Browse Forums Rental Property 1 Jun 01, 2022 9:55 am 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? Re: Strata Building fees 2Jun 01, 2022 10:21 am 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. Re: Strata Building fees 3Jun 01, 2022 10:46 am ahhh the joys of strata living. What is the half a million worth of repairs for? Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Strata Building fees 4Jun 01, 2022 11:27 am orionnebula 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., Re: Strata Building fees 5Jun 01, 2022 11:42 am BoucGolden orionnebula 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. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Strata Building fees 6Jun 01, 2022 12:42 pm BoucGolden orionnebula 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. Re: Strata Building fees 7Jun 01, 2022 4:05 pm Noname BoucGolden orionnebula 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 Re: Strata Building fees 8Jun 01, 2022 4:06 pm orionnebula BoucGolden orionnebula 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. Is it just a report written to give to the bank initially and it is based on what and how your payments are made up for, or is it a full service where they go out and… 2 5672 0 20755 |