| From: |
SP52948 owner |
| To: |
Peter Bone BCS Strata Management |
| CC: |
Paul Banoob BCS Strata Management, Bruce Copland, Maureen McDonald, Stan Pogorelsky, Moses Levitt, John Ward, Rafael Hirchhorn |
| Subject: |
SUMMARY FOR AGM 2013: Unfair and inequitable water and gas cost sharing - Report on 17Sep2013 |
| Date: |
17/9/13, 10:44 |
Hello,
Since the EC and the Strata Manager failed to provide any response, it is fair to summarize for owners the final figures for this financial year.
Based on my visit to the Strata manager's office yesterday, I can submit the brief details in the attachment.
There is no much need to explain for me. All evidence exists and can be proven.
In essence, 192 owners in buildings and, on average, 8 owners in townhouses have been financially "abused" in regards to what the Executive Committee and the Strata Manager call "equitable share for water and gas usage" for more than 13 years.
In other words, the levies for those 200 owners were wasted.
Regards,
Sent to the EC for meeting on 25 August 2013 (repeated requests during 2011, 2012, 2013):
As current Strata Manager, Chairperson, Treasurer, and the Secretary
of SP52948,you are requested to attend to the following issues immediately.
This is in accordance with:
NSW Strata Schemes Management Act 1996
Division 2 – Members and office holders of the executive committee
22 What are the functions of the secretary of an owners corporation?
(a) to prepare and distribute minutes of meetings of the owners
corporation and submit a motion for confirmation of the minutes
of any meeting of the owners corporation at the next such meeting,
(c) to enable the inspection of documents on behalf of the owners
corporation in accordance with section 108,
(d) to answer communications addressed to the owners corporation
...
a) Raine & Horne Strata web site is missing details of the four
invoices for shared gas accounts for December 2012 (only details for
Block B (Lots 1-48) are available).
In every quarter there must be five gas invoices (four building
blocks, plus pool).
b) Provide explanation why the Strata Manager and the
Executive Committee acted against the decision made at the EC
meeting held on 13 May 1998:
BEGIN QUOTE
Approval was granted to townhouse owner 213
provided that owner requested the fitting in writing
and the owner acknowledged that all costs
were to be met by themselves and that all
future gas accounts would not be paid by the owners
corporation
END QUOTE
As my hard work shows, this owner claimed water and gas
reimbursements.
c) The water and gas reimbursements are managed in a criminal
and illegal fashion and we will have to deal with it once
and for all. 200 owners (192 from buildings and around 8-10,
depending on the year, from townhouses, who do not not claim any
rebates) have been SEVERELY financially abused and their
money taken from common funds illegally and in non-equitable
manner.
It is enough to say that 18 townhouse owners claimed around 62%
more than what other 200 owners shared in water and
gas expenses in FY 2013 (and I did not, for example, even touch
on sharing the water costs for gardening, spa, sauna, swimming pool,
cleaning foyers and basements, cleaning paved areas and so on) !
Full details will be provided soon.
When we add the "special levy" for gas usage imposed on some owners in
building blocks, things become even worse. If we take into account a
simple calculation that around $21-$22,000 is spent on shared gas
costs per year (excluding the GST), it comes to around $114.00 per year per each
of 192 lot owners (that includes expenses for heating the pool area). The fact is
that gas is quite low cost utility and that townhouse owners have abused the
system since illegal introduction after the 1999 AGM.
An important issue to highlight and show how corrupt the whole reimbursement system
hidden by Raine & Horne Strata and Mr. Bruce Copland for so long:
With the introduction of gas reimbursements, starting in 2000, the gas bill for
the complex immediately increased by 154.45% (compared to FY 1999). In
FY 2000 we paid $22,348.00 and in FY 2012, we paid $24,398.00 (a measly
9.17% increase over the last 12 years).
An enclosed document (details for other years will be sent to all owners before the AGM)
shows how much the Strata Manager and the EC disregarded even the Special By-Law
they voted for (the By-Law is illegal, but that is another issue to be resolved soon).
As a reminder, the EC and you still fail to deal with this request, as reported on 14 April 2013
and 11 May 2013:
One of the points that the EC tried to use when introducing illegal and inequitable
water and gas reimbursements at the AGM 2012 was that it would bring balance
in expenses between owners in buildings and townhouses. In its own right,
that would be great if the rules of applying the rebates for the townhouses were
proper and equitable for owners in the buildings (192 of them) and even owners in
the townhouses who are conservative in their water and gas consumption.
We will deal with this Special By-Law through CTTT SCS 12/50460, which the
owners will hear about in about a week's time.
In the meantime, as a drastic example, the web page today reveals the size of the
expenses that Lot owner 215 claimed for three-month period in late 2012 for
water and gas:
|
Plan:
|
NSW 52948
|
1-15 FONTENOY ROAD MACQUARIE P
|
|
Creditor Code:
|
89089
|
MINYI XIA
|
|
Document Ref.:
|
29481212
|
Document Total: 937.62
|
|
Invoice Document:
|
Invoice DocID 4687771
|
|
|
|
|
|
Disstn Amount
|
Exp. Code
|
Expense Description
|
Raised By
|
Date Raised
|
Qty
|
Fund Ind
|
Batch Seq
|
Batch Date
|
|
|
258
|
ACC# 54757042
|
Manual
|
06/01/2013
|
0
|
A
|
116
|
09/01/2013
|
|
785.97
|
275
|
ACC# 958.5
|
Manual
|
06/01/2013
|
0
|
A
|
116
|
09/01/2013
|
|
Just for water usage in period August to November 2012, this owner claimed $785.97, and
including the gas usage, it was $958.50.
To compare, for example, the gas usage for all owners in Block A in period
June to August 2012 (most periods are quite similar), 47 owners together
spent $1,395.23, which comes to around $29 per owner in Block A.
Note that also all owners must share the cost for maintaining the common property.
The Secretary is requested to provide justification why owners of lots in
buildings are discriminated against, and their levies spent on such
excessive private usage.
The Secretary is also requested to ensure that, until the SCS 12/50460 is dealt with,
or the next general meeting is scheduled, the water and gas reimbursements be
separately itemized in the balance sheets.