sarahs

When I read this post, I initally thought that astraia and I must live in the same complex, however the number of units did not match! We have an identical issue with an owner (and ex-EC member) who continually harrasses the EC and Strata Manager via email, misrepresents the truth and generally makes a complete nuisance of himself (together with his wife). It reached the point last year where our Strata Manager involved their lawyers, after being accused of ‘vote-stacking’ at our AGM, which was not at all the case, however as the offending owner was not returned to the EC, they felt that some sort of conspiracy theory must have been in place. The latest stunt has been to begin circulating emails they received whilst on the EC to owners, where the content involved that other owner, and generally involved an issue with the owner in question. Let’s just say that has stirred up a whole new bundle of trouble. Our Strata Managers have also proposed a significant fee increase, given the time needed to respond to the barrage of emails from these trouble-makers, and I can’t say I blame them.

Whilst it is easy to say ignore them, and that certainly would be the preference, its often not that simple, and continual disruption at EC meetings has become the norm. After 3 years as Chair, I stepped down as I could no longer bear dealing with them, and the time spent outside of working hours trying to manage their continual harrassment was not compatible with life

I wish there was a solution, however I haven’t found it yet…..

Our EC has just had the same request from an owner, however it refers to ‘the safety of elderly visitors’. The wish is to place the rail outside 1 townhouse only, and references a handrail on common property outside the residence next door in the complex.
Any suggestions as to the responsibilities of the EC will be gratefully received – thanks!

Do you have any suggestions on how to reduce the size of an EC at an AGM? We have ours coming up in a few months. I’m keen to suggest reducing ours from 9 down to say 5 or 7, primarily because the current EC, of which I am part, does not receive much, if any input from most other members. We also have 1 member who has a conspiracy theory about every decision made. He attends meetings, participates in discussions (after driving most agenda items) and then spends each day between our quarterly meetings stating that he was not involved in voting to engage tradespeople etc despite the record of ECM minutes to the contrary.
This results in those of us who are engaged and active EC members spending way too much time reconciling all email documentation, meeting minutes and so forth in order to present the logical, sane and correct actions of the EC.
I have floated the idea of reducing our next EC to try and ensure this member is not re-elected, however other EC members are not keep, feeling that this is too blatant an attempt to block the rogue member.
I guess the only other option is to admit defeat, and retreat to the bliss of non-EC land, however the thought of this member continuing to have input into how my levies are expended is almost too much to bear. I know there are lots of posts on dealing with difficult EC members, however this one is something else. Vendettas against tradespeople trying to do the work we request has led to this owner following our gardener around, photographing him and making notes about everything he does, at every visit. The police were called by this owner because the gardener had his very old immobile dog with him! This is really just the tip of the iceberg, however despite all other EC members being happy with the work, email rants to us and the SM continue to escalate. Seems a shame to be spending almost the equivalent of full-time work on trying to prevent 1 person making the whole EC look incompetent – which we’re not!

Whale – a fantastic analogy worthy of a strata guru! Your explanation was explained as such by my insurers when I moved into strata – and is as clear as glass to me – thanks!

Phlebe – thanks for the ‘heads up’ about SM commissions. It’s really useful to receive this insight which I will take up with our SM.
Jimmy – is there a ‘requirement to disclose’ or similar for SMs in regards to strata complexes that an EC can request/enforce at an AGM or ECM relative to this issue?
PS I can add so the summing is not a problem 🙂