On 07/07/2014 I received, by post (yes, snail mail), a Newsletter from the Squatters Run body corporate council,
consisting of 3½ A4 pages broken into 8 sections.
My next few articles will be my response to some of those sections. Normally I would have emailed my reply to the council's newsletter
directly to all Squatters Run owners but as I don't have the latest strata roll, this forum will have to do.
You can view a scan of the Newsletter here - I have nothing to hide.
Here is Part 1 of my response to the Squatters Run Association council July 2014 Newsletter:
"Cleaning and maintenance matters
During the summer period, a sewerage blockage in Stage 1 caused an overflow of sewerage resulting in
substantial damage. The damage was sufficiently significant to result in an insurance claim by the
Association, but all problems relating to the matter have now been rectified to the satisfaction of
Council with the bulk of costs being covered by insurance."
Owners should be pleased to hear that "... all problems relating to the matter have now been rectified to
the satisfaction of Council...", even before the common area carpets had been decontaminated
(see earlier grump).
Whilst, as far as I am concerned, there still remains a heap of problems relating to the "matter", but then,
they never asked me, the person most seriously affected by this incident, if the "matter" was resolved.
In fact, with just one exception, (around Easter, when collecting her take-away coffee, councillor Suzanne Adams passed me in
the Village Square and inquired how the repairs were going), there has not been a single word from any other body corporate
councillor during the
6 months from the initial blockage of body corporate pipes and up to this Newsletter, either in person, or by phone,
email or letter asking me how repairs were progressing or if there were any issues.
Then there's "... with the bulk of costs being covered by insurance.". Indeed this is true but after
approximately $20,000 of paid-up insurance claims I'm still significantly out of pocket to the tune of thousands of dollars all
because of a body corporate plumbing issue. Yes, I have issued my final letter of demand and may be I will
receive some or all of my outstanding costs before I write my formal complaint to the Financial Ombudsman
and the Insurance Council of Australia towards the end of August.
I'll be addressing many of the issues that occurred during the previous 6 months in regards to the sewerage
spill in future grump articles.