Strata Living – Owners rise up and take control of your asset
It’s becoming a scary fact that many owners in building complexes across the nation are suffering from poor management, lack of information and at times stolen money and loss of assets.
Take the recent case in Melbourne; a large CBD apartment complex opted to go with a small sole operator to manage the building. The high-level responsibilities that accompany managing a large building like this, such as high volume communications, meetings, resolving building issues and managing finances to name a few, may have got a bit too overwhelming for this manager who disappeared one day and was never to be seen or heard from again. All information during the sole operator’s management was lost and unfortunately, the Committee found a gross mismatch between the balance sheet and what was actually in the bank account.
This case is still under investigation and there are a lot of unknowns, but brings to light if you’re putting all of your building’s information and trust in the hands of one person or business, you should equally have the rights to have access to this information and be provided with a clear trail of all activity at all times.
There is a current mindset held by OC Management company, big or small that because they are managing the building they have the sole rights to information and they can choose what they keep from owners, this is ludicrous and unacceptable.
Our advice:
Information should not be locked in the OC Management office, software and computers. It should be housed in a central online platform allowing access to information to owners, committees and relevant stakeholders.
A platform such as StrataVault is an industry designed communication and data storage, secure platform for all stakeholders involved in a strata community. Features such as a discussion board, events board and task management are used to improve communication; all information is filed in an organised tagged manner, with easy to use search options.
Not all information is for everyone’s eyes, choose a platform that respects this and enables OC Managers to set viewing permissions depending on who requires access to what information.
If you are being kept away from your building’s information you should ask yourself, Why? What are they hiding? As an owner, you have the right to your building’s information.
To date, the only OC Management business in Victoria to opt-out of StrataVault was because they didn’t want their owners knowing what was going on in their building specifically the financials… again leading us to question, what are they hiding?
The good news:
There are many OC Management companies in Victoria opting into StrataVault because they want transparency and owner engagement.
They have peace of mind knowing StrataVault ensures transparency and FULL disclosure for every Owners Corporation on the planet no matter who manages or lives in the building.
If you find you are been kept away from your building information we recommend you meet with a Strata Consultant who can assist you to find a manager who is the right fit for your building.