If you are the member of a Community Title Scheme, you would be aware of how difficult it can be to gain agreement for expenditure and completing necessary works. Often, much time is wasted holding Committee Meetings or General Meetings only to have resolutions defeated.

This is a particular problem with older apartment complexes, especially if the works involve special levies. Agreement to proceed can be difficult to obtain where a number of owners are not involved and those who take an interest are against incurring costs. This can result in a stalemate where necessary repairs and upgrades are not undertaken and the complex becomes less attractive for tenants, impacting owners' income and investment returns. In areas where newer, more attractive developments are being built and rental vacancy rates are increasing, there is a continual need to maintain and improve the complex common areas to attract tenants and ensure their retention.

In my experience, there are two key factors to a successful community title scheme.

First, in order to ensure resolutions are passed at either Committee Meetings or General Meeting, you should try to build a broad consensus to the proposals ahead of any meeting. Many owners are frustrated when blindsided by expenditure requests in meeting agenda. It is preferable to flag these issues early and gain agreement for the expenditure before anyone sets foot in a meeting room. By building consensus among the owner group, the risk of resolutions being defeated and the associated waste of people's time and scheme funds should be minimised. The meeting should be a mere formality.

Second, accept that progress is sometimes slow and incremental. Modernising a complex is often akin to a jigsaw puzzle, working on different pieces while considering the overall picture. Unless your scheme is awash with funds and can afford a project manager to complete all project items at once, you may need to adopt an incremental approach - making progress based on time and funding constraints. Choose projects based both on a strict order of necessity subject to available funding. Ensure progress is made before asking owners for any special levies. Owners are far more likely to agree to special levy payments if they are able to see where progress has been made and are satisfied with progress to date. Works which involve safety issues are an exception and should proceed as a priority in any upgrade timeline.

Obviously, it helps if the owners are in general agreement on expenditure and maintenance issues. I have seen examples where the level of acrimony between owners is so bad that certain owners will vote against particular resolutions merely on the basis of their dislike of the person proposing the resolution, dislike of particularly committee members or the committee in general. Mediation in these circumstances may help but involves additional time and cost commitments.

PELEN

June 2018

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