Home | Community | Message Board

MagicBag Grow Bags
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
OfflineWAN
Stranger
Registered: 10/20/14
Posts: 1,895
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
Do you have any experience dealing with a strata?
    #22075910 - 08/11/15 10:59 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Hello.  I have heard of horror stories about strata/s.  Take this one, for example.  There is a high-rise apartment building.  They have a strata.  A couple years later, the strata decides that the building needs a new paint and the smoke alarm system needs to be updated.  The strata asks a few companies to bid on this project, however this is only "for show".  What happens is that the strata will give the job to the company that "works" with them.  This company gives a higher estimate, lets say 50K, just for argument's sake, and the cost of the project is only 30K.  The strata then splits the 20K extra with this company.  The strata will not consider a company that has a lower bid, because their aim is not to save owners money.  They (the strata) are looking out to line their own pocket/s. 

This is why sometimes you hear of condo-owners having to pay exorbitant amounts of money for the upkeep of their building/s, and why we occasionally hear of owners of apartments being taken to court for not being able to come up with the kind of money the strata asks for.  These people then lose their apartments.  Even the ones who didn't lose their apartments do not fare well either.  They have to pay up whatever cost/s their strata tells them to fork over.

Have you heard of any other horror stories with stratas?  Maybe you are dealing with one right now.  Let's hear your story.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblekoraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
Re: Do you have any experience dealing with a strata? [Re: WAN]
    #22075935 - 08/11/15 11:09 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Well, things are probably a bit different here, but I live in a building that also has an owners' association that is responsible for maintenance and upgrading of the commonly owned parts of the building. The apartments are all privately owned.

In my country, it's required by law to have an external company aid in the management of the association, but the way they fulfill this role varies between instances. Sometimes they only do some basic bookkeeping,  but often they also advise in technical matters and manage tenders for maintenance, cleaning and whatnot. This is the situition in my building as well. I'm one of the few owners who is pretty active in the association, and to the best of my knowledge, there is little to no opportunistic behavior like you described going on. Things are pretty transparent. The only drawback is that most apartment owners can't be bothered to show up on the annual meeting in which we decide on the larger projects. The decision making is very democratic, and that requires involvement of the home owners. It's our money we are playing with so you'd say that people are interested in what happens with it, but since we generally have very little difficulties and everything runs quite smoothly, I suppose they just don't think about it much.

I am aware of the occasional horror story, but o far, it seems we're blissfully spared of that shit.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineWAN
Stranger
Registered: 10/20/14
Posts: 1,895
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
Re: Do you have any experience dealing with a strata? [Re: koraks]
    #22075946 - 08/11/15 11:11 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Can you tell me what country you are from?  I am from Canada.  I must say I don't have any first-hand experience, I have only heard of anecdotal stories.  Maybe in my country we have something like what you just described, and that I am just ignorant of it.

Also, when you say "owners' association", is that like a strata?


Edited by WAN (08/11/15 11:12 AM)


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblepsi
TOAST N' JAM
Male User Gallery

Registered: 09/05/99
Posts: 31,456
Loc: 613 Flag
Re: Do you have any experience dealing with a strata? [Re: WAN]
    #22075962 - 08/11/15 11:14 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I've never heard this term before. Is "strata" short for something?


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineWAN
Stranger
Registered: 10/20/14
Posts: 1,895
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
Re: Do you have any experience dealing with a strata? [Re: psi]
    #22075976 - 08/11/15 11:18 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Maybe it's a Canadian term, then.  Basically a strata is the group that governs and looks after an apartment building or condo or a townhouse.  Single houses do not have stratas.  Only these commonly owned buildings do.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblepsi
TOAST N' JAM
Male User Gallery

Registered: 09/05/99
Posts: 31,456
Loc: 613 Flag
Re: Do you have any experience dealing with a strata? [Re: WAN]
    #22075992 - 08/11/15 11:23 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Interesting, I'm in Canada but I don't have any direct experience with how condos are run. The only situations I've encountered the word are terms like "social strata" or "geological strata", in reference to levels or layers.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblekoraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
Re: Do you have any experience dealing with a strata? [Re: psi]
    #22076109 - 08/11/15 12:03 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I understand from Wikipedia that the term originates in Australia but that it's being used all over the world now. I live in The Netherlands so we have a different term, that translates to association of owners, which really covers it. It's a democratically governed management body that is legally compulsory for apartment buildings and membership is also compulsory for owners.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Kids on drugs - how to deal with it
( 1 2 all )
shriek 5,274 39 04/22/04 08:43 PM
by oDin
* Bad Experiences with Salespeople, Anyone? Buchu 1,269 14 03/31/04 06:21 PM
by Le_Canard
* Even if it's a bad experience, I want to have it!! MOTH 927 8 04/29/04 10:31 PM
by ChiefThunderbong
* Military Experiments with LSD *MPEGs* MuffinBear 964 4 10/13/03 10:54 AM
by bandaid
* Astral projection filthysock 812 5 04/16/04 06:26 PM
by filthysock
* I need help on an Enviro.Science project mr_minds_eye 1,183 10 05/04/04 09:24 AM
by Krishna
* Cats and Shrooms: An experiment Part II
( 1 2 3 all )
jimsuzo 7,182 49 04/03/04 11:34 PM
by bert
* Mushroom Projects under way or planed. G a n j a 1,182 6 02/21/03 02:51 AM
by G a n j a

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Entire Staff
366 topic views. 4 members, 56 guests and 38 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.025 seconds spending 0.008 seconds on 14 queries.