Professional Standards?

As you can see, it's one issue after another, and like previous issues, this is one that all owners of Squatters Run should be made very aware of.

Late in 2013, I was told that Squatters Run body corporate council member, Jackie Dunstone, told a Thredbo local to cease work and get off the roof of Squatters Run because "3 quotes were required for any jobs on Squatters Run". The local caught up in this was working for one of our well known tradesmen in Thredbo. This tradesman had been commissioned, on behalf of Squatters Run, by our strata management company (Alpine Strata) to carry out the works being done.

The news of this event, as you can well imagine in a small village like Thredbo, spread around the village quickly. The next I heard of the matter was that local tradesmen were refusing to take on work at Squatters Run.

December 5th, 2013: I asked Alpine Strata (by email) if it was indeed true that "local tradesmen are refusing to work on Squatters Run?"

Alpine Strata's response was that "There are some issues with [name withheld] – hopefully they will be sorted soon."

In early January of 2014 I did my own research into this matter. The tradesman confirmed the events and showed me a copy of the letter he sent to the strata management and the body corporate in November 2013. Out of respect for the tradesman I'm not about to display that letter here but it was (and I believe justifiably so) scathing of the unprofessional treatment handed out to them.

January 13th, 2014: I emailed a list of questions to the body corporate council about this issue as well as asking about several recent jobs done on Squatters Run where multiple quotes weren't asked for (I won't bore you with that the long list).

January 22nd, 2014: I received a response from body corporate president Richard Gallimore saying "I do not intend to answer your queries one by one."
In regards to the tradesman, he went on to say: "There was an misunderstanding prior to Christmas leading to [name withheld]'s letter but that situation has been resolved.

I forwarded a copy of the president's response to the tradesman who responded saying: "...particularly interested to hear that the matter 'has been resolved.' " and continued to say "We still wait for any official, written response...even a brief thank you for services rendered would have been appreciated".

April 11th, 2014: Almost 3 months after the response from the body corporate saying "... that situation has been resolved." I contacted the tradesman asking: "Can you tell me if your situation with Squatters Run has changed since we last spoke about it in January?"

April 12th, 2014: The tradesman responded with: "Nothing has changed from our point of view as far as Squatters is concerned. I must admit I find the fact that we have had NO written response at all is a sign of bad manners. I shouldn't expect much I know, but would have been pleased to receive the courtesy of some kind of letter/acknowledgement of the issue. Anything now would be "too little too late"."

April 14th, 2014: I emailed Richard Gallimore about his response that I received on January 22nd querying his statement "...that situation has been resolved."

April 15th, 2014: Richard Gallimore responded with "Council is of the view that the matter has been resolved for now.". I forwarded this response to the tradesman, who on April 16th responded saying that he had been informally approached on separate occasions, by councillors Ray Temperley and Richard Gallimore, and that they said they "understood" the situation and asked him to re-consider his decision, although the tradesman said he would not do so.

This probably explains why certain maintenance jobs were not carried out.

You can make up your own minds about the professional standards displayed by the Squatters Run body corporate when looking after the interests of all owners at Squatters Run. And why no written response to the tradesman's letter was sent last year?

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You will notice in many of my grump articles that I continually bring up the issue of "quotes". It seems to me that this policy (if you could even call it a 'policy') is a policy of convenience. For example; you will have read my article on the BluBox where no other quotes were sought.

Likewise you will have seen, in several previous articles, my reference about "apologies" from Squatters Run body corporate council or the lack thereof.

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Hopefully now that the body corporate has put the general maintenance of Squatters Run to tender, we won't see a repeat of what I can only call an embarrassing, inappropriate and unprofessional event. On behalf of Squatters Run, I would like to apologise to the tradesman involved, his family and staff. I totally understand why you did not submit a tender document.