Strata Building fees
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Hi Everyone, URGENT your valuable suggestions needed. Strata sent out a huge bill of up to 15k for each owner in a apartment complex of 30 or so building repair costs. I simply need advise on how to deal with this and what options I have?
Sounds like you and your fellow owners have been paying lower body corporate fees than you should have been over the years and there now isn't enough money in the sinking fund or operating budget to complete necessary repairs. The OC by law has to maintain and repair areas of the property and if these repairs are required and they dont have the money then yes, they'll usually apportion the costs according to the unit allocation of the strata and send out a lovely bill. Not a whole lot you can do other then review the minutes of the meetings where this was decided (you would have been asked to vote on an expenditure of this size). If the decisions are suspect or the repairs not really required or whatever you can seek legal advice and eventually an order from your states administrative tribunal.
ahhh the joys of strata living. What is the half a million worth of repairs for?
Sounds like you and your fellow owners have been paying lower body corporate fees than you should have been over the years and there now isn't enough money in the sinking fund or operating budget to complete necessary repairs. The OC by law has to maintain and repair areas of the property and if these repairs are required and they dont have the money then yes, they'll usually apportion the costs according to the unit allocation of the strata and send out a lovely bill. Not a whole lot you can do other then review the minutes of the meetings where this was decided (you would have been asked to vote on an expenditure of this size). If the decisions are suspect or the repairs not really required or whatever you can seek legal advice and eventually an order from your states administrative tribunal.
Hi thanks for the info. We were paying whatever strata bill sent every quarter without missing a day. There was no communication sent out prior to attend a meeting or something to vote etc.,
Sounds like you and your fellow owners have been paying lower body corporate fees than you should have been over the years and there now isn't enough money in the sinking fund or operating budget to complete necessary repairs. The OC by law has to maintain and repair areas of the property and if these repairs are required and they dont have the money then yes, they'll usually apportion the costs according to the unit allocation of the strata and send out a lovely bill. Not a whole lot you can do other then review the minutes of the meetings where this was decided (you would have been asked to vote on an expenditure of this size). If the decisions are suspect or the repairs not really required or whatever you can seek legal advice and eventually an order from your states administrative tribunal.
Hi thanks for the info. We were paying whatever strata bill sent every quarter without missing a day. There was no communication sent out prior to attend a meeting or something to vote etc.,
i think you have bought into a strata without fully understanding what that entails.
Contact your body corporate and ask them for documents - start with meeting minutes, any evidence of voting records for the expense and the sinking fund account records. Scrutinize those to start with.
Sounds like you and your fellow owners have been paying lower body corporate fees than you should have been over the years and there now isn't enough money in the sinking fund or operating budget to complete necessary repairs. The OC by law has to maintain and repair areas of the property and if these repairs are required and they dont have the money then yes, they'll usually apportion the costs according to the unit allocation of the strata and send out a lovely bill. Not a whole lot you can do other then review the minutes of the meetings where this was decided (you would have been asked to vote on an expenditure of this size). If the decisions are suspect or the repairs not really required or whatever you can seek legal advice and eventually an order from your states administrative tribunal.
Hi thanks for the info. We were paying whatever strata bill sent every quarter without missing a day. There was no communication sent out prior to attend a meeting or something to vote etc.,
What I mean is its likely the body corporate should have been charging everyone more over the years to ensure they had enough funds to cover their responsibilities. It's a very common occurrence in strata situations - they want to keep the strata fees low because if they don't, the owners start to complain but then when something like this happens they have no money to pay for it and have to raise more funds.
An expenditure of this size would have required at least an ordinary resolution at a meeting. As advised above, talk to your strata manager and get a copy of the meeting minutes and an explanation for the expenditure if they haven't already provided you with that with the bill.
Sounds like you and your fellow owners have been paying lower body corporate fees than you should have been over the years and there now isn't enough money in the sinking fund or operating budget to complete necessary repairs. The OC by law has to maintain and repair areas of the property and if these repairs are required and they dont have the money then yes, they'll usually apportion the costs according to the unit allocation of the strata and send out a lovely bill. Not a whole lot you can do other then review the minutes of the meetings where this was decided (you would have been asked to vote on an expenditure of this size). If the decisions are suspect or the repairs not really required or whatever you can seek legal advice and eventually an order from your states administrative tribunal.
Hi thanks for the info. We were paying whatever strata bill sent every quarter without missing a day. There was no communication sent out prior to attend a meeting or something to vote etc.,
i think you have bought into a strata without fully understanding what that entails.
Contact your body corporate and ask them for documents - start with meeting minutes, any evidence of voting records for the expense and the sinking fund account records. Scrutinize those to start with.
Thank you so much I will call them
Sounds like you and your fellow owners have been paying lower body corporate fees than you should have been over the years and there now isn't enough money in the sinking fund or operating budget to complete necessary repairs. The OC by law has to maintain and repair areas of the property and if these repairs are required and they dont have the money then yes, they'll usually apportion the costs according to the unit allocation of the strata and send out a lovely bill. Not a whole lot you can do other then review the minutes of the meetings where this was decided (you would have been asked to vote on an expenditure of this size). If the decisions are suspect or the repairs not really required or whatever you can seek legal advice and eventually an order from your states administrative tribunal.
Hi thanks for the info. We were paying whatever strata bill sent every quarter without missing a day. There was no communication sent out prior to attend a meeting or something to vote etc.,
What I mean is its likely the body corporate should have been charging everyone more over the years to ensure they had enough funds to cover their responsibilities. It's a very common occurrence in strata situations - they want to keep the strata fees low because if they don't, the owners start to complain but then when something like this happens they have no money to pay for it and have to raise more funds.
An expenditure of this size would have required at least an ordinary resolution at a meeting. As advised above, talk to your strata manager and get a copy of the meeting minutes and an explanation for the expenditure if they haven't already provided you with that with the bill.
Hi Thank you for your inputs. I will call and find out more details.
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