Investigative Journalism and Learning Hub - BCS Strata Management ignored submission about false statements by Solicitor Adrian Mueller and his high unnecessary expenses for SP52948 on 9 May 2013

From:	SP52948 owner
To:	Peter Bone BCS Strata Management
CC:	Paul Banoob BCS Strata Management, Bruce Copland, Stan Pogorelsky, Moses Levitt, Jeffery Wang, Maureen McDonald
Subject:	RE: REQUEST FOR EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING AND URGENT NOTIFICATION FOR OWNERS: False statements by the Solicitor and high unnecessary expenses - 9 May 2013
Date:	14/5/13, 7:00 pm

Hello,

I know this very well. That is why I mentioned it because only members of the EC with bad intentions would prevent it from happening in an orderly and open manner. Those that have nothing to hide can certainly face one single person like me. After all, there are 13-14 of you!

I need to remind you that in order to "approve" the legal engagement of any Solicitor (as we saw, Adrian Mueller was not a great resource and acted against the Legal Profession Act 2004 and the SSMA 1996 on many occasions), you have to organize the EGM (and that is exactly what you personally wrote to owners last week).

In that case my 12 Motions (passively waiting since 29 January 2013 and sent to you again on 10 May 2013), corrections of the minutes of the AGM 2012, one or preferably two more proposals for cost agreement from other Solicitors, and response to other issues as submitted by me, have to be provided as part of the agenda for the EGM (SkyNet Global running business in the complex, multiple quotes for major projects in the complex, full disclosure of "equitable" water and gas reimbursements, investigation about alleged illegal electrical work who seemingly did not have license in a unit in Block A by an ex-member of the EC, copies of the Special By-Laws as registered after the AGM 2012, and so on).

In addition,  last week, straight after the Hearing, the Solicitor and you received an email from me requesting:

* The EC and you immediately review the invoice in
   amount of $1,452.00 that you submitted to the owners
   corporation on 6 March 2013 because almost all expenses
   in it were related to the CTTT File SCS 12/50460
   (and corresponding DFT SM12/1537JR), and some even
   private financial matters between Raine & Horne Strata
   and myself (which you cannot claim from owners corporation).

   A quick reimbursement of the illegal expenses is required
   immediately as the funds of the owners corporation have been
   abused without approval. The Solicitor and you provided
   false statement to the DFT and CTTT that Mr. Adrian Mueller
   legally represented the owners corporation in case SCS 12/50460.

   Note that I sent these details about imposter representing the owners
   corporation in case SCS 1/250460 to the Director General at the DFT and
   the CTTT this week. You will hear about it soon.

* The Solicitor must disclose to owners corporation and myself all
   costs (current estimate above $25,000.00) from the Standard Cost
   Agreement of $11,550.00 as "approved" by the EC members on
   9 July 2012 .

* The Solicitor is requested to provide evidence why he failed to notify
   the owners corporation about all expenses and substantial changes to
   the Cost Agreement as per Legal Profession Act 2004:

   If the Solicitor becomes ‘aware’ of a substantial ‘change’
   in anything ‘included in’ prior disclosure, there is a
   duty to update the disclosure under Section 316

  It is actually covered by Section 309(1)(b)(iv) (and Section 316)
  of the Legal Profession Act 2004.
  That has not happened in our complex.

  This was also listed in your Standard Cost Agreement but not
   adopted by the Solicitor.

In regards to the EGMs and AGMs:

For every Extraordinary General Meeting there must be 7 clear days notice given plus time for postage. That means, minimum 11 working days from the day the agenda is sent to owners and the day of the meeting if the notices are sent (and they must be sent to every owner on the strata roll)!

Let's see if you will follow it. Raine & Horne Strata already broke this law on three previous occasions but this time it will not succeed.

a) At AGM 2010, the Strata Manager Mr. John Fry, upon strong support by one single EC member, refused to add two of my Motions on the agenda:

* Future proposals to run business on common property    and extraordinary general meetings

* Analysis of Optus proposal and past mistakes at the    committee level

I have all the evidence.

b) At AGM 2011 the Strata Manager Mr. Simon Wicks refused to put my Motions:

* Removal of By-Law 8

* Future proposals to run business on common property   and extraordinary general meetings

In fact, he put the first Motion on the agenda but changed it so much that it became useless because he refused to add the explanatory notes.

I have all the evidence.

c) At AGM 2012, the Strata Manager Mr. Peter Bone refused to put on the agenda two Motions:

* Discuss Special By-Law 10

* Improved Dispute Resolution Process

He also misconstrued and changed two other Motions:

* Rescind Motion 8 at AGM 2005 - Limit on spending by executive committees of large strata schemes

* Rescind Special By-Law 8 - Acquisition of Additional Common Property

And seven other Motions were not provided with the explanatory notes, thus making them useless.

So, there are plenty of proofs of Motions that were not allowed at the general meetings.

Legal expenses are not needed in our strata plan. As soon as all owners get the full information about the management of our complex and numerous serious issues disclosed, I am sure things will change very quickly.

I am fully aware that the EC and your office thought that I would get exhausted (both physically and financially) and give up enforcing proper management and transparency. You were/are very wrong. Other people give up - I do not.

I know that your office and the EC bullied several owners in the past, who, in the end, left the complex, and gave up fighting. They were actually right about certain things but did not have the energy or knowledge to continue the battles and because our complex is not a real community-based scheme, they decided to leave.

When there is a cancer, it has to be removed in full, not let grow further...

If we were a real "friendly" neighborhood, we would form a special committee (not from the members of the EC), call an internal meeting or series of meetings, and mediate between you and me (based on proper legal grounds and with full view of the SSMA 1996). That is what good communities do. They sit and review things together. We have enough smart people in the complex who can organize the "mediation".  That is why I proposed the Motion at AGM 2012 (which you deliberately removed) and again for the EGM/AGM 2013 (pending now).

On Tue, 2013-05-14 at 11:55 +1000, Peter Bone wrote:

Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 No 138
Schedule 2 Meetings and procedure of owners corporation
Part 2 Provisions relating to procedure for meetings
Division 3 Special provisions relating to procedure for meetings other than first annual general meeting
31 When general meetings of owners corporation are required to be held
(1) An annual general meeting of an owners corporation must be held in each year:
(a) on a date not earlier than one month before and not later than one month after each anniversary of the first annual general meeting, or
(b) if the Adjudicator has made an order under section 152 varying the time at which the meeting must be held, in accordance with the order.
(2) A general meeting of an owners corporation (in this clause referred to as an extraordinary general meeting), which is not an annual general meeting, may be convened by the executive committee at any time.
(3) The secretary of an executive committee or, in the secretary’s absence, any member of the executive committee must convene an extraordinary general meeting as soon as practicable after receiving a requisition for such a meeting signed by one or more persons entitled to vote in respect of one or more lots, the unit entitlement or the sum of the unit entitlements of which is at least one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements.
Peter Bone

From: SP52948 owner
Sent: Thursday, 9 May 2013 6:09 PM
To: Peter Bone; Paul Banoob
Cc: Bruce Copland, Stan Pogorelsky, Moses Levitt, Maureen McDonald, Jeffery Wang
Subject: REQUEST FOR EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING AND URGENT NOTIFICATION FOR OWNERS: False statements by the Solicitor and high unnecessary expenses - 9 May 2013

Hello,

Earlier today I received a letter from the Solicitor Mr. Adrian Mueller, who already spent more than $20,000.00 of our money in case SCS 12/32675 to represent the owners corporation in the new case SCS 12/50460.

The cost agreement offer is dated 6 May 2013.

With the powers vested in me through proxies given at the AGM 2013, and other owners who will be nameless at the present time, you are requested to organize an Extraordinary General Meeting as a matter of urgency (note that 13 Motions I logged in late January 2013 are waiting for that meeting whenever it happens).

The owners will have a chance to verify the facts and make decisions to AVOID WASTING MONEY ON LEGAL COSTS. Any member of the EC who is against the general meeting can only decline to support an open meeting because of hidden agendas.

In addition, all owners must be notified by the Strata Manager and the EC about the following immediately:

a) The Solicitor provided false statement to the Department of Fair Trading on 6 March 2013 in which he claimed to represent the owners corporation in case SCS 12/50460 (letter enclosed herewith).

Solicitor Mr. Adrian Mueller acted against the Legal Profession Act 2004 and his only goal is to make money for himself and defend a group of members of the EC (one current member is excluded because he did not engage in any of the meetings since the AGM 2012).

b) Solicitor Mr. Adrian Mueller even charged the owners corporation for some "work" done in case SCS 12/50460 before he was authorized to do so (refer to the attachment dated 6 March 2013).

c) Solicitor Mr. Adrian Mueller made a copy of the "original" offer for cost agreement in case SCS 12/32675 that he sent to the Strata Manager on 16 July 2012 and only changed the date for a new "offer" - 6 May 2013.

d) The Solicitor's engagement in case SCS 12/50460 was questioned three times:

* During the Department of Fair Trading mediation attempt in file DFT SM12/1537JR on 7 March 2013

* Submitted to the CTTT in File SCS 12/32675 on 14 March 2013

* Submitted on the CTTT in File SCS 12/50460 on 6 May 2013

The last one finally made the Solicitor to rush into creating a new cost agreement and offer the owners to allow him to represent the complex again.

d) The total current costs and estimates, including the new offer, would go up to above $32,000.00.

These kind of expenses must go to the general meeting.

e) Solicitor Mr. Adrian Mueller provided false statement in his latest letter to the CTTT and owners on 6 May 2013 by stating that he never knew about case SCS 12/50460 before 24 April 2013.

The case was opened by me on 5 October 2012 and the EC members, Strata Manager and the Solicitor knew about it immediately (see attachments for 10 October 2012 and 19 October 2012). I have more evidence for later.

Therefore, the Solicitor Mr. Adrian Mueller deceived the CTTT and the owners corporation by providing false statements again.

f) For the previous contract with the Solicitor, the EC made a decision before the cost agreement was given to them, at an illegal meeting that was not announced to owners and no minutes provided within seven days after the meetingand no cost agreement provided to owners within seven days after the Solicitor produced it on 16 July 2012.

g) Some of issues with the alleged EC meeting held on 9 July 2012:

SSMA 1996Schedule 3 Part 2 Section 7 Clause 1 and 2
SSMA 1996 Schedule 3 Part 2 Section 6 Clause 3
SMA 1996 Schedule 3 Part 2 Section 6 Clause 1 and 4
SSMA 1996 Schedule 3 Part 2 Section 11 Clause 2
SSMA 1996 Part 3 Section 22 Clause a and b
SSMA 1996 Schedule 3 Part 2 Section 16
SSMA 1996 Section 102
and others

h) How bad the Strata Agency is, shows the fact that they forged the six-monthly balance sheet for period 1 September 2012 and 28 February 2013. In the first version, they listed the legal costs as low as $200.00 but failed to include Solicitor's invoice on 15 November 2012 in the amount of $13,986.12.

This is very serious non-compliance with the Property, Stock and Business Agents Regulation 2003, Regulation 39

I asked the Strata Manager to explain this terrible and deliberate error in the balance sheet on 14 march 2013 and never got a reply. But, they silently corrected it later on...

See the two attachments.

I have much, much more as evidence.

Members of the EC and the Strata Manager - the ball is in your court!

You cannot make a decision to spend money on the legal fees without a general meeting now.

I will notify the CTTT about the false statements by the Solicitor tomorrow.