Strata report?

Hi guys,

Looking at buying a strata unit at the moment for a PPOR in Sydney. Just wondering how I find out who the strata manager is and how I can pull a strata report to check sinking fund etc?

If I find the strata manager, would they give out the minutes of a recent meeting if I'm not on the committee?

Looking to organise it myself before I sign a contract, at which time my Solicitor will do a full search.

Thanks

 

The contract of sale has this information on it ie the strata manager details.

If you are going pre-contract preparation, the minutes of the last meeting should be on the noticeboard (hopefully in an accessible part of the common area) - otherwise you might have to follow someone in before the door locks.

 

Won't the selling agent supply these to you? I saw several properties strata reports when I was looking / asking for them..

 

I've saw them in the vendor's documetation also, what I haven't saw is strata reports going back say 5 years. A single year is but a snapshot but 5 years (if applicable) provides a trend on many aspects of a building. Did you ever see more than a single report? What response dd you receive when asking for several years? As a 3rd party, I have either been ignored or told the info isn't available to me.

 

Looking back I've got one with 7 years and another with 3 on it, rest are 1 year.

The other requests, like you said some were ignored or I was told the seller doesn't have them yet.

Body Corporate can take a long time so wouldn't surprise me that the agent is t actually lying for once.

 

You solicitor won't plough through several years of strata minutes. You can pay for it to be done (strata search), or do it yourself. You contact the strata manager and tell them you are looking at buying a flat in that building and want to read the strata stuff. You make a time and agree on a fee and go to their office. They will sit you in a room and bring folders of stuff to you for you to go through. I have done that twice in recent years. I forget what it cost - less than $100 - but it was well worth the exercise.
Scott

 

Wouldn't buy an apartment unless I did a comprehensive search myself ...

 

Yep, go in and look through the files. Our strata report turned out fine when we bought our apartment, but it was a disaster.

 

It's all part of the process, when buy a basket case, it's up to you to accept the status quo or effect change by becoming part of the executive committee or simply having input at the AGMs.

It can be easy or a game of brinkmanship if you have a hostile committee with a large bloc of proxies.

 

We had a bad strata manager, and although we were a very good committee, we were in a small block and the builder owned more units than us and voted against us when it came to repairs. He also tried to take over the strata and put his own people in. When he’d had that power previously (first three years the building was occupied) he had taken all the money from levies out of the accounts to do “repairs” that never happened, and no one knew (the strata company went into administration) and when the new managers were put in the fund was in deficit. Now as it stands (thankfully we sold), the builder has lost the ability to outvote the committee, a new (good) manager was hired, but the work that needs to be done is rather urgent, and about 4x the current sinking fund. The strata report when we bought came up squeaky clean.

Could have been much worse though, could have bought in Mascot Towers!

 

Most of my friends are living in apartments and I have noticed the complaints they have with the running of their body corporate ... glad I decided to buy a house.