This article is about how owners can deal with a negligent body corporate committee.
Question: How can body corporate owners deal with ‘Do nothing’ committees?
Our body corporate committee can be called a ‘Do nothing committee’. Although a mechanical engineer has advised of obvious defects, the building and its fixtures are not subject to any maintenance.
Expended fire extinguishers have been remounted on the carpark walls with a “Do not service” label. Our insurance premium has significantly increased due to significant claims that could have been prevented. What can owners do?
Answer: There are steps you can take.
If the committee isn’t taking the maintenance responsibilities of the scheme seriously, they are putting your investment and possibly lives at risk.
We can’t assess the gravity of the situation from the outside, but there are steps you can take. There is an escalating hierarchy of steps starting with writing a letter to the committee to express your concerns, submitting owners motions to have issues addressed, then making a filing with the commissioner’s office to have works forcibly applied.
You can also look to join the committee at the next AGM to influence matters from the inside or, if necessary, call a general meeting to dissolve the current committee and form a new one.
None of these options may be easy if you are coming up against a group of people who are just not interested or don’t see the point of maintaining the standards of their body corporate. Still, it may be necessary for you to go through the process to ensure your safety and investment are protected.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
This post appears in Strata News #719.
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Transparent Strata Manger and Secretary in all matters shown towards owners and getting copy of the minutes and miscalculated strata fees and haven’t adjusted all year
Strata frees have doubled and we’re miscalculated have asked what it was supposed to be having to call strata Management and secretary and getting no response after many attempts and paid fees for a year