BE ENGAGED: a wake-up call

During this past month I experienced something that I never thought I would experience, but moreover, that I’m always warning other owners, buildings, and committees to try to avoid through owner engagement.

It appeared that a building, in which I was an owner, had a questionable committee. Or should I say, a committee with questionable intentions.

Over the years I have been a member on several owners’ corporation (OC) committees across various buildings where I am an owner in Southbank, also the founder of the Southbank Owners’ Corporation Network (SOCN), via Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA).

And I, through SRA, introduced the “Join your Owners Committee” event hosted by Strata Community Australia, which is now held annually. So, I thought I was the last person who would have been caught off-guard – but I was!

The owners of this building, The Sentinel at 88 Kavanagh St, received an unexpected notice of a Special General Meeting from its then (well, at that time its recently terminated) OC management company, MICM, outlining their contract to the building had been terminated, and in their view, illegally.

This could come at significant cost to the owners if their termination was administered incorrectly, but moreover we owners were confused with where they may not have been meeting their agreement, as in the most part we thought things were going relatively smoothly in the building. There certainly wasn’t anything obvious.

Moreover, MICM hadn’t even finished the first year of their recently renewed contract after winning a robust tender process, which took the previous committee six months. So, MICM was essentially asking the owners to decide their fate.

It was challenging to understand that in only four months, from the appointment of the new committee to the termination of MICM, that this committee could have appropriately managed MICM’s performance, in accordance with the contract, to a level of being able to terminate the agreement and then run a tender process for the appointment of a new OC management company.

We were bewildered that if MICM was so bad then why wouldn’t the committee appoint the runner-up from that lengthy and robust tender, which MICM won. A four-month timeline just didn’t appear logically feasible.

This piqued the interest and prompted some research by owners which only raised more questions.

It was identified that a committee member wasn’t actually an owner in the building but was merely a proxy representing a car park lot. While this is perfectly legal, we didn’t understand why someone would do that.

It was further identified this person’s business and another committee member’s business shared the same registered address. Ironically, the registered address of the replacement OC management company, which apparently won the tender, was also the same and incidentally all three shared the same PO Box address.

It was difficult to feel this was just coincidence. It appeared all three have a pre-existing relationship, so we turned to the committee meeting minutes where they decided to terminate MICM and appoint the new OC management to see if any conflicts of interest were declared, only to learn the standard conflict of interest declaration clause at the beginning of such meetings seemed to have been omitted.

Was there a conflict of interest? The committee was asked but no response was forthcoming to any owner.

So, the Special General Meeting was held for the owners to decide whether we felt the then committee was acting in good faith and with the owners’ interests at heart. The meeting achieved a quorum, as 52 per cent of lot owners were represented, which was astounding considering The Sentinel is a large building with an excess of 600 lots. Such a turnout is unprecedented for such meetings.

This meant any resolutions moved on the night took effect immediately. The owners voted unanimously to terminate the current committee and then appointed a new committee, to reinstate MICM and terminate the new OC management company. Clearly the owners had some reservations with the decisions of the then committee.

The problem, as I see it, with The Sentinel, was that it was such a well-run building for so long (since completion) with a highly functioning committee that the owners became complacent. Attendance at AGMs dwindled year-on-year and after several long serving committee members left it allowed for a committee with new members. It would appear this new committee had an agenda for their new term.

The Sentinel dodged a bullet this time, with all thanks to MICM for bringing these dubious actions to the attention of owners.

If you don’t want this to happen in your building, then please be engaged with your building owners committee, attend AGMs and, better still, nominate to join your committee!

Talking about AGMs, SRA will be holding its 26^th AGM on Monday, September 1 at St John’s Southgate, 20 City Rd.

The City of Melbourne Lord Mayor and Cr Andrew Rowse will be joining us for the launch of our highly anticipated SRA app connecting our business and residential communities. Residents will have access to hundreds of unique special offers tailored specifically for our community.

We will also be hearing from Dr Yazid Ninsalam, Associate Dean and Head of Landscape Architecture at RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design to discuss concepts to improve our neighbourhood. Dr Yazid is highly regarded and an informative speaker.

This is one event not to be missed!

We are keen to find residents who are like-minded and have a strong desire to make our neighbourhood liveable and friendly to join our committee. If you would like to know more about what we do, then we would love to hear from you: [email protected] •