Early Dispute Prevention (EDPS)
When it comes to body corporates, understanding your rights and responsibilities to the residents and stakeholders are key to solving disputes before they need mediation. This is made more challenging when there are changes in legislation, body corporate responsibilities or your agreements may be out of date.
Many stakeholder agreements are vague or generic, and schedules of duties are unclear or rely on outdated legislation leading to disputes of duties or payment that may need mediation. Our accredited mediators commonly deal with disputes including liability for payment, caretaking duties and building maintenance. These often lead to a deterioration in personal relationships and what starts as a minor conflict escalates into a costly legal battle.
Management Letting Rights Services (MLRS) takes a considered and objective view of agreements, based on ABMA code and 'best for building' (B4B) practices. This helps owners, residents and body corporate, building managers clarify standards and reduce their chance of a dispute or litigation.
The EDPS Service involves four phases:
- Clarification of standard - completed in a Desk Top Audit involving:
- Review of the caretaking agreement schedule of duties, clauses, etc.
- Comparison to the ABMA code
- Issuing of a Clarification of Standard report
- Issuing notice of objection
- Notice to agreement counterpart regarding clarification of standard
- Invitation to mediation for all stakeholders
- Mediation and resolution plan
- Guided discussion around drafting a resolution plan
- 'Best for building' advice
- Confirmation and Issue of Resolution Plan
For more information contact us today. Call us on 0418 193 708 or email [email protected]
MLR Services - Case Study
EDPS
In 2018 MLR services entered Early Dispute Prevention Services (EDPS) with a Building Manager and Body Corporate Committee.
The Building Manager raised concerns about fair remuneration for his services when the duties he was expected to perform went beyond what was outlined in his Service Agreement and would greatly exceed the number of remunerated hours outlined in his Service Agreement. While he was happy to perform the extra duties he was requesting additional compensation for the additional hours of work he would have to perform across the remaining 18 months of the agreement.
The Body Corporate stated that the Building Manager was aware of the duties at the time of buying the agreement for the agreed remuneration and threatened to not support a renewal upon completion of the agreement.
On examination of the Service Agreement, the agreed upon hours equated to a 50 hour week. The Building Manger believed the amount of hours required to perform all of the requested duties (none of which were outlined in the original agreement) would take over 90 hours in labour. He believed this disparity to be in the value of approximately $100,000 across the remaining 18 months on the life of the agreement.
Mike O'Farrell lead the mediation between the two parties over two sessions with both parties coming to an arrangement. Upon review of the duties and agreements, it was agreed to cut out some of the less relevant duties requested by the Body Corporate, with some duties to be quoted by the Building Manager for an additional cost to be agreed upon by both parties. The Building Manager was also granted a 15% pay increase to compensate for the additional hours and guaranteed a renewal at the end of the agreement period.