Sacked SM given total power over new scheme

As the secretary of a strata committee, I attended a mediation session at Fair Trading a number of years ago, in relation to an owner who had not paid their levies for a considerable period. During the mediation the owner made a number of promises and undertaking to pay their levies. But that did not happen, and the owner’s continued not paying their levies.
So I contacted Fair Trading to request copy of the mediation determination; I assumed a transcript of the mediation meeting had been kept, or at least a summary of the outcome. It was shocking to be told that Fair Trading did not keep any record at all of the mediation session, or its outcome. They could not even tell me the mediator involved to get his recollection of the outcome. So what was the purpose? Keeping no records means we had to rely on memory, which has no legal validity. So mediation is actually worthless, or less that worthless, since it wastes everyone’s time and money, and any result evaporates into the ether the moment the session finishes.

My guess is that ‘Toxic’ has a really effective business development unit. They probably also lowball the price, planning to make their actual profit from lots of hours, insurance ‘commissions’ and other kickbacks from suppliers.

The worst strata manager I’ve dealt with worked for a big, supposedly reputable firm – who’d given us a good tapdance at one point. What made him ‘worst’? Literally no communication with the committee – didn’t reply to emails or respond to phone messages; sacked our cleaners to appoint his mate; didn’t pay any of our bills (we found out when we got the ‘notice to disconnect’ from the electricity supplier).

Talking to ‘management’ got nowhere until I phoned the CEO’s office and made it clear this had to be sorted out. But even then, they wouldn’t own the screwups, offered pathetic compensation (waiving their fee for a month…after months of frustration and inaction).

Sadly, that’s the business model: sign ’em up and give ’em rubbish.