Strata Manager Charged Wrong Fund

Hi All,

Am after some advice - our Strata Managers in their infinite wisdom have charged legal expenses (which we requested be to our sinking fund) against our Admin fund.

We now have a deficit in our Admin fund which they are requesting we raise a Special Levy to cover. This is a significant cost - yet we have the required amount available in our sinking fund.

We requested a transfer be made but have been informed that the transferred amount will need to be repaid into the sinking fund within 3 months.

Do we have any form of recourse? It seems a paper loss, since we have the money but they are lodged in the wrong accounts.
 
Thanks for the reply.

Whilst it is stated that we need to pay back the fund within 3 months. My concern is that the Strata Manager debited the wrong fund in the first place.

Since this was a once off court cost in the magnitude of tens of thousands of dollars we requested that sinking fund be used for such an expense.

By the Managing Agent then debiting our admin fund we are now left in deficit which they are demanding we bring back to nil by way of a levy. If not then we can transfer from sinking but then also need to issue a levy.

We have the money in the sinking fund to cover this cost - but we can't access it!
 
I understand where you are coming from but if you go debiting the sinking fund "tens of thousands of dollars" for non-capital works, and since there is a requirement to have a 10 year expenditure plan for sinking funds, they will need to raise a special levy to top it back up - which is also what your strata manager said.

Either way, you are all still up for a special levy to pay the legal bills unless the situation that caused the BC to engage legal assistance was covered as an insureable event covered by the insurances that the BC has in place.
 
And on another note ... by requesting the contribs for the admin fund, you can claim the tax deduction in the year in which it is incurred.
Contribs to the sinking fund cannot be claimed as such because they are contribs for capital works.
In a way, they have done you a favour, from a deductability point of view.
 
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