Owners Corporations are usually managed on a day to day basis by Owners Corporation Managers. Your Owners Corporation Manager is responsible for:
the professional retention and holding of the Owners Corporation’s records and money,
maintaining the financials of the Owners Corporation, including striking of fees to collect money for payment of contractors supplying services to the Owners Corporation,
convening the Annual General Meeting each year, and
arranging the carrying out of decisions made by the Owners Corporation.
Each of the above roles requires significant trust in your Owners Corporation Manager. From time to time that trust is lost due to any number of reasons such as not striking fees on time or not carrying out decisions of the Owners Corporation in a timely manner. When that trust is lost, the Owners Corporation invariably appoints an alternative Owners Corporation Manager. Once the decision is made to change managers with notice given to the outgoing Owners Corporation Manager, it is extremely important to know what your Owners Corporation is entitled to and what it can expect with the change of management.
Unfortunately, not all changes of Owners Corporation Management are transparent and smooth. Examples of issues experienced by Pelham Strata Lawyers with Owners Corporations that it has acted for on this type of issue include:
an incomplete set of records are handed over so the Owners Corporation does not what its actual financial position is at the date of handover or whether all lot owners are paid up or not with their fees,
money withdrawn from the bank account of the Owners Corporation without its consent or approval - practically speaking this is theft, and
the outgoing manager refuses to accept that its services have been terminated so it refuses to handover any records or funds of the Owners Corporation,
To us at Pelham Strata Lawyers, the change of management process is not just a dump of electronic files on to a USB stick with an EFT remittance advice or bank cheque but a process that requires detailed consideration, especially where the outgoing manager is likely to be antagonistic to the Owners Corporation’s decision to terminate its services.
Changing of Owners Corporation Managers
