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I live in a smallish building (18 units), around one third of whom are owner occupiers.
Over the past few years the EC practices have become increasingly casual. The EC does not hold regular EC meetings (at most, one per year) and instead manages everything via email (none of which are circulated to other owners). This means that none of the other owners are aware of what issues are being managed, at what cost and in what priority. Of course this means we also can’t add items to any agendas (they don’t exist) and there are no minutes.
Lately I have been pressing for answers on a few issues via the strata manager however answers are either incomplete or not forthcoming at all.
I have raised this at our previous AGM however nothing ever changes. I have also been on the EC myself a few times however was not able to convince the other members of the need for meetings and they would ignore emails which requested we hold them.
There are some other issue (which I’ll post about in another thread) but I’m wondering what folks think I should do – straight to mediation? Legal advice?
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What’s the real problem? Is the EC doing a bad job, or are they just not communicating properly with the other owners?
At our property, the EC takes a pragmatic approach (some might call it “casual”). For significant expenditure, we’ll hold a formal paper meeting. Our owners generally feel comfortable raising issues with an EC member. Likewise, we will communicate information of interest to all owners on a case by case basis. Most owners don’t really care.
So, I suggest the next step is to talk to your EC chairman and share your specific concerns. If you don’t have access to your chairperson, get your strata manager to pass the message on to them.
Somewhat casual can be very efficient, but there is a limit. Our EC often will discuss and resolve straightforward matters by email and give each other more detailed explanations of our views on more complex matters but we always make a point of minuting ‘out of session’ decisions at the next EC meeting which can be as often as weekly and as infrequent as a few months apart depending on what is going on.
Hi All,
Green Tea, I am in a similar position as yourself. I was on the EC for a number of years, we held meetings every 6 weeks at the request of the Owners. Always posted minutes within 7 days on notice board, telling Owners how well we used their money. Now waiting 6 weeks for minutes with the new EC. I have no idea of financials, I am thinking as you are. I spend a HUGE sum on levies and my EC cant be bothered to tell me where my money is being spent! Speak again with your Strata manager. I am doing so. And then go to NCAT.
Marvin, I am not sure how legal communicating case by case is in Strata, however, how are the owners to know if the EC are doing a good job or not if the actions are not posted on a notice board or sent via email to Owners? We, the Owners rely on the EC to note where our money is being spent and what is happening in our building. Otherwise we rely on AGM sent only once a year.
Pretty blasé’ attitude dude.
Cheers CBF
@Greentea said:
…I don’t know if the EC is doing a good job or not. Because there are no meetings! So I can’t read any minutes …If the EC were doing a good job they would be producing minutes, even if all their meetings were conducted electronically.
@Greentea said:
With your own OC Marvin, with such a casual approach how do you actually know if other owners are comfortable with what the EC is doing – because they don’t know about it so how can they give you that feedback?
Most of our owners don’t really care. At the last 2 general meetings, only the EC members showed up. I suspect that if the other owners had grievances or concerns, they would have attended. Common property is properly maintained. Our financials are very healthy. The EC members own 50% of the lots, and are very knowledgeable about construction, property maintenance, and financials. In reality, I can understand why the other owners take little interest.
Owners have my contact details, and do contact me regularly – not just with problems, but with praise.
So we might be “casual” with respect to strict compliance with meetings, but our focus and priority is on ensuring that our common property is properly maintained, our strata manager performs, by-laws are enforced, and our financial position remains strong while keeping levies as low as possible.
The Executive Committee in my building communicate by email, & there is no issue with it. If people want to know what’s going on, attend the AGM! Everyone who is on the EC either attended the last AGM in person or by proxy, & it is assumed that for one reason or another, no one else really cares. We don’t do anything stupid with the Owners Corporation’s money & act in their best interests, so assuming that because there are not frequent meetings & minutes are not available, that your EC is possibly dysfunctional, is not good.
As for people buying into the OC wanting records, they would see the record of accounts & what money is being spent on. I think that is actually more important than meeting minutes as things discussed at meetings do not always happen.
Our OC has on occasions had people worried about what money was being spent on etc. As treasurer, I started writing a Treasurer’s Report for the AGM that translated key points of the financial papers in plain English. One person criticised because it didn’t look like the financial report that you might get from BHP. Many others were grateful to be told in plain english that ‘electrical’ meant fixing the lights if changing the bulb did not fix the problem, whereas ‘lighting’ meant buying a stock of light bulbs so an EC member could change a light. The electricity cost was in parentheses because parentheses means a negative cost, i.e. we were getting slightly more for the electricity exported from our communal PV system than we were paying for electricity imported to run the lights. My ‘report’ pointed out that three items: the managing agent’s fee, insurance and the ground’s maintenance contractor’s fee accounted for a large part of the budget. Everything else was relatively small beer. I pointed out that we have enough in a contingency reserve in our sinking fund to cover almost everything, even if the costs turned out to be double the expectation on any major item. And so on. After a few years of such explanations, people seem a lot less worried about our financial state, which really is very good. I also point out that our levies are relatively low, mainly because we have the good fortune to not be responsible for certain typical big ticket items that other OCs normally have to put away lots of money for.
So, a bit of communication goes a long way. Don’t worry about repeating things. Most people don’t read or absorb everything that comes their way. You will be accused of not communicating if you have only said something twice.
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