New committee won’t reimburse payment agreed by previous owners

In 2018, our committee held a meeting in accordance with NCAT Orders. The Secretary was the respondent in the application and allegedly was unable to attend the meeting but organised the treasurer to “act for” him. A Motion pertaining to Sec. 106 [maintenance] was passed unanimously and the committee resolved to accept a particular quote and proceed with the work. Because of the delay caused since the first quote was obtained, arrangements were made with the Strata Manager for the applicant to pay the invoice immediately by bank transfer and be reimbursed by the Manager in due course.

The work was completed, the bill paid and a claim for reimbursement of the payer lodged with the Manager as arranged.

Without the rest of the committee’s knowledge, the secretary then instructed the Manager not to reimburse the funds and, in the meantime, his wife and co-owner also requisitioned a motion for the imminent AGM to “rescind” the motion passed at the committee meeting.

At the AGM, the original motion was duly rescinded [in spite of it being impossible to reverse the work], a new committee was elected and the Manager now takes the view that “the committee” refuses to reimburse the former applicant for an owners corporation liability that was lawfully incurred by the previous committee. The Manager [allegedly] only accepts instructions for “the committee”, NOT the committee in control at the time!

As the original applicant in the NCAT matter AND the original committee chairperson, I would be interested in reader’s thoughts as to how to address the unmade reimbursement. It should be noted that not one owner utilized any of the traditional and lawful means of preventing the original committee from taking the [lawful] actions it did.