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Townhouse x 4. 3 owner occupied 1 tenanted. (3yr. old building, Builder de-registered – ASIC cert. obtained). SM dismissed due to defamatory lies recorded in Minutes & overall ineptitude.
New SM employed 6th February 2014. Extraordinary meeting held, Secretary, as elected at AGM Jan 2014). Minutes received.
Levy was due & payable 1st April; finally received Invoice for Sinking Levy Fund 28th April with reference number details to enable payment, however, NO Admin Levy invoice received to date.
Do we deduct sinking levy from total previously paid and pay the remainder as the Admin Levy (1st Jan 2014)? None of us has paid the Admin Levy and wonder where we stand legally.
Regarding the elected Secretary: Is elated to hold such a position but not elated about her duties. When asked to reconsider her position as Sec. she refused, (verbally). This tiny Strata should run smoothly however, the absolute inertia of the two other owners, (can’t speak for owner who has tenant), has us do any work on their behalf, including correspondence, permission to etc., common areas, gardens etc.
They ‘just want to love peacefully’ i.e 3 monkey syndrome.
Really need advice.
Many thanks
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It’s usual for a single Invoice to be received showing separate line items for each of the Administration and Sinking Funds, and a total amount payable as the combined Levy.
Have you or any of the other Owners checked the Schedule of Unit Entitlements that would have been included as an Addendum to the Agenda of your last AGM?
That would clearly show the applicable components of each Owner’s combined Levy payments and reveal any accounting errors by your newly appointed Strata Manager, which surely they’d have corrected by now if any Owner/s had queried their original Invoice/s and those were in error (?).
It’s by no means unusual or even unreasonable for some Owners to adopt what you describe as the “monkey syndrome” and expect their Executive Committee (E/C) to either attend to the day-to-day running of the Plan or to delegate that to its Strata Manager, and if a Member of that E/C doesn’t or won’t work well with the others then they won’t be re-elected; will they?
You are entitled by law to examine the records of the Owners Corporation. I think there is a fee of $30 for this and it has to be organised in advance. You should be able to see the bank account and who has paid what and when.
Once you examine the records, it should be clear what is required.
Failure to provide this information is legitimate grounds for taking the strata manager to Fair Trading and NCAT, if need be, to ask for the strata manager to be removed and the statutory appointment of another manager (of your prior choosing).
Or you could just sack them and go it alone. Have a look at the ad on this page for self-managed strata software. For a block of four units, it’s really all you need.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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