[meme405]

Traum hit the nail on the head. My current building is older, with older citizens, and many of the council members have been on the board for a long time.

And I don't know if it's complacency, or sheer stupidity, or corruption, but they quite simply are not doing their due diligence, and it is costing the rest of the owners money.

For example our building has excess storage lockers, and parking stalls, which are owned by the strata, these are rented out to the owners in the building. Except that the price for the rental's haven't been raised for 10 years, and because of that you rent a parking stall for like 25 bucks a month. In reality renting a parking stall in this area should be about 100+ dollars a month, so that's lost revenue for the rest of the building. And there is a wait list to get one of those stalls, because why would you ever relinquish it, it costs you nothing to keep it even if it is just for your guests to use once a week.

The corruption part of this comes in because it is strata council members who are the ones renting the majority of the stalls, and the storage lockers, I have now been battling them for two years about raising the rental price of these units, and they just keep pushing the agenda item because it isn't in their own best interest. Other owners in the building just don't seem to care. It's extremely frustrating.

The other thing that kills me is the fact that the Strata council people in my building don't know fuck all about construction, we just re-did the piping systems, and we are now re-doing the paint, light fixtures, and all that stuff, and they simply do not have the knowledge to evaluate the bids they receive or to manage the work. Even just looking into the explanations on some of the cost overruns and stuff I have gotten my hands on, it seems to me like their lack of knowledge is allowing the contractors to take advantage of us and bill us for extra work which should have been handled at their own expense.

Also I don't even want to get started on their process of getting bids in the first place, some of the people who come in for our maintenance and stuff I swear give kick backs to he council members for giving them the work, the prices for simple things like our landscaping are outrageous.

Like I said it's frustrating especially given construction and this type of management is my line of work. I've tried to get on the council, but given the age of the building, and the members, and how long many of the council members have served, it's tough to get in, and I am being held back because they already know that I oppose some of their views.

Overall I've had good experiences with some strata councils, the ones that follow the rules, and are truly impartial, and for the best of the building. BUT I have also had very bad experiences such as my current scenario, where I simply don't trust those who control my best interest in this investment.

It's sad really, cause I truly do love my apartment, and the building. I like where I live, and I would love to stay, but this strata is really making me think about selling and moving.