I got an email the other week from a reader whose building has been effectively taken over by a nuisance couple who are abrasive and abusive.
Things have got so bad that no one else wants to attend meetings let alone be on the executive committee, leaving Mr Angry as the only office-bearer. Now the strata manager says the “vitriolic emails and phone calls” are too much and plans to not renew his contract.
Most of the people in this small block just want a quiet life but few (if any) want the couple concerned to run the building. What do they do?
My advice was to delegate all the office-bearer’s powers to the Strata Manager at the next General Meeting (if he can be persuaded to stay on).
They could also get a 75 percent vote needed to remove the offending neighbour from the EC then restrict the female of the species – who does most of the table-thumping and ear-bashing – from speaking at meetings as her name doesn’t appear on the strata roll.
Easier said than done, you’d imagine. But it got me thinking about the whole question of choice.
The maximum number of seats on an Executive Committee is nine and in a large building you can usually find at least that many prepared to pitch in … to begin with.
However, people get busy, tired or move away and the remaining members are obliged by law to fill the vacant seat. That can mean the saddies, maddies and baddies who didn’t get elected at the AGM (often for good reason) eventually have to be taken on.
And that’s when the fun really starts. One determined space cadet can destroy a functioning EC just by being the obnoxious, obsessive and obstructive plonker who was rejected at the election.
So I reckon ECs should be reduced to a more manageable size but form a couple of non-voting sub-committees so that newcomers can pitch in and help, get to know how things work and show what they have to offer.
Then when vacancies arise, an experienced, committed team player can be drafted in off the bench. That has to be better than choosing the least worst option who’s been hanging around like a bad smell.
We have a committee of 7, 4 of whom are largely inactive, the remaining 3 treat our building as a dictatorship. they refuse common property repairs, they insist on beautification projects…of their choice, which cost tens of thousands of dollars. if an agenda item is voted down at one meeting of the OC, it simply appears again at the next meeting, they have granted unlimited use of a visitors parking space to the secretary, they have removed trees to improve the view for committee members,they refused to clean the inaccessable windows in our multi-story block for 26 month…it is YOUR responsibility they say, they refuse to answer any direct question…the responses are either abusive or too obtuse to comment on, they use proxy forms repeatedly to re-elect themselves, the sinking fund plan…which the chair doesn’t want anyone to see until next year, gives a 250% increase, mediation( with their solicitor) is a waste of time, the solicitor argues every little point, loudly and objectionably and mediation doesn’t proceed…the EC will not appear without a Solicitor.our home has become hell on earth.
—John