How to Dump a Useless Strata Manager That Retains Position Due to Investors Handing Proxy Vote to Them

Sick of the Strata Management

Constantly unavailable.
Never get things done till you argue with them.
Things they do attempt is half arsed

A few examples

Mandatory fire alarm testing and inspection (Threatened that if nobody was present they would have to pay the call out fee) Sat home all day called them up to find out why nobody had come to inspect my place following day. 3 months later after 4 false alarms due to poor maintenance. I was told they only choose 50% was it too hard to hand out a list of required appartments and let the other half continue with their day.

Took threatening them to get inspectors in because the fire doors are non compliant including my own door, to get them to replace it still half finished.

They only work 9 - 4 so trying to get hold of them for anything urgent is impossible.

They replaced the keys to main doors and forced people to take time off to go to their office to collect new ones. They had contracted locksmith 200m away from apartments that could supply the key. this wasn't made public till after someone locked key inside and asked locksmith for help, he said sure do you want me to pop up and open it or cut you another key. He said he has always had the authorisation to hand them out and was surprised people didn't just pick them up from him, rather than sending them to the strata company.

Top and bottom i'll pay for service i won't pay for idiots they know none of the requirements of the job but they know how to play the system.

i need them gone the complex needs them gone but they know they are protected by the proxy votes.

If someones car is broken into in a secure car park they tell you it's your fault, and only have camera's watching commercial tenants bays.

Comments

  • +1

    The Strata Manager is normally appointed by the executive committee, contact the Chairman.

    • +1

      Yeah getting impression there is a bit of an inner circle they make all decisions as they carry line share of votes

  • +3

    I read a book many years ago that had a lot of information about apartment living. There was at least a chapter or two dedicated to problems like yours.

    Apartment Living: The Complete Guide to Buying, Renting, Surviving and Thriving in Apartments
    http://suewilliams.com.au/books/apartment-living

    • Cheers i'll speed read through it to see if there is something that can help

  • There are new strata laws, you should look them up, there is something about the strata manager although having majority proxy votes, does not trump an owner with their vote at all.

    • This is the kind of news i was looking for and i hope to god it's right because it's been bullsh1t dealing with them as they always had all the power and couldn't be dumped because they had all the proxy's signed over to them.

      They also reschedule or announce AGM at a time nobody can attend pretty much last minute in an area thats hard to get to without any parking close by

      • Also this may apply to NSW only

  • If you want the proxy’s you should nominate to chair the AGM.

    • This is where it gets complicated or has been in the past they have handed them over to the strata company and they get away with murder.

      so even if someone else was to chair the strata was effectively voting on behalf of the investors.

      • They appoint the Strata Manager to use their proxy?

        Is it a large complex?

        • How proxy generally works is that the investors vote on a proxy form, and then the Strata Manager votes on their behalf in the AGM if the investors can't attend the AGM themselves.

        • Big enough for investment firms to buy 5 or so and they have held onto them from construction. 64 i think in total

          Funnily they all invest in buildings that are managed by this company

        • @citygal:
          You can cast votes via the Strata for each agenda item, or allow the chair to vote on your behalf.

          You would need an agenda item to replace the management. In order for that you would need some options of where you would move it to.

        • @Toons:
          OK. Best to concentrate on what you can control.

          Do you have the repair requests in writing?

    • Toons is right. By law, the chairman can only vote on behalf of the investors in the capacity as an agent, but not in the capacity as a chairman

  • Apparently, your strata management name begins with the letter 's'.

    • Nope are we playing hangman :-)

  • Think i've found the loophole where they abused power on an issue they can't cast a vote but did so on behalf of proxies

    Just got to scour the AGM docs to prove it

  • +1

    I had this situation ten years ago in Hope Island when Mirvac were the property developers and created a very small group of land lots and had put themselves in as the Chairperson because they could. I bought a block of land one month prior to the GFC and paid top $'s for it. Then after about 12 months when Mirvac had voted everything in on behalf of future owners - they decided that they wanted out of Hope Island and did a fire sale of the blocks that had not been sold - which was the majority. At the AGM I called the bluff and arrogance of the Mirvac representative who was still in the Chairperson's role - and said that as he was the GM of Mirvac's Development arm - it was a conflict of interest for him to be voting on behalf of future unknown owners of the lots. It was no skin off his nose that the Admin Management company was appointed by Mirvac and owned by Mirvac - and they were bolstering up the contracts ready to offload it. I was about to take the "Conflict of Interest" further when all of a sudden he left; and then Mirvac were gone out of Hope Island. It left a bitter taste in my mouth about how property developers are money grabbing arsewipes. They dropped land prices of the smaller blocks by 25% - which meant that my block - being one of the larger ones - just lost land value of over 30%. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it….. I made sure that I became the Chairperson and because there was a clause in our Body Corporate constitution that allowed us the once only chance to leave at the end of 3 years - I made sure we had nothing to do with Mirvac's Admin company and never looked back. Mind you - my investigation has not revealed a strata management company that is worth the fees that we owners have to pay.

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