There's a critical mass I think. My building has 33 levels, 4 lifts+goods lift, ~220 apartments and pool/gym/sauna and I only pay $3,500 pa in body corporate.
Ridiculous strata fees gripe (again)!
- Thread starter stevie_sloth
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There's a critical mass I think. My building has 33 levels, 4 lifts+goods lift, ~220 apartments and pool/gym/sauna and I only pay $3,500 pa in body corporate.
Wow, so that's about $67 a week? That's $5 more a week than me! See what I mean!? lol
Neither do the majority of ownrs in my experience
I have attended more than 10 AGM's in a row and I don't think we've EVER gotten a quorum
Hmm. In my current building, out of the 15 units, only 2 are now owner occupied. Our's and the one directly above us.
When we bought, 10 of the units were owner occupied. Then within 2 years everyone moved out and rented. Since then it's been a revolving door of tenants every 6 months. Most of them loud, young students who party until 2am, are constantly in the pool yelling and splashing, and getting up and playing loud music at 8am.
It's not always that bad of course, but...it's just not the building for us. Not anymore, especially.
Would that push up the strata fees, by any chance? Having such a high percentage of tenants? Surely not...
The other owner is on the committee and attends meetings whenever they're on. She is our proxy voter person.
She apparently has been battling 2 other members (who obviously no longer live there) to get stuff done like repairs to things, improvements that are not expensive but would add value and attractiveness to the building, but nobody cares. She is not happy.
We can never attend meetings because they are always at 10am on weekdays and in a suburb we cannot access by public transport. So...yep.
When we bought, 10 of the units were owner occupied. Then within 2 years everyone moved out and rented. Since then it's been a revolving door of tenants every 6 months. Most of them loud, young students who party until 2am, are constantly in the pool yelling and splashing, and getting up and playing loud music at 8am.
It's not always that bad of course, but...it's just not the building for us. Not anymore, especially.
Would that push up the strata fees, by any chance? Having such a high percentage of tenants? Surely not...
The other owner is on the committee and attends meetings whenever they're on. She is our proxy voter person.
She apparently has been battling 2 other members (who obviously no longer live there) to get stuff done like repairs to things, improvements that are not expensive but would add value and attractiveness to the building, but nobody cares. She is not happy.
We can never attend meetings because they are always at 10am on weekdays and in a suburb we cannot access by public transport. So...yep.
They do not have taxis??
This is a huge investment and one of you cannot take amorning off and outlay a few $$ to take a morning off catch a cab to the meeting where others decide how much you will pay and how to spend your money?
sounds like you are penny wise and pound foolish*.
if you don't attend/vote, you cannot complain.
*an old saying.. cent wise and dollar foolish just doesn't sound right, besides England is decimal currency now
here's an evil investor idea:
buy up enough units to have control of the strata in a block that doesn't require any major work. put up the strata to the point where other owners have to sell. sales price half, or whatever, buy all the distressed sales. put the strata down to normal or really cheap and sell them for double, or whatever.
has anyone heard of this being done?
what would the legalities be?
Haven't got time now to give you chapter and verse but in the Vic OC Act it says something to the effect that the OC committee must act in good faith. Same now with management rights pre first settlement: a case (Arrow?) held that when the developer is appointing a manager he is wearing an OC hat so must act in the interests of all the owners, not in his own. IANAL.
what I found on the Gold Coast that the fees were always way more expensive if there was a lift and secondly if there was a pool. One we looked at had shockingly high bc fees and we found out with a bit of digging that the bc manager was an absolute tyrant who had things tied up so he paid himself a huge fee, then practically did what he liked like putting a very expensive fence around 3 sides of the block, etc.
Well, the taxi to this place would cost around $30 each way. And I don't get paid if I miss a morning of work. But beside the point, we do vote. We vote through that other owner occupier. We get on quite well.
I have heard of a variation on this theme:
Buy a unit. Get some of your friends to buy units in the same block as they come up for sale.
Get yourself and friends on the BC. Most BCs are happy to have 'new blood' on the committe (existing ones get tired year after year of performing the same role).
Call a extra-ordinary GM. Most people don't turn up to these - 'it is just another meeting'.
Vote to spend the sinking fund on a common area upgrade. If not enough funds, vote to raise a special levy. Many older folk do not have cash or the ability to borrow to get the cash to pay the special levy.
More units come onto the market in the building as older owners sell out. You and friends buy up these units at a discount to the market (stata searches undertaken by intending purchasers show up the special levy requirment and turn them off).
When you and friends control the voting rights completely, apply as the BC to get finance for the common area upgrade (so you don't even need the special levy money), get a reval on the units post-reno. Draw down equity, repeat on next unit block.
I always have end up having to become a member of Strata corp in order to get all the information. One of my Units was so badly managed we were being ripped off hundreds of thousands of $. I managed to get unanimous agreements to change Strata Managers and now we have a maintenance plan and the Strata fees are reasonable. But good luck ever recovering any of the mismanaged money!
How hard is to have faith in people when self proclaimed professionals act like this
Who the hell in their right mind organises an owner's meeting for 10 am on a weekday ? Every meeting I've had was organised for evenings to allow the majority of people who work M-F -95 (roughly) to attend without inconveniencing them so that the AGM could be fit in between the PA or her boss's morning coffee break and lunch.
Steve. I think you need to understand what strata fees are for your own sake. In my complex, they are simply the costs of al bills that have to be paid - this is totalled & divd3ed by the number of units - end of story. If someone unit sells for more than another, this makes no difference to the cost of building insurance and all the other stuff strata pays for.... In some complexes, 1 unit may have more entitlements than others and therefore, they pay a bit more in strata fees for this entitlement.
Not sure if other situations exists.. understanding this might answer some of your other questions....
Thank you. 
Yes, I too find it stupid and odd to always have the meetings at 10am (or 11am in some cases) on weekdays. We get the documentation from meetings, minutes, agendas, etc, in the mail and they have NEVER been at any other time or on a weekend. So...yeah. Most people would NOT be willing to miss a morning of work for that.
And yeah. The strata fees for my building are just the insurance, maintenance (which is somewhat lacking I must say), garden surrounds (which are well kept), and the pool (which now I see would eat up the majority of the money).
Each quarter we pay equal parts for the strata fees and for the sinking fund. And that is all I know.
Yes, I too find it stupid and odd to always have the meetings at 10am (or 11am in some cases) on weekdays. We get the documentation from meetings, minutes, agendas, etc, in the mail and they have NEVER been at any other time or on a weekend. So...yeah. Most people would NOT be willing to miss a morning of work for that.
And yeah. The strata fees for my building are just the insurance, maintenance (which is somewhat lacking I must say), garden surrounds (which are well kept), and the pool (which now I see would eat up the majority of the money).
Each quarter we pay equal parts for the strata fees and for the sinking fund. And that is all I know.
Thank you.
Yes, I too find it stupid and odd to always have the meetings at 10am (or 11am in some cases) on weekdays. We get the documentation from meetings, minutes, agendas, etc, in the mail and they have NEVER been at any other time or on a weekend. So...yeah. Most people would NOT be willing to miss a morning of work for that.
And yeah. The strata fees for my building are just the insurance, maintenance (which is somewhat lacking I must say), garden surrounds (which are well kept), and the pool (which now I see would eat up the majority of the money).
Each quarter we pay equal parts for the strata fees and for the sinking fund. And that is all I know.
Right, so if every unit has the same entitlement, then you’re all paying the same strata fees for bills.. If you renovate your unit & sell it for double everyone else's units are selling for in the complex, the new purchaser would continue to pay the same strata fees.
Worth getting this confirmed formally for your own knowledge Steve - why not have a chat to someone at the strata manager's office.
Once you've worked this out, you can then go through how th3ey worked out the amounts, and what they are being spent on, allowing you to work out if there are any potential savings.. or not.
I've lived in strata for 12 yrs as owner occupier and I've heard from so many neighbours the complaints about how expensive fees are etc etc without EVER looking at what they are being spent on or offering input into how we could reduce the expenses.. .strata mangers are just administrators for bills and coordinating stuff, like a secretary/PA & office clerk.
The problem is not understanding why youre' paying what you're paying and assuming it's all one big con..... every single owner I've spoken to in 12 yrs as I've said perceives it the same way except for the few that took an interest to understand what they actually are. Aaron C obviously understands what they are....
Indeed jaycee. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
Sometimes, you pay good money & get monkeys... this is what everyone worries about... without checking first to find out if they are getting ripped off or not, they just assume they are being ripped off... that would be like me saying asking Aaron how much he spends on petrol a week and then swearing about my car manufacturer ripping me off/selling me a piece of crap cause my petrol bill is bigger, without asking Aaron first what type of car he drives/how many km's he drives and all that....
Yes, this is all very true.
I had no problem with the strata fees when we bought. They were $42 a week. Seemed reasonable. The identical apartment block down the street (which had 21 units, and we have 15), their fees were $55 a week. The block was slightly bigger than our's, the gardens the same, the pool the same. Everything else is identical including number of levels, no lift, 2 stairwells, and identical in terms of apartment layouts inside. So we were happy to be paying $42. It was manageable.
Then a year later the fees increased to $48 a week. 6 months later they increased to $55 a week, and now they are $62 a week.
We never received any actual notice of fee increases. Our bills just went up. They were never mentioned in any of the meeting correspondence, but maybe they aren't in any strata building things like this.
They also changed the billing from every 6 months to every 3 months, and last month we received a bill for $743.00 in mid December which was due on 24 December (only giving us 2-3 weeks to pay it, when usually we get 2 months). We paid it on 20 December. Then last week we received another bill for $743.00 which was issued on 19 December (before the last one was even due) and payable on 2 February.
My partner thinks we are being screwed by this more frequent billing. I certainly don't agree. You can see what each bill is for (the one due by 24 December was for Dec - Feb period and the one due 2 February is for Mar - May period), it's just for some reason they didn't send out the December one until late and they also didn't send the next one until later too (received a month after it was issued).
My issue is I don't know what we are paying that increased $20 a week for. Since we moved in, nothing has changed. The pool remains the same - well maintained. Same with the gardens. Since we moved in, they actually should be SAVING money as the garden, maintainence and pool guy is an owner in the building as opposed to having to hire an outside company who may charge more.
Since we have moved in, certain maintenance things require fixing but only a small amount has been done. A cracked tile in the stairwell was repaired finally after 6 months. A faulty constantly flickering stairwell light has never been repaired over 2 years. The stairwell glass door had a large crack down it (from where someone had kicked it before we even moved in 3 years ago) and was only repaired 3 months ago after several years. At the entrance brick wall fence of the complex are 2 large dome lights, and about 3 months after we moved in, it was smashed. It is still broken.
The body corporate commitee agreed to "enhance" the pool surrounds with new plants and new chairs. But...there are 2 new small plants and 4 chairs that resemble office chairs.
The sinking fund was already healthy when we moved in (which also pleased us, assuming the strata fees wouldn't need to go up much in the coming years to allow for that)...
I'm just not sure why it's gone up to this extent. Is it normal for that to happen? I know everything else has gone up a significant amount lately.
One other thing - 18 months ago our strata manager changed companies. Maybe this new company is greedy or something.
I had no problem with the strata fees when we bought. They were $42 a week. Seemed reasonable. The identical apartment block down the street (which had 21 units, and we have 15), their fees were $55 a week. The block was slightly bigger than our's, the gardens the same, the pool the same. Everything else is identical including number of levels, no lift, 2 stairwells, and identical in terms of apartment layouts inside. So we were happy to be paying $42. It was manageable.
Then a year later the fees increased to $48 a week. 6 months later they increased to $55 a week, and now they are $62 a week.
We never received any actual notice of fee increases. Our bills just went up. They were never mentioned in any of the meeting correspondence, but maybe they aren't in any strata building things like this.
They also changed the billing from every 6 months to every 3 months, and last month we received a bill for $743.00 in mid December which was due on 24 December (only giving us 2-3 weeks to pay it, when usually we get 2 months). We paid it on 20 December. Then last week we received another bill for $743.00 which was issued on 19 December (before the last one was even due) and payable on 2 February.
My partner thinks we are being screwed by this more frequent billing. I certainly don't agree. You can see what each bill is for (the one due by 24 December was for Dec - Feb period and the one due 2 February is for Mar - May period), it's just for some reason they didn't send out the December one until late and they also didn't send the next one until later too (received a month after it was issued).
My issue is I don't know what we are paying that increased $20 a week for. Since we moved in, nothing has changed. The pool remains the same - well maintained. Same with the gardens. Since we moved in, they actually should be SAVING money as the garden, maintainence and pool guy is an owner in the building as opposed to having to hire an outside company who may charge more.
Since we have moved in, certain maintenance things require fixing but only a small amount has been done. A cracked tile in the stairwell was repaired finally after 6 months. A faulty constantly flickering stairwell light has never been repaired over 2 years. The stairwell glass door had a large crack down it (from where someone had kicked it before we even moved in 3 years ago) and was only repaired 3 months ago after several years. At the entrance brick wall fence of the complex are 2 large dome lights, and about 3 months after we moved in, it was smashed. It is still broken.
The body corporate commitee agreed to "enhance" the pool surrounds with new plants and new chairs. But...there are 2 new small plants and 4 chairs that resemble office chairs.
The sinking fund was already healthy when we moved in (which also pleased us, assuming the strata fees wouldn't need to go up much in the coming years to allow for that)...
I'm just not sure why it's gone up to this extent. Is it normal for that to happen? I know everything else has gone up a significant amount lately.
One other thing - 18 months ago our strata manager changed companies. Maybe this new company is greedy or something.
