Question: Our strata manager refuses to discuss items about maintenance. If we want him to assist with maintenance issues, he charges extra fees under strata consultancy. Some maintenance issues have been outstanding for more than six months.
Answer: Ask the strata manager for an update. If they bill you for this, you get billed but you need to know that information and you need to know what’s been action and what hasn’t.
It depends on the complexity of the issues. Section 106 of the Act is the requirement that an Owners Corporation must maintain common property. You must maintain common property within your strata scheme.
If your building is dealing with quite an involved waterproofing issue, and I’ve got a few buildings which have these at the moment, it sometimes take three or four months to get the specification, get tenders, have a general meeting, and so forth. That being said, the time it takes doesn’t remove any liability from the owners Corporation, so you need to always be mindful of that you need to work as quickly as you can.
In terms of your strata manager, if it’s lots of little things and they just haven’t actioned them, that’s really disappointing. If you’re on the committee, you’re charged with the day to day administration of the strata scheme. Ask the strata manager for an update. If they bill you for this, you get billed but you need to know that information and you need to know what’s been action and what hasn’t.
If you get billed when you ask for this list and they get back to you with items that haven’t been actioned, I think the next step would be potentially considering options regarding your strata manager.
This post appears in the May 2022 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Rod Smith The Strata Collective E: rsmith@thestratacollective.com.au P: 02 9879 3547