Any complex trustees on here? Please help.

[saor]

Thanks for explaining @repitah.

Sorry for me but I was elected to oversee the current job of replacing several courtyard doors - and I'm female! Fortunately we have several engineers (ex trustees) as volunteers so I take one of them with me to have a quick look around. Some of the men in this complex have done their stint as trustees and have now resigned, others refuse so I was painted into a corner and had to accept the trusteeship, a position I refused for 3 years.

For really big refurbs (painting the whole building etc.) we get another company to project manage. They're typically the same company that's helped draft our 10 year maintenance plan. They source contractors, oversee the job, hold contractors accountable for work once done.

Smaller jobs our managing agent has a maintenance guy. Their offices are close to the building, so whenever a contractor is on site the maintenance guy is usually here at the start to ensure things are ok.

What really, annoyed me though is the work was quoted, approved and scheduled to begin on Wednesday and finish on Friday/Saturday. On Friday the contractor told me the Main Man Messiah to whom you refer above (he's the financial trustee) instructed him to replace sections of the ceiling in 2 units he owns - HUH?

This is why I prefer doing everything through the managing agent. They're the one's who communicate to the contractor so no trustee can get their finger in the pie and ask for favours. It almost never happens that any of us ever deal directly with a contractor.

I realise there's managing agents who are very hands off and literally just do the finances. But it's one of those things where I'd rather pay more and get a more complete service and all communication gets channeled via them to contractors & owners. Then there's a shared paper-trail of everything and a public record of who said what & when. It also drastically diffuses any power imbalance where trustess will attempt what your guy did and get favours from the contractor or attempt to dictate a job to you.

 

[maumau]

For really big refurbs (painting the whole building etc.) we get another company to project manage. They're typically the same company that's helped draft our 10 year maintenance plan. They source contractors, oversee the job, hold contractors accountable for work once done.

Smaller jobs our managing agent has a maintenance guy. Their offices are close to the building, so whenever a contractor is on site the maintenance guy is usually here at the start to ensure things are ok.

This is why I prefer doing everything through the managing agent. They're the one's who communicate to the contractor so no trustee can get their finger in the pie and ask for favours. It almost never happens that any of us ever deal directly with a contractor.

I realise there's managing agents who are very hands off and literally just do the finances. But it's one of those things where I'd rather pay more and get a more complete service and all communication gets channeled via them to contractors & owners. Then there's a shared paper-trail of everything and a public record of who said what & when. It also drastically diffuses any power imbalance where trustess will attempt what your guy did and get favours from the contractor or attempt to dictate a job to you.

Tks saor, nice to know if it's a big job I might not have to go around checking everything.

100%. We've got managing agents so at the next meeting I'm going to do what you suggested and ask what the procedure is. Good point about them making decisions so people don't get preferential treatment. One of our trustees is the messiah guy above and chair's a nightmare woman who sends 3 messages a day about the same thing. The other 3 are chilled and so am I

 

[purple face]

What is the purpose of WeconnectU?

I just found out today my building is on this system. But only owners have access to it.
Is it for reporting maintenance issues? Most owners don't live in the building a lot of the building is renters. So its kind of useless if it is for maintenance issues

 

[RedViking]

Most of the people in our complex are on their death bed. So I recently took over most of the maintenance tasks. Garden, Gate, Intercom, Electric Fence, Plumbing, Cellphones, DStv, Internet etc.

 

[Foxhound5366]

What is the purpose of WeconnectU?

I just found out today my building is on this system. But only owners have access to it.
Is it for reporting maintenance issues? Most owners don't live in the building a lot of the building is renters. So its kind of useless if it is for maintenance issues

WeConnectU is a killer app that allows, amongst others:
- Trustees to approve expenses for payments
- Trustees to see actual vs budgeted expenses
- Trustees to see latest bank recon and age analysis for levy payments by owners
- Managing agents to capture and manage maintenance issues
- Managing agents to send bulk emailers to the owners
- Managing agents to host online AGMs and SGMs and facilitate voting
- Owners to access their latest statements and see a payment history of their unit

Best of all, WeConnectU can be transferred now between managing agents, so if you move managing agents, your complex’s history travels with you.

 

[saor]

What is the purpose of WeconnectU?

I just found out today my building is on this system. But only owners have access to it.
Is it for reporting maintenance issues? Most owners don't live in the building a lot of the building is renters. So its kind of useless if it is for maintenance issues

Not relevant to tenants. And the only time owners really interact with it is at the AGM where they vote on issues or to get statements. Rest of the time it's like @Foxhound5366 said.... something that the managing agents maintain and mostly the trustees interact with.

 

[zerocool2009]

WeConnectU is a killer app that allows, amongst others:
- Trustees to approve expenses for payments
- Trustees to see actual vs budgeted expenses
- Trustees to see latest bank recon and age analysis for levy payments by owners
- Managing agents to capture and manage maintenance issues
- Managing agents to send bulk emailers to the owners
- Managing agents to host online AGMs and SGMs and facilitate voting
- Owners to access their latest statements and see a payment history of their unit

Best of all, WeConnectU can be transferred now between managing agents, so if you move managing agents, your complex’s history travels with you.

We have it. And have only 1 months of monthly minutes loaded! Thank you dear estate managing agent!

 

[purple face]

How long should tiles on the floor in the foyer or the ground floor or the entrance area of the building go before they get fixed? Walls of the building are chipped I think it's been like that for months and some tiles have been broken for over a year. Nothings getting done about it.

 

[Lupus]

How long should tiles on the floor in the foyer or the ground floor or the entrance area of the building go before they get fixed? Walls of the building are chipped I think it's been like that for months and some tiles have been broken for over a year. Nothings getting done about it.

Raise it at the next AGM

 

[saor]

How long should tiles on the floor in the foyer or the ground floor or the entrance area of the building go before they get fixed? Walls of the building are chipped I think it's been like that for months and some tiles have been broken for over a year. Nothings getting done about it.

Are you a tenant or owner?

 

[purple face]

Are you a tenant or owner?

A family member owns the flat

 

[Lupus]

A family member owns the flat

So squatter??

 

[Foxhound5366]

How long should tiles on the floor in the foyer or the ground floor or the entrance area of the building go before they get fixed? Walls of the building are chipped I think it's been like that for months and some tiles have been broken for over a year. Nothings getting done about it.

The average timeline is 3.5382 weeks, depending on whether Mars is in its dominant phase or not.

 

[saor]

How long should tiles on the floor in the foyer or the ground floor or the entrance area of the building go before they get fixed? Walls of the building are chipped I think it's been like that for months and some tiles have been broken for over a year. Nothings getting done about it.

It might just be that nobody has said anything...so nobody knows to fix it. Email the managing agent/ trustees then raise it again at the next AGM

 

[Creag]

How long should tiles on the floor in the foyer or the ground floor or the entrance area of the building go before they get fixed? Walls of the building are chipped I think it's been like that for months and some tiles have been broken for over a year. Nothings getting done about it.

Something like this should be escalated to the trustees of the body corporate. It is possible that they are not aware that these are things that need too be fixed or maintained.

In our BC we have a WA group. Owners often raise concerns in the group. Trustees mostly respond positively. If your trustees are not acting to address the issues (without any qualification as to why not), the AGM is the place to vote them out and install people who will make a difference.

The AGM is not (usually) the place (unless the AGM promotes it) to raise and list specific concerns you have in the BC and infrastructure. It will depend on the agreed agenda that is followed in your AGM. If there is a general item, this will be the place to rise specific concerns.

 

[maumau]

Did I do wrong?

I am one of 5 trustees, including the chairman and we are the only people able to view complex security cameras via the Hikvision app.

This morning cameras showed offline for me and I asked about it on the trustee WA group which is a closed group of us 5 trustees plus the managing agent. When they were confirmed offline I asked the chairman (who is in charge of security) if I could help. She's constantly complaining how busy she is because nobody else does anything.

She said the cameras are all working and are being monitored by our security company but aren't connected to the app. Apparently they've been offline on the app for 3 weeks because she and the financial trustee agreed to change service providers for our CCTV system and are in the process of signing a new contract.

She then grizzled and whinged at me hysterically for 20 minutes for interfering in her job of security saying I shouldn't have "advertised" the issue on our WA group, now the whole complex will know, must she tell everybody everything that she's doing all the time. Flippen woman went on and on accusing me of wasting 30 minutes of her work day because now she has to explain what's happening. Eventually she demoralised me to a point where I virtually (but not quite) hung up on her.

I won't lie, it was upsetting because I thought I was being pro-active

She wants me to TXT her direct if I have a query but from now on she can FSK right off, if I see or hear anything strange my lips are sealed.

What's the procedure at your complexes, and was I wrong?

EDIT: I thought the trustee WA group would be discreet and we should all assist where we can but the was this woman talks we must stay in our lanes.

 

[Tongs of Destiny]

vote her out... plain and simple

write up and a nice letter listing all her faults and eff ups, also make a point of her trying to hide things from the owners etc etc.. then go around and get every owner to sign it and get her removed with immediate effect

eff with the bull, get the horns

 

[Foxhound5366]

As a trustee, you're well entitled to ask questions about anything pertaining to the complex, up to and including other trustees' responsibilities (else who keeps trustees accountable and operating in the best interests of the complex)? The chairman needs to grow up. If a core service goes down, then yes the chairman should have notified the other trustees - even if SHE is responsible for the security portfolio, it is still in the interests of all the trustees AND the whole complex and should therefore be reported to at least the trustees in the interests of transparency.

 

[now05ster]

She then grizzled and whinged at me hysterically for 20 minutes for interfering in her job of security saying I shouldn't have "advertised" the issue on our WA group, now the whole complex will know

1) why the need for secrecy among the trustees? I will answer: there isn't.

2) sounds like she has some Massive™ insecurities

3) You didn't do anything wrong.

 

[saor]

She said the cameras are all working and are being monitored by our security company but aren't connected to the app. Apparently they've been offline on the app for 3 weeks because she and the financial trustee agreed to change service providers for our CCTV system and are in the process of signing a new contract.

We require all trustees to agree on any expenditure before a project goes ahead. In fact everything is discussed amongst all the trustees - there are no decisions made in secret or between two trustees without the knowledge of the other trustees. Bear in mind that if they make a bad decision it's likely you as trustees that are going to be held responsible.

It's crazy to me that you have a setup where two trustees can can go off and spend money and change service providers without the other trustees knowing about it.

She then grizzled and whinged at me hysterically for 20 minutes for interfering in her job of security saying I shouldn't have "advertised" the issue on our WA group,

It's a trustee whatsapp group. That's the point of the group. You should all be on the same page.

now the whole complex will know,

No - only the trustees know. She's an idiot.

must she tell everybody everything that she's doing all the time. Flippen woman went on and on accusing me of wasting 30 minutes of her work day because now she has to explain what's happening. Eventually she demoralised me to a point where I virtually (but not quite) hung up on her.

I won't lie, it was upsetting because I thought I was being pro-active

Fuck her. She's the one with the problem and as trustees you should all have been made aware of the CCTV issue. If trustees can go off and spend money without the authorisation of group consensus - what's to stop them giving contracts to their family or spending money on things that aren't important? The whole point of having 5 trustees is that you eliminate the chances of bad actors gobbling up power which she appears to have done.