importantly, solutions. Anybody can ask questions but the people with answers are the ones who get elected.

By the way, be very careful not to make it personal and especially not to make accusations that wouldn’t stand up in a court of law.  However, if you present a picture of a dysfunctional EC that is costing owners money, they will soon draw the right conclusion about who specifically is to blame.

Your legal avenue would be to seek the statutory appointment of a strata manager but unless there is open warfare, clear signs of corruption and the building is suffering as a result, NCAT probably won’t have a bar of it.