I just wanted to bring all owners / residents up to speed on the contract we have for Paul’s services.

The Committee signed a 3-year contract on 1 July 2021.  The current monthly fee is $7950 per month ($95400 pa) plus payment for all consumables.  The initial fee was agreed after some negotiation and was increased from the previous contract amount to the figure requested by Genesis.  It also has an annual CPI escalation clause.

I was surprised to get a request for an increase of 10% rather than the CPI figure of 6.8%.  The dollar difference was not significant, but I thought it was a simple oversight and the OC Manager, under my agreement, simply replied that we would increase the amount as per the contract.

We received a reply to say that they were very disappointed and that they wished to terminate the contract with one months notice.  

We met with Maggie Simone (the owner of Genesis) to discuss.  She explained that they are operating at a loss on our building and she had increased Paul’s wages several times during this contract period.  I replied that they picked the initial price and have had CPI increases, she has elected to increase Paul’s wages.  I also noted that they have the opportunity to increase the price at the end of the contract period (in 12 months time).  I also noted that they cannot terminate until that time.

Maggie made it clear that she thought we were being unreasonable and gave us notice that she would not offer us a new contract at any price.

It is very sad it has come to this.