Question: If you request documents from the Strata Managing agent and pay the fee required, what can you do if the Strata Manager doesn’t provide all requested documents?
What happens when you request documents as per Sec 182 and 183 from the Strata Managing agents and pay the fee required, and the Strata Manager doesn’t provide all requested documents?
When we requested that Strata Management provide documents that were missing (and within the 7-year period) from the request, they informed us that they didn’t have them on record.
These requested documents include Quotes for repairs, invoices relating to repairs, profit and loss or income and expenditure for each financial year, insurance claims made and accepted or rejected, balance sheets for each FY and so on.
Answer: If all requested documents are not supplied, it does not necessarily mean the strata manager is withholding documents.
We search strata records every day and we often find problems with the quality or completeness of the records. This issue often arises following a change in strata manager. When this occurs, the records are required to be transferred to the new manager. However, in many cases the records are transferred as a dump of files with no file names to indicate what they are. The new strata manager then needs to search through these files to find old records. Often this process means only a portion of the past records make it into the new manager’s records keeping system.
The missing documents you have listed seem to be “core” documents, like financial statements. Depending on the age of these documents, we would expect these to be available in normal circumstances. In some cases, like legal action, some documents are held separately for legal privilege reasons.
I hope this helps to explain that this is a problem that occurs too often. It does not mean the strata manager is withholding documents.
This post appears in the August 2022 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Michael Ferrier
EYEON Property Inspections
E: michael.ferrier@eyeon.com.au
P: 02 9260 5510
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