Question: Our onsite manager has been successful with a motion to reduce the number of operating hours. Many are not happy with the new performance of duties. What can we now do?
Our Last AGM, the onsite manager put forward a motion to reduce the operating hours of the office by 12 hours a week. She then contacted all the owners who do not live on-site and told them the same amount of work would get done.
The motion passed which means she now does 12 fewer hours a week, whilst still earning the same wage. Is this change valid once the motion has been passed at the AGM? Many on the Committee express they are not happy with the performance. The gardens are now unkept and the office is inaccessible.
Answer: There may be some specific terms in the contract with the caretaker that could be affected by this change and you would need to review that document to confirm. It may be appropriate to engage a body corporate lawyer to do this.
Generally, if the body corporate wants to agree to amend a contract with a caretaking service contractor the way they would do this is via an ordinary resolution at a general meeting. That sounds like what has happened here, so while you may be unhappy with the outcome it doesn’t mean it is invalid.
Still, there may be some specific terms in the contract with the caretaker that could affect this and you would need to review that document to confirm. It may be appropriate to engage a body corporate lawyer to do this.
You may also want to review that contract to check on the scope of works. If you felt the contractor was in breach of these by not maintaining the grounds you can go down the avenue of issuing breach notices. It’s not a perfect solution but is the next legal step.
And, as a Committee, you may want to consider how you communicate with the other members of the body corporate if you want your side of the story to be told. The caretaker of your site has a right to communicate to owners, but so does the Committee. You might want to start communicating to all owners about the running of your building and how the caretaker affects that. Perhaps send out a newsletter or build a website. Maybe conduct a survey of owners to see what they think. See if you can get a wider conversation going about how the building is operating. It takes a bit of time and effort, but if you want things to change you need to engage as many people as possible.
This post appears in Strata News #538.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924