Question: Can a member of the executive committee request a copy of the bank transaction history of our Strata Plan?
Answer: The strata committee should convene a meeting and pass a resolution requiring the bank transaction history, and then have the Secretary give notice to the person holding those records.
Under section 181 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) the strata committee may give “notice to a person who has possession or control of property (including records) of the owners corporation requiring the person to deliver the property to the strata committee”. Furthermore, “the person must, not later than 14 days after the notice if given, deliver that property to a member of the strata committee specified in the notice”.
The maximum penalty for failure to comply with this request is 20 penalty units (a penalty unit is currently $110 per unit).
To facilitate this, the strata committee should convene a meeting and pass a resolution requiring the bank transaction history, and then have the Secretary give notice to the person holding those records.
If the records are still not provided, then orders can be sought from the Tribunal under section 188 of the Act to hand over those records.
In the case of a strata managing agent holding these records, the Treasurer would be within their rights to request the records, as the keeping of these records is very likely to be a function being exercised by the strata managing agent on behalf of the owners corporation, strata committee and Treasurer.
Otherwise, any owner, or person authorised by an owner, can inspect records (including the bank statements) in accordance with sections (182) and 183 of the Act (also known as a “strata search”).
This post appears in Strata News #491.
Tim Sara Sara Strata E: tim@sarastrata.com.au P: 04 8500 7960