Strata committees, deliberations and the “Go, no Go” decision

​The executive committee for an owners corporation (body corporate) is like most other committees. As advanced as we are, with all the technology at our disposal it is difficult to get people with different priorities on the same page when managing a strata building.

Most of the time, the people on these committees are volunteers. They are responsible for a community of people who live in close proximity to each other – the modern version of a local village. People have always been passionate about their “turf” or their “patch” and strata communities are no exception.

Owner-occupiers have different goals from owner-investors, yet both have to co-exist on the committee. Some committee members will have backgrounds in engineering, or accounting which gives them a level of expertise. Other members may feel strongly about environmental issues and creating communities which are carbon neutral.
How do you get to a majority of people in the committee to agree to proceed on any program of works?

Due to rising energy prices and falling electrical component prices, a program of energy saving projects can now be created which satisfies ALL parties. That’s right. No-one has to compromise.

In large corporations, getting a payback on a project within 3 years is usually a necessity to get the go ahead to proceed. There are a set of energy saving projects for strata buildings which can typically provide a payback in less than 2 years. That type of payback is literally unheard of in the corporate sector.

What does this mean?

Owner occupiers and owner investors should both want to initiate this program of work as ultimately it will reduce the strata levies that they pay.

The payback (or return on investment, sometimes called ROI) is so fast that after spending the money on the upgrades, the savings from those upgrades pays for itself in roughly two years. After this time, everyone wins financially.

This actually means that an accountant on the executive committee, who has no interest in environmental causes would support proceeding with the program of energy saving projects, just from a financial standpoint.

How do you know it is going to work?

Fortunately, others have been there before you. They have done the hard yards and have the results to prove it in lower energy bills every quarter.
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All you have to do is run the same projects that they ran. Buy from the same suppliers that they bought from and replicate the results. Easy!