This week, I ask you to indulge me, if you will.
Next Thursday 27 August 2015 I will be moderating a conversation between two strata managers and a room full of lawyers. Lauren Shaw of Dynamic Property Services and Wade McKenzie of Strata Republic have been kind enough to offer their time to the State Legal Conference 2015.
The topic? How can lawyers better service strata managers and their buildings.
In the lead up to this event, I am gathering war stories as well as tips and tricks to share with the room. This is an open invitation to contribute yours.
Strata lawyers often walk a difficult line of having to service a number of stakeholders, usually at the same time. We have the strata manager, their employer, the owners corporation, the executive committee and the lot owners. Rarely do interests align and often we have to remind ourselves who our client is. Owners corporations are subject to strict legislative requirements and timetables – particularly when it comes to obtaining consents and holding meetings. These in turn may be shifted to the lawyer to accommodate and factor in to their advice and representation. It can be a tough gig, but then so is strata management.
If you’ve had a memorable experience dealing with a strata lawyer, I’d love to hear about it. What went well and why? What mistakes did you (or the lawyer) learn from? What words of caution do you have to offer? No names, no reputations on the line.
Let’s share, learn and grow.
[name removed] have sucked our building dry of all its money and then some. They have failed to check for proper authorisation (meeting minutes) and take instructions from individuals who are not authorised to spend the owners corps money.
I have experienced one company (without mentioning names) that give an ‘estimate’ on services. We provide this estimate to our clients and the succeeding invoice dramatically exceeds the initial estimate fee.
In this instance, a letter cost my clients a few thousand dollars and I have asked this lawyer to provide a breakdown on what they did to type up this letter – maybe they used gold leaf to write it?
I believe, for a better service, before the lawyers commence anything they should forward an updated estimate to the strata manager with an explanation of the increase in fees so that we can inform our clients and get approval to accept this before the astronomical invoice is suddenly due for payment.
Well done Amanda.
I commend you on your choice of topic for the event.
A good strata lawyer will take the time to understand the objective of the brief, the background & possibly the personalities involved. They might then outline the options, the risks relating to those options and of course the related costs. The cost estimate is provided after discussions about the options.
And here’s the punch line – a good strata manager will have done the same assessment!
The good strata manager has realised in their assessment that to serve the owners of the scheme and to mitigate their clients risks, it is best to engage the good strata lawyer.
A good strata lawyer will ask for the appropriate information if it has not been provided by the strata manager and will also advise when “legal advice” is not necessarily the best option to achieve the objective.
In summary, a great strata lawyer is a pragmatic lawyer!