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their strata schemes?

Participants in the owners survey were asked to rate the level of co-operation between owners and residents in their strata schemes. Figure 7.6 presents the findings.

Importantly, the majority of survey respondents (75%) indicated that there was some, or significant, coopera-tion between owners in managing their scheme.

Survey of owners. 1016 respondents. Single response question.

However, a significant minority (18%) said that there was little or no cooperation between owners in their scheme, and lack of engagement and apathy of owners was raised as a common concern in the open responses to both the owners survey and executive committee sur-vey. In the owners survey, owners were asked to identify the main problem they have faced as an owner in their strata scheme and one in ten respondents to that ques-tion complained that lack of engagement and apathy of owners was the main problem in their scheme:

“The main problem is getting enough owners involved / interested in the running of the build-ing, owners of investment properties have little or no interest in the day to day running and care of the building and contribute in no way” (Owner survey, respondent 779)

“…. apathy with a capital ‘A’ is a problem in this place and, I guess, in a lot of places. Some people do not want to be involved. They think that they have bought through their levies the right to ig-nore everything that goes on and have no further responsibility.” (Owner interview, respondent 139) Interviewees pointed out that some owners may not wish to get involved in the running of their scheme be-cause they are happy with the way the scheme is being run without them:

“If somebody else does the job and you are com-fortable, why should you worry? … Somebody is looking after you.” (Executive committee inter-view, respondent 398)

“We say at the meetings, they come along if they want to complain; they haven’t come along, so there’s nothing to complain about, so they must be doing okay.” (Executive committee interview, respondent 37)

Investor owners were in some cases identified as a group who are less likely to get involved in the running of their schemes than owner occupiers:

“Most owners don’t give a damn as long as their money comes in .... one third to a half are non-owning tenants. So the owners live elsewhere, they don’t care. They can adjust their rental levels once a year, they have an agent to look after their property. So in terms of the daily cleanliness and the noise levels, how pleasant or unpleasant, they don’t care, they just rent it out. And any expense they have is tax deductable. So that’s most prob-ably one of the reasons most of them don’t give a damn what goes on.” (Executive committee survey, respondent 53)

“The critical thing is that they don’t really take an interest. A lot of the investors pretty much buy the property and go to a real estate agent and get them to manage it for them. So they’re not actually taking an interest in how their property is managed day to day.” (Executive committee interview, respondent 305)

However, there are certainly exceptions, and amongst the executive committee survey respondents, 15% were investor owners who were involved in the running of their schemes.

Significant cooperation between owners Some cooperation between owners Little cooperation between owners

No cooperation between owners Don't know Other

Figure 7.6: How would you rate the level of cooperation in your strata scheme?

While some owners may not want to get involved in the running of their schemes, other owners may be unable to exercise their right to have a say in their scheme. This can be for a number of reasons. First, they may not know what their rights and responsibilities are regarding the management of the scheme, what is involved in being a member of the executive committee, or how to get involved:

“Obviously, the person responsible for paying the electricity bills does his/her job because the lights in common areas are always working. Apart from that, I don’t know what is required.” (Owner survey, respondent 457)

“[I’m] unaware of the system and how to become involved.” (Owner survey, respondent 864)

“Why don’t people get involved in strata? I think they feel intimidated.” (Owner interview, respond-ent 63)

Second, they may feel that they don’t have the time to get actively involved:

“Lack of time to pay proper attention to what is happening in the scheme.” (Owner survey, respondent 499)

“It’s just the way it is. Some people are work-ing and have family and don’t have time. Some people don’t even speak English enough to participate. And we have about forty per cent rate of people not living here who own the property.”

(Executive committee interview, respondent 398) Third, they have been bullied or intimidated by other owners and as a result feel unable to vote at all, vote in a particular way, and/or sit on the executive committee:

“[It’s the]Chairperson who made all the decisions.

Anything she considered unnecessary just did not get done. People avoided the AGMs because it was a waste of time attending, unless you wanted to be insulted.” (Owner survey, respondent 222)

“…there’s also the unwillingness to expose yourself … to have conflict … and they’re a bit overwhelmed and unwilling to expose themselves because if they open their mouth and they’re voted down then they’re called troublemakers or not team players or something.” (Executive com-mittee interview, respondent 275)

Finally, they may not feel that their vote or input will make a difference:

“In a small self managed strata I have found own-ers were powerless in the face of aggressive office holders that were acting inappropriately.” (Owner survey, respondent 535)

The issue of attracting owners to join the executive committee is clearly complex. In the survey of execu-tive committee members, more than a third (37%) of respondents said that they had had trouble recruiting people to sit on their executive committee and one-fifth (22%) said the membership of their committee didn’t change often enough.

Almost 60% of the respondents to the survey of owners sat on the executive committee of their schemes. Those who did not sit on the committee were asked how they would feel about being involved in running their scheme. Approximately one third of these respondents said that they would be willing to sit on the executive committee, and another third said that while they would not join their executive committee, they would be will-ing to help out in less formal ways.

On the other hand, there was also clear evidence of a reluctance by some owners to be involved. Common reasons for not wanting to join the executive committee included having insufficient time or other conflicting commitments, not wanting to get involved because of perceived problems with the way the committee oper-ates and feeling excluded from joining the committee.

Regarding perceived problems with the running of the executive committee, responses focused on personality clashes and lack of co-operation:

“Too many big egos taking the meetings [go]

round in circles.” (Owner survey, respondent 291)

“Atmosphere of hostility and lack of cooperation.”

(Owner survey, respondent 775)

“We have an owner who is a lawyer and he is for-ever against any decision made by the executive committee and all owners. He even takes them to court. I don’t want to get involved and don’t have time to waste in dispute.” (Owner survey, respond-ent 91)

In regard to feeling excluded from joining the execu-tive committee, respondents expressed concern that decisions about executive committee membership were

inappropriately controlled by the current executive committee members:

“Our committee is hand-picked and dominated by one person.” (Owner survey, respondent 65)

“The strata manager & Exec Com [Executive committee] won’t allow anyone else on the Exec Com & even illegally ignore proxy votes.” (Owner survey, respondent 329)

Interestingly, of the 212 people who answered the open component of this question, 65 said that they had previously been a member of the executive committee of their scheme, or another scheme. While many re-spondents simply stated that they had previously been on the executive committee, some went on to explain why they were no longer on the committee. Responses included not being willing to continue with the high workload associated with committee membership, hav-ing left their committee because of a dispute, not behav-ing willing to sit on a committee viewed as being dysfunc-tional, a change in personal circumstances meaning they are no longer able to volunteer, being unwilling to serve with particular individuals on the committee, and having suffered abuse while serving on the executive committee:

“I was on the committee for two of the last three years … and resigned because several people ex-pected me to do far too much for a person acting in a voluntary capacity, with not enough coop-eration from all to make the job easier.” (Owner survey, respondent 62)

“I was on the EC [executive committee] for 5 years and would never volunteer again. My health suffered as a result of all the unpleasantness. As secretary I was blamed for all the teething prob-lems any new building experiences. The blame manifested itself in anonymous letters, faeces in my letterbox and other bullying tactics, along with being ostracised by certain groups.” (Owner survey, respondent 208)

“I would never go on an executive committee again, never, never. Because if you’re the secre-tary, you just get blamed for everything. They need to have a scapegoat. If you do the good things you never get a thank you, and if you do things that don’t please them, you’re gossiped about and castigated and ostracized.”(Owner interview, respondent 213)

Another cause for concern is the prospect of own-ers being unwilling to join the executive committee because of the liabilities they may take upon themselves as committee members. While the lack of understand-ing amongst many strata owners is a cause for great concern, the opposite situation also raises challenges for the continuation of a strata system based on volunteers.

Once they come to fully understand their liabilities as executive committee members, people can become concerned about the risks they would be taking on in becoming actively involved in the management of their