Question: Our overbearing strata manager retains control of our inexperienced chair and committee, refusing to share financials or committee contact details. What can I do?
My complex’s strata manager illegally refuses to show me banking transaction details, job verification details and won’t provide me with remote members’ contact details. They do favours for members in return for votes.
The most inexperienced unknowledgeable meekest persons are elected as Chairperson and committee. This strata manager rules them absolutely and always maintains the ‘committee’ instructs and approves all the maintenance reports.
Now we are in indefinite lockdown. Against COVID, not DIVOC (divided OC).
What can be done about a dysfunctional strata manager and dysfunctional committee?
Answer: The simplest solution to your concern is to join the Committee.
The simplest solution to your concern is to join the Committee. The manager is employed by and working under the direction of the Owners Corporation as an entity, the Manager is not employed by an individual lot owner. As a result, no individual lot owner can give the manager an order or direction, however, the Owners Corporation can. The Manager cannot, and should not act under the direction of an individual lot owner unless that individual has been delegated those specific powers by the Owners Corporation.
Please remember, the Committee is, by extension, the Owners Corporation. The act goes so far as to say S113 “A resolution of the Committee of an Owners Corporation in respect of any matter has effect as a resolution of the Owners Corporation”. Therefore, if the Committee makes a decision, that decision is and holds the same weight as, a decision of the Owners Corporation.
As a member, you have the ability to join the Committee and help steer the ship. If your concerns are primarily around banking, financial operations/data, I would suggest when you join the committee, seek to be appointed as treasurer or financial controller. In doing so, delegating your authority to request financial statements, bank statements, and other relevant documents on behalf of the Owners Corporation. It is also worth noting you would be undertaking this task on behalf of the Owners Corporation, not yourself individually. The Owners Corporations Act 2006 has clear conduct provisions for committee members under S117.
It is also worth noting, if you don’t join the Committee but still wish to see the financial data, the committee could approve a request for the Manager to provide additional financial data, however aren’t obliged to.
If for whatever reason your foray into Committee life doesn’t work out and your concerns remain, you have the ability to lodge a formal complaint under the act. However, I would only ever suggest going down this pathway if you are sure you have exhausted all other diplomatic options. Sometimes, once internal grievances are formally escalated, it can result in a permanent breakdown of relationships between all parties which can be extremely unpleasant when instead, a direct phone call or face to face chat may have been all that was needed to diffuse or resolve a situation.
Your claim that the manager is essentially manipulating the committee is serious, not a claim I would make lightly, and if true would be grounds for termination, if not more serious legal action. The Owners Corporations Act 2006 states the manager “must act honestly and in good faith” and “must not make improper use of the manager’s position to gain, directly or indirectly” – and (an amendment to come into effect on 1st December 2021) S122 “must not exert pressure on any member of the owners corporation in order to influence the outcome of a vote or election held by the owners corporation”.
The key to harmonious relationships in a Strata Community (or any community for that matter) is based around objectivity, competency, communication, with a sprinkling trust and respect between all parties. The way in which some of your comments/assertions are couched could be taken as quite antagonistic, and it is well known you’ll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar. I am not saying your concerns aren’t valid, but it is possible to communicate the same concerns in an objective way that doesn’t antagonise those people that you are ultimately seeking to help you, work with you or live next door to you.
In relation to obtaining other lot owners contact details. Under S150 of the Act, all members are permitted to view the Owners Corporation Register which includes all lot owners names and mailing addresses. So obtaining this information will allow you to send a letter to the registered address of other lot owners. The register does not contain phone or email information. In saying that, it is not uncommon for a Manager to forward one lot owner’s phone/email details to another lot owner, and then it is up to the recipient if they want to contact that person back, or not. The Manager is not required to provide this additional service, but in saying that, my experience has been that the overwhelming majority will be willing to help if, as above, the interaction/request is polite and respectful.
Deryck Walker
SMTI
deryck.walker@smti.com.au
Amanda, thanks for your question on this older post. Long response as this isnt simple.
I suspect the section you may be thinking of is section 194 of the Owners Corporations Act that deals with the “register of owners corporation managers” which is held by the Vic govt BLA. But this relates to a manager, not a lot owner.
Here’s that section here:
“S194 What must the register of managers contain? The register of managers must contain information that is available to the Business Licensing Authority on the following in relation to each person registered as a manager under this Part— *
(c) if the person is a natural person, the person’s address for service, telephone number and email address (if any);”
However, specifically on your query re lot owner emails and phone details, since this post, the Act and Regulations have been updated, including changes dealing with email addresses and telephone numbers.
However, an important distinction needs to be made.
Those changes do not require owners’ email addresses and phone numbers to be included on the owners corporation register. I’ll include the legislation at the bottom which lists exactly what the register must include (note email and phone is not on that list).
What you are looking for is from a change that occurred in the Owners Corporations Regulations 2018 referring to “other types of records” Regulation 11A (which I will also copy below). In simple terms, if an owners corporation has an owner’s email address or phone number, they must retain that information. In other words, they cannot simply destroy it, for example, to be obstructive.
However, that is different from saying the information forms part of the register (which currently it does not).
To complicate things slightly, there is a VCAT decision referred to as the “St John decision”. In that case, the applicant argued that owners’ telephone numbers and email addresses should be made available, and VCAT accepted that position.
Personally, I have some concerns about that outcome, particularly from a privacy perspective. For example, if an owner does not want their email address or phone number shared with other owners, the practical effect of that decision appears to be that they may need a VCAT or court order preventing disclosure. However that is just my own personal thought on repercussions of the decision.
So the St John decision gives you a pretty meaty argument when requesting such information.
So, to summarise:
The owners corporation register does not include owners’ email addresses or telephone numbers.
However, if the owners corporation or manager has that information, the Regulations say it must be retained and not destroyed and the St John decision gives you a solid legal basis to request the information.
I hope that helps. Sorry, it is a slightly complicated area!
OC Act:
148 What must be kept on the owners corporation register?
Subject to the regulations, the following must be kept on the owners corporation register—
(a) the owners corporation plan number and address;
(b) the name and address of each lot owner;
(c) the name of the manager, registration number of the manager and contact details of the manager (if any);
(d) total lot liability and total lot entitlements;
(e) lot liability and lot entitlements for each lot affected by the owners corporation;
(f) the basis for the setting of lot liability and lot entitlement (if available);
(g) the date of each amendment to the owners corporation rules and the date of the recording of the consolidated rules (incorporating the amendment) in the Register kept under the Transfer of Land Act 1958;
(h) details of any notices or orders served on the owners corporation by a court or tribunal or under an Act;
(i) details of contracts, leases and licences entered into by the owners corporation;
(j) details of the insurance policies taken out by the owners corporation including—
OC Regs
11A Additional records In addition to the records in section 144 of the Act, an owners corporation must keep the following records in respect of the owners corporation—
(a) the telephone number and email address (if any) of each lot owner;
(b) records of any homicides (if known) which have occurred on the common property;
(c) the dates of any gas safety check, electrical safety check and pool barrier compliance check conducted by the owners corporation;
(d) details of any outstanding recommendations for work to be completed from a gas safety check and electrical safety check;
(e) notices, orders, declarations, reports or recommendations issued by a building surveyor, municipal building surveyor, public authority or under an Act relating to any building defects or safety concerns associated with the common property.
Hello, you state in your article that the OC Register does not contain phone or email information. However it appears ours does – or at least they were ALL supplied to a lot owner who requested them from the Manager.
Is that a change of legislation in Victoria or has the manager made a mistake providing all this additional information ?
Is it considered that MAILING addresses and EMAIL addresses are the same thing ? Just checking thanks