I am currently seeking a investment property and am very interested in one located at this address. But I heared some rumor that this building may have some construction issue and that is why its Strata is quite high (75 ENT > $1000/q).
Does anyone know any TRUE story of this building? Thanks
If you know who the builder was then look up dept of fair trading website or contact DFT to see if there are any outstanding claims against this builder.
$1000 pq is not extraordinary – the building does have lifts and probably a pool/gym etc – these are expensive items. What is the balance between the sinking fund and the operational funds? Are a lot of funds going towards daily running costs (rates, water, insurance, landscape maintenance, lift maintenance, aircond etc) or is there a substantial amount going to the sinking fund eg special levy or expected high maintenance items? (this would be discussed at the agm and records will be available).
A while back we were looking at an apartment at Elizabeth Bay (Sydney) and the strata for a 1 bedder is about $1500/pq if I remember correctly. The apartment is meticulously decorated high on the 12 or 13th floor with reasonable view across Kings Cross. Upon investigation we realise the carpark with a "car rotator/conveyer belt thingie" (due to limited space for car to do a 3 point turn) requires a lot of expensive maintenance.
Upon further investigation we realised the apartment has been on the market once every 18-24 months.
Troubles we all don't need.
Then again there are so called 3 bedroom panthouses in the city with a $5000/quarter strata. I guess the only way I'll live in one of these is when a company pay for this sort of things…
I have been a Strata Manager for a long time and do manage a variety of strata schemes in this area.
The best advice I can give you is to do a Strata Search. You are able to get a company to do this search for you and provide you with the report for around $250… the advantages of asking a company to do this for you is that they know exactly what to look for and if you are concerned about an outstanding defect claim and can ask them to look specifically into this.
However, if you understand the in's and out's of strata the least bit; it may be possible for you to do the search yourself – however there will be a small fee pay to the managing agents (normally approx $28.60/hour). In this time you can check:
– the minute book – (all records of General and Committee meetings should be recorded here) and may provide some information on the outstanding defects
– the Correspondence – this should show any correspondence that the Strata Manager has dealt with in relation to this ppty and will most likely hold the most information about the defects. Just make sure you go through it carefully.
– the Income & Expenditure Statements & Ledger – Here you can find out where the money is being spent. You may find that the Owners Corporation have appointed a consultant to deal with this issue (which can amount to a lot of $$$ – resulting in your levies increasing)
There are a lot more items that come up in a Strata Search however if you are trying to find out more about the construction issues, I believe the above 3 documents will give you the most information.
Keep in mind depending on the age of the building the construction issue you are talking about may be covered under the Home Owners Warranty Insurance.
sjnn,
We are not getting good service from our strata.
Can you help some in changing strata management agency.Hi Garg,
First step is to find out when your Agency Agreement (contract) ends with your current Managing Agent and how much notice you will need to give.
If you contact Marie-Line from United Strata Solutions…. http://www.unitedstrata.com.au …. she can walk you through the process step by step with no obligations.
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