Greetings fellow investors,
As a new player in the game I've learned so much from these forums – thank you for your input and advice. Now I'd like to ask for some advice myself
.We've recently purchased a unit in a block of 13 strata units in Brisbane which is managed by an offsite Body Corporate Manager (BCM) – using that term very loosely.
This is the first time we've ventured into Body Corporate territory and it has left me less than impressed. In summary, it seems our BCM does a lot of talking and not much doing.
The building is certainly not the most desirable and mostly accommodates low income earners – with great returns. There has been a huge shift in the quality of tenant to date with nearly all of the previous trouble makers now removed, as most of the owners we've spoken to want to tidy it up.
Basically the grounds of the property are kept to a very basic level of cleanliness – lawn mowed sparodically with no catcher, litter blowing around yard, unregistered cars and old lounges kept in parking area.
After a recent BC meeting with some of the owners and BCM (over 2 months ago – which we weren't invited to but happened to stumble into when visiting the property for renovations -necessary maintenance needs were identified and it was agreed that repairs should take place.To date we still haven't seen the minutes from this meeting and – after follow up – the BCM gave some lame excuse that he hadn't got quotes for the maintenance done yet.
I have also sent him an email asking him the below questions with no reply:
What are your responsibilities as the BCM? Pls provide details of your experience.
How long have you been managing the property?
Is there a contract signed between you/your organisation and the BC? If so, can I see a copy?
Please advise when the BC meetings are held and when can we expect to see minutes from these meetings?
Is there an owner subcommittee or other BC rep you work with?
Please send legislation in regards to rules/regs for the upkeep maintenance for common areas in residential blocks such as this one?
Pls forward the names and contact details for the other owners?My questions are:Is this normal BCM behaviour?
Am I entitled to request the docs/proof as asked above?
Can we oust the BCM? If so, how?
Can anyone point me in the right direction for general BC guidelines/regs (other than the 10 million page legislation on BC)?
How is this guy accountable?
What are the measures of a good/great BCM?Thanks for reading this far
Noni
Hi Noni
when you did your conveyancing searches – was a body corporate search done – as a lot of the information you have requested would have been evident if a search of the body corporate records were done?
You may like to review information on 2 BCM sites that we have dealt with and consider well run to do a compare and contrast – also see the information you can get from those sites – some of which may direct you to the information you require
thanks
fantastic thanks Raddles, I'm pretty sure our Solicitor did that search – she's very thorough – but I'll certainly check when I can get my hands on the docs at home.
I'm off to search the sites you've provided.
Thanks for your reply.
i've owned a few units with body corp. and i'm here to tell you they are all pretty much the same.
occasionally you get a good manager, however these people normally move on to greener pastures.
the only thing you can do is keep on them. i'm currently having problems with my BC manager, however since i took control of the issue (putting in lock up garages) things are going well. i just found, the more work i do for them, the more gets done. i know they are meant to do it. but unfortunetly they dont.
remain friendly and help them every chance you get. this at least keeps you in the loop and you can direct and organise quotes etc on their behalf.
cheers
.
-necessary maintenance needs were identified and it was agreed that repairs should take place.
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