In my previous post, I mentioned the special general meeting that was scheduled this evening at my apartment building. A faction of owners who are represented by the developers of the building were trying dissolve the current council. It took over two hours of discussion before the vote was even held. It got a bit heated at times, as I had expected. To make a long story short, the developers’ voting block was able to use their numbers to push through the motion to remove the current council members. I somewhat expected this as they seemed to have the numbers (but perhaps not the moral high ground) on their side.
Since the building cannot proceed without a strata council, new members had to be voted in immediately. I believe there were eight people who nominated themselves to be on council, five of which were previously council members. There was nothing to stop the just removed members from being on council again. In the end, four of five previous members who wanted to be back on council were successful in their re-election bid. The remaining three members were new. One of the new guys seems like a good and fair dude and I feel like he has no connection with the developers. Another new member, I am not so sure about. First, I am uncertain about his affiliations with the developer. Second, he seems to think working with the developer on issues is an easy task and I’m believe he will be in for a surprise when he goes to work on council. The third new council member is someone I don’t trust at all. She appears to have clear ties to the developer and by law, she can’t even be present during strata council meetings where developer issues are being discussed. She’ll be absolutely useless in those matters and I also believe she’ll be using her powers on strata to advance the agendas of the developers and not the owners.
It was disappointing to see the whole council wiped out but the good news is the developer was not able to vote in their puppet strata council as I had feared would happen. With four of seven spots still being retained by previous members, the council appears to be still in good shape at keeping the developers at arms length. The drama is still far from over though. I expect some fallout from tonight’s meeting. Also, none of this mess had changed the fact that the building’s deficiencies, which are supposed to be fixed under the warranty, have not been addressed. It’s times like this I kinda wish I owned a house instead.