Long-time readers of this column will be amazed at this week’s question. For once, a strata manager isn’t accused of doing too little; the complaint is they are doing too much.
QUESTION: There is a very pushy young guy in our building who, three times in the past few weeks, has ordered work via the managing agent to do “emergency repairs”.
A blocked toilet led to the driveway being dug up, costing nearly $1300, window sashes were replaced with no consultation with the executive committee members – another tradesman for another full day – and he has now discovered a crack in a window and wants emergency work done to replace that too.
When we told him that he can’t just order the strata managers to organise work on his property, he said they were using the strata law that states in emergencies the strata agent may assume all powers of the executive committee to safeguard life and property.
Is there something the rest of us can do to ”curb his enthusiasm”? He seems to be on to a great lurk, getting his unit repaired by calling the work an emergency. – Alarmed, Coogee
ANSWER: Larry David (of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld fame) could get a whole series out of living in a Sydney apartment. Blocked toilets are one thing but life-threatening window sashes? Please!
The simplest answer would be to tell your strata managers that you won’t approve payments for any so-called emergency that didn’t immediately threaten life, health and the fabric of the building. Be prepared for flannel about insurance and risk assessments.
But don’t forget, as well as the actual tradesman, the strata managers will be billing you for their time in organising all this, so it’s in their interests to hit the emergency button too. Strata managers can only operate under the instruction of the Owners Corporation hence their keenness to redefine basic repairs as emergencies.
So sit down with them and work out a definition for “emergencies” then make them stick to it. If they won’t play ball, report them to the Institute of Strata Title Management and Fair Trading … and start looking for another strata manager.
I am amased at your answers to the above – we had similar problems in our old building that were emergencies, toilets blocked on the verge of overflowing – a window sash cord hanging by a thread,
—Dorothy Abernethya large crack in a glass window which wouldn’t need much force to fall out. Each time the manageing agent was called to have these repairs done urgently.
Executive committee in my view would have to be very careful in halting any emergency request. Can the Executive committee be reported to the Strata Corporation for holding up any emergency request.
My view there are too many executive committee members who prefer not to do repairs on behalf of the owners corporation, just to save money. At AGM meetings there are too many owners who use their entitlement votes to block major repairs.
I take your point but the problem arises when owners use “emergency” calls to have work done that should be done anyway. The correct procedure is to go to Fair Trading and demand that the EC fulfill its legal obligation to maintain the building. If they fail to do so they run the risk of the statutory imposition of a strata agent. Sash cords aren’t reduced to a thread overnight. And, yes, owners should do more to maintain their buildings … but the answer isn’t to bend the rules out of shape.
—JimmyTHi Jimmy
Fully agree with your comment to Dorothy; it highlights the responsibility of the executive committee (EC) to the owners corporation (OC), and thus all owners, to maintaining the common property in good condition. Whether the building has a building and/or strata manager, the EC should take responsibility and be aware of the state of common property. It should take timely action to prevent deterioration to the extent where repairs that should be routine become “emergency”.
Most strata management contracts have a provision that the OC appoints an authorised person to instruct the strata manager. Best practice requires the strata manager to verify any request for “emergency” works with this person or other EC member if that person is not contactable at the time.
The strata manager is always accountable to the OC under agency law and the Property Stock and Business Agents Act requires the strata manager to submit an invoice covering its fees and charges to the OC. The OC has the right to refuse payment and doing so quickly reinforces that the strata manager must be aware its fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the client (the OC).
—Wally PattersonJimmy, I occasionally read your Saturday column and was inspired to respond to your article last week. I would like to make a few of comments for your consideration.
1. The second last paragraph states ” don’t forget the strata managers will be billing you for their time in organising this”. In line with the policy of this firm ( we manage almost 700 strata schemes, with 12 Managers) and from my market intelligence it applies to many other firms, arranging repairs to a cracked window , a blocked toilet and other straight forward repairs is not charged on a time basis. Such service forms part of our management fee, it is what we do as part of strata management.
2. A cracked window could well be a bona fide emergency, what if the glass was to fall out on to persons or property below? A Strata Manager would be negligent for not promptly attending to this. Furthermore in most circumstances this would be at no cost to the Owners Corporation as it would be covered by the building insurance policy.
3. I can’t comment to any great extent on the sewer blockage without more detail, suffice it to say that often when there is a blockage the most effected persons are those on the lowest point in the line. If this was the case then raw sewage oozing into an apartment or courtyard would certainly be a bona fide emergency.
4. The Owners Corporation, under section 62 of the Strata Act, requires the Owners Corp to repair and maintain common property, it is not optional or discretionary, the Act states must repair and maintain. A good Strata Manager will know what an emergency is by quizzing the person calling in the problem. There should not be a need to work out with the Committee what defines and emergency.
There could be a case here where the Strata Manager has acted diligently, well within their delegated powers and in the best interests of the Owners Corp.
Strata Managers get ” beaten up” far to often by Committees and Owners who are opposed to spending money, ask many owners and its surprising how many think that Strata Managers are paid to much. When you go a bit deeper you find that they think that all of the levies go into the Managers bank account. When one considers what the Management fee represents as a percentage of the asset value they are responsible for, its a pittance.
Sorry to take you to task on this one isolated article but I was just concerned with you final paragraph suggesting the Owners “dob in” the strata manager to all and sundry when truth be known they may well have been doing a good job and the Committee were just being a bit anal.
I think your column generally serves a good purpose and its a shame our Institute was not able to establish such a facility. Keep up the good work but try and consider that our industry is not full of money grabbing practitioners with fee policies and practices akin to large legal firms. I think we are not alone in charging a modest fee for a professional service.
Paul C Bailey
JIMMYT WRITES: Point taken but although I didn’t name the strata managers concerned I do know who they are and that they bill for anything outside the normal range of activities – including organising “emergency repairs”. Apart from that, I didn’t say “all strata managers” I said “the strata manager” although I can see that people might wonder what their own SM would do in this case (which is no bad thing).
In any case, the point of the article was that owners should not be allowed to use “emergencies” to by-pass the normal process and jump the queue to get repairs done. I conceded that a blocked sewer was a genuine emergency but you have chosen to ignore this. You have justified the strata manager’s actions by sticking to the letter of the law. That’s fine but as you know, that’s not how strata works.
I would have thought a smart SM would have sat down with the EC and said, “look, you have maintenance problems here and you are not moving on them fast enough for some owners – let’s prioritise them and then fix them before they become a danger to life and limb”. Trust me, you may be doing the right thing but there are many others out there who are lazy, ignorant and, in a few cases, borderline corrupt. Admittedly, things have improved a lot over the past few years but you don’t see the almost daily emails I get from very unhappy strata owners.
If I may offer an opinion, your fees are low because you have a problem “selling” your product to an uneducated public who see Strata Managers as a necessary (at best) evil. Your industry, because of its defensive stance, protects incompetent and unprincipled operators at the expense of good companies (like yours, no doubt). A lack of dynamism has left gaps for building management firms and even developers to exploit by setting up in opposition. Good operators are undercut by cheap operators because your clients can’t tell the difference in the quality of service until it is too late. Whose fault is that? I wouldn’t flatter myself by claiming that much influence.
Apart from that, thanks for your words of support (ignoring your wish that ISTM was writing Flat Chat instead of me). The Column has been going for five years now and while it’s not the Strata-management bashing forum it may once have been, I’m not going to pretend that everything is rosy in the strata garden.
—Paul Bailey