Warring strata companies leave Carlton apartment block with slow lifts, disgusting carpets, cracked windows

A years-long fight for control of the owners’ corporation of a Carlton apartment block has left residents scrambling for cash to fund urgent maintenance for ageing lifts, cracked concrete and broken windows.

Owners at the 18-storey Vic Apartments tower, on the corner of Victoria and Leicester Streets, have been hit with levy notices from two competing owners’ corporation managers, amid ongoing concerns about poor governance and dysfunction for years, according to tribunal documents.

The dispute stems from claims made by real estate agent David Wu and his owners’ corporation, Paragon, that they were appointed the legitimate manager of the building following a June 2021 annual general meeting by one committee (made up of owners).

But, in the same year, Simon Saint John’s Above OCM claimed to have been appointed the owners’ corporation manager at a different AGM held in October, by a committee made up of different owners.

Jarrod Folino, an owner-occupier in the tower since its completion in 2014, said that as the fight had dragged on the building had suffered: “The carpets and walls are disgusting.”

Folino, 42, also pointed out the lifts are ageing and so slow that about 5.30pm on weekdays there is a queue of residents to get upstairs.

Concrete beams also show signs of cracking on the outside of Folino’s balcony, but he said it was not worth asking to have this fixed, because there was no maintenance budget.

“My ceiling got flooded as well. And some of the owners’ windows are cracking,” he said.

The building, which has about 360 apartments, is mainly occupied by international students due to its proximity to the University of Melbourne and RMIT University.

Leading strata lawyer David McKenzie, an expert asked to review the state’s strata laws , said the case highlighted deficiencies in the Owners Corporations Act.

He said the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal “doesn’t really have the firepower to extract penalties through costs orders to actually bring these people into line”.

The possibility of a costs order can be a deterrent as it forces one party to pay another party’s legal bills.

A three-day hearing about the owners’ corporation dispute was held in late August. VCAT vice president My Anh Tran has reserved judgment in the case, and will determine if an independent administrator should be appointed to hold the next building AGM.

Lawyers for Saint John’s Above OCM alleged Paragon and Above OCM were both issuing levy notices in 2022.