Strata Chat With Joey

If you are ignorant then don’t be rude. I will help anyone that is new to Strata and I love to do so but if you are rude you will not have a good time. Every lesson from kindy is still relevant to owning a Strata property today: share your toys, don’t call people names and play nice together.

In this episode I compare two scenarios for an older scheme that is about to start experiencing lots within the scheme being renovated. I discuss what to expect if the scheme is not prepared and how a committee might prepare itself by changing by-laws and consulting with owners.

My top 5 things to consider before CCTV is contemplated for the scheme.

A QBCC licence is required for work over $3,300 and any work over $1,100.00 where it involves hydraulic design and in fact any building work that involves drainage, plumbing, gas fitting, termite management, fire protection.

In this episode I talk about the down side of getting personally involved in a scheme. I’ve let my dislike of a Committee member cloud my judgement and it’s time to be honest about that and resolve the issue.

Sometimes an owner or and agent will see an issue on the common property and decide to repair it themselves before seeking a Reimbursement from the body corporate, but this is dangerous. The committee must see to the common property and that includes getting quotes for work and getting advice on whether the issue is body corporate or not. If you go ahead without approval the committee may say they are not covering the expense. Always bring maintenance issues to the attention of the committee.

Hoses on balconies are problematic as often a balcony will not be set up to properly drain water that lands on it. Also hosing dirty balcony water onto your neighbour below is not cool.

A body corporate had a minor win in appointing a surveyor to look at the fence between it and a Queenslander house next door. The agent next door was not helpful. Now it turns out that Queenslander house has to hand over almost 2 square meters of land that’s not theirs. I did my SuckIt dance. Totally pumped.

A quick overview of what a work order is and the types of information that need to go into it before it is sent to the contractor.

What is a FPOC and what does that person do at your scheme. Today I explain the role of the FPOC and if it interests you please put your hand up at the next AGM. Being FPOC will allow you to assist with and monitor contractors doing work on the common property.

Setting out details about why staff turnover is high in body corporate land and what you could do to keep your scheme’s manager on board.

Maintenance issues that require a quote to be obtained generally fall into 2 categories: a. Where the scope of the work is known or can be reliably estimated and b. Where the scope of the work is unknown and cannot be estimated. So in the case of category b. I ask the first contractor to provide a quote and then use that scope of works to seek a quote from a second contractor. There is delay of course but sometimes it is unavoidable in the interests of getting the job done right.

I’ve just started working with a committee for a scheme where it seems like quite a while ago the committee lost faith and lost interest in providing their body corporate manager with timely instructions and it seems that was to their detriment.

An overview of the Opal Tower case and what the chances are that it’s happening in Queensland right now.

If your complex has a lift then every year the body corporate must complete a form and more importantly pay a fee to the Queensland government in order to keep that piece of plant and equipment registered. It’s a simple form and there are generally only two problems I come across so today I discuss those.

Hi nice a year a body corporate (depending on its age) might have to get its backflow devices tested by a qualified plumber and pay a fee to Council. The fee and the testing are a council requirement which cannot be escaped so it’s important to book the work in and get it done.

I talk about steps the committee can take to test out whether secret commissions are going down at their scheme.

In this episode I outline the most common behaviours to look for if you suspect that your body corporate manager or caretaker is accepting secret commissions.

Auditors, when appointed, perform a very brief review of the books and accounts for a body corporate, that role (in my experience) does not expose them to information sufficient to trigger a question about secret commissions.

This episode is an outline of the classic secret commission case that your body corporate might be exposed to without you knowing.