Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone's had any experience using WA Strata Management (http://www.wastrata.com)?
Me too! Suffice to say, even if the director supposedly wrote a book on the topic yonks ago, doesn't necessarily make their staff any good. I think it really comes down to the competence of individuals.
@Tom Rivera and @Trish , why dont you give a couple of examples each. But change the names so we can all get the msg but not breach the privacy of of the A-holes involved...
My best and most recent example was when I took over the management of a townhouse in Morningside. I discovered that the units were all individually metered (fully compliant meters had been installed since construction) but in over ten years no one ever set them up to be read, so everyone in the complex was still paying a communal bill from one meter!? (How did no one ever notice this!?!?!?!?!) That means every property owner using less water is subsidizing everyone else using more water- particularly relevant as the usage across the complex is almost twice the area average! ALSO, there are a number of investors in the complex who have never been able to charge any water to the tenants, which is worth an approximate average of $20wk! That's over $10,000+ income missed out on per investment property since construction! I called the body corporate and they told me to ring Urban Utilities because that isn't their responsibility, untrue, but what am I going to say..... So I rang Urban Utilities and they were kind enough to send out a fantastic info pack explaining the simple process (and it is very simple) of getting the meters set up. It clearly outlined that it IS the body corporate's responsibility and all they needed to do was get a plumber to attend to certify that the meters were compliant (cheap) then fill out a form and submit to UU. It's very simple. I got this back after a week; "We currently have a lot of plates spinning, yet still with no progress, I would hate to add another at this point in time. I am happy to revisit this once we have some major progress on the balcony issues, and are more comfortable with our financial situation to allow for any contingencies that may occur." I've now had to get my client to waste his time contacting the other property owners one by one to drum up support, because the body corporate just isn't interested in bothering to fix a very simple and expensive mistake...
Wow, that sounds kinda negligent. If I was an owner I'd be pressuring the BC about this. Are you sure there's no conflict of interest somewhere on the committee?
This example haunts the owner's committee (of which I've been part ever since we purchased our property) to this day, we use the phrase "remember when..." as a kind of a bogeyman Several years ago a clique formed within the committee where these members decided to appoint a caretaker for the complex. Over the space of a few years, the caretaker's fee increased by more than 20K, the strata manager was also increasing their fee willy-nilly and funnelling jobs through said caretaker, and not much actual caretaking was going on. Our concerns were ignored, the place ended up looking shabby and our levies went through the roof. It ended up getting pretty nasty, as our tenant and the caretaker were at each others throats. Then there was an argument over some boundaries and we got taken to court by the strata manager, where we won the case. At some point, the clique dissolved as they sold their investments, and we were able to appoint a new chair, new strata manager, and ultimately remove the caretaker and reduce our levies. Our transitional strata manager was great, but the business was sold and we moved to a new one. We're having several issues with this manager now, so I'm on the lookout for another.
Not sure about conflicts of interest, quite possibly! There's all sorts of infighting going on at the moment, it's like The Days of Our Lives on that committee. My client is pushing hard to get in touch with all the other property owners outside of the usual committee avenues so some more sense might be made of it as we progress.
I came across this little gem about our favourite ex-deputy mayor. Good ole Sally Major was running an unlicensed strata management company.
