ilovebbq

@JimmyT said:
There is no way you should be paying a special levy to make up for those who won’t pay.  Instead you should be looking fro a strata debt collection service who will get all the money for you at NO COST to the owners corp.  Google ‘strata debt collection’ to get a list of companies.

If you need to raise the money to cover for a shortfall, contact Lannocks, who are sponsors of this site, to organise bridging finance.

And if your new Strata Manager can’t sort all this out for you, they’re not much use.  It is illegal for the old SM to hang on to your documents and finances.  If your SM won’t do it, call Fair Trading (13 32 20) and get them on the case.

Dear Jimmy,

We question the same to the strata agent, answer we received from the strata agent is that we have outstanding bills to pay, like the insurance renewal, the sewage fixing bill for the common property etc. Which this was all included in our levy budgeting in our last AGM back in July 2012. Now because one of the owners didn’t pay, we all have to make up the money to cover the bills, so we fall into a dilemma here. 

Current strata agent had called a debt collector for this unclaimed levy, however the owner who didn’t pay levy actually didn’t admit our current managing agent, he claim he had paid our previous sacked agent, who’s a very doggy one introduced by himself. It took us almost 10,000 to dismiss the previous agent and have this current one take over. However the previous won’t let go and still keeps holding our funds.  

Owners don’t want to spend more money on legal fees, as it’s just too expensive. I wonder if there’s any other alternative solution other than going through legal action again to ask the trust account money to be transferred to our current agent? I had this discussion in my previous topics about terminating a agent. Now it’s a brand new stage of how to get the previous agent completely out of our picture.

Hi everyone, not sure if you still remember this case, here's some dramatic updates.

1. Regarding to the strata agent issuing a letter on behalf of the owners corporation authorizing the commercial lot owner to change the use of his lots to boarding house, was finally rejected by Ryde Council, after we appeal direct to the councilor of the ward.

2. However our application for Adjudicator order to terminate the current agent and appointing new strata agent was dismissed. =(

Before we submit our case to Fair Trading and CTTT, we were told by both officers that the applicants to the Adjudication Order needs to be OC, we therefore convene a EGM for such authorization, but the Adjudicator dismissed our case claiming the applicant cannot be OC! 2nd reason for order dismiss: no committee meeting was held to authorize such application if the OC is applying for such order, isn't a EGM sufficient? Are both reasons given contradict to each other?

3. The strata agent we are still fighting against, yesterday sent us a special levy notice of total $15000, and telling us the insurance will increase from $3850 to $7000, and stating insurance company won't renew our insurance until we fix the sewage pipe! Our secretary straight away asked for reasons, black and white proof of what the special levy is for and what exact problem is there with the sewage pipe. Because our building is still under builder warranty, any structural problem will need to chase up the builder. If it's related to the subdivision of the commercial lot, the commercial lot owner is responsible for it. Unless the above two circumstances are excluded, why should the owners pay to fix something we don't even know there's a problem with?!  Guess what the strata manager reply? — “Therefore no proof this is a building defect, there's some reason the insurance company saw the sewer pipe problem, and it has been a issue since 2010.”

What the?!!!  No one has ever mentioned about the sewage pipe problem in any previous meeting, and without any engineering report what make the strata manager say this is a sewage issue. Is it all bull shit?

The commercial lot owner had recently put a sale ad in the market, I am guessing the strata agent is trying to use the urgent insurance issue as an excuse then push the rest of the owners to pay for something we do not need to pay. From the beginning, we smell fishy things between the strata agent and the commercial lot owner anyway. Both of them are owner of Real Estate agent. 

Now my questions is:

1. The insurance is going to expire soon, what if we want to find out the exact sewage problem and didn't pay the insurance in time. What could happen to us?

2. Can the strata manager refuse to answer the chairman's queries regarding to insurance and common property issues? Because I as the chairman also sent email to the Strata manager questioning all the doubts, but the strata manager refused to answer my queries, in stead claiming that I have to pass the inquires to the Secretary before reaching the strata manager? (Note: the Secretary and all owners were copied in the emails when I sent the queries)

3. If one insurance company refuses to insure the property, shouldn't the strata manager ask quotation from other insurance company?

4. Shouldn't the strata manager provide the insurance report of what reasons lead to the dramatic increase of the strata premium?

5. What should we do if CTTT dismiss our case, what could we do? Because this strata agent was not illegally appointed/executed from the beginning anyway, why it's so hard to terminate them? 

6. Please advise any solutions to fight for our rights. =(

 Question: is a EGM necessary for the EC to search for legal advice? I am afraid we are running out of time. And at the moment, the EC has 4 members, the commercial lot owner, the terminated strata manager, me and the other residential owner. So and ECM is not an option I reckon.

!!!Interesting updates!!!

The case has become even more interesting now! A neighbour lives up the street came to me today with a Council letter of the commercial lot owner of our SP lodging a Development Application on change the use of his lots to short term accommodation. 

It shocked us!! Because first, we as owners have never granted approval for the change of use of the lots, because we believe it might change the strata levy, it may affect the common property usage and management etc. So who granted the approval?! 

Straight away we called the Ryde Council and received a recent letter from our terminated agent to the council, stating the approval was make consent to the owners corporation. OMG!!! It's fraudulence!!! Now it's even obvious to blinds why the agent refused to return the books and records, because they are doing things for the commercial lot owners. 

Can't remember how many times the Secretary has emailed the agent to stop and activity relating to our account since the termination notice to them in Sept, how many times we remind them that they cannot act on behalf of the owner corporation because they are terminated.

My question is: is it considered to be a illegal?!!! It's far be on non-professional conducts of what the agent did I reckon. I really want to expose our case to the public and expose the name of the agent, so at least I tried to prevent others from falling into a deep hole like us!

Gilgal1 said:

ilovebbg – while some people do have problems with Fair Trading and the CTTT, it's still worth giving a complaint through the proper channels a try. I'd think very carefully before going to one of the tabloid TV programs, since you may get more than you bargained for by involving that sort of so-called journalism.

You can be assured that your old strata manager is not the only one.

Here's another idea: Is your old strata manager a member of either the professional association Strata Community Australia (formerly ISTM)? That organisation has a code of ethics which it may be able to enforce.

The Real Estate Institute also has a strata division, but experience with the strata manager (and REI member) we sacked earlier this year tells me you may not get a sympathetic hearing… doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

We have plenty of first home owners and people of non-English speaking backgrounds in our unit complex… probably part of why our former strata manager chose to ignore most owners… but it shouldn't make any difference. However it IS hard to change and all you can do is persist with trying to sort it out. In the long run it's worth it.

Dear Gilgal1,

Thank you for advise. This is actually a very interesting case if it's been brought up to the media. Anyway, we did convene a EGM to go for Mediation last Saturday. And guess what, the commercial lot owner gave the proxy to the strata manager, with all votes against our motions, and she even tries to stop us from starting the meeting by saying, your didn't have enough notice, which we did emailed to all owners 7 days before, they she wants to inspect the proxy forms, then she claimed that one of the proxy cannot vote due to levy not up to date, blah blah blah. After all, I said: “you may say we are not properly convening this meeting with your saying, you may leave and I will have it noted to the minutes.” She then said nothing and let the meeting starts and passed me the proxy form she hold. 

We then email the strata agent for common seal to be affixed to the Mediation form, not out of our expectation, she didn't reply on our request. Luckily, the Fair trading officer understands our story and told us the common seal is not necessary, as long as a valid meeting has convened. Such a relief at that moment.

Whether or not they are in the ISTM, I am not sure. I may did a search to find out. Thanks for your advise.