Dear Auntie
I’m a strata manager and I’m being besieged by email after email from an owner in a building I manage. Honestly, it’s at least 100 a day, it seems, and I think enough is enough. Can I just stop interacting with them? How much is too much in this situation?
Sincerely, Suzie Q
Dear Suzie Q
Auntie feels your pain: she gets a lot of emails as well and knows how draining and frustrating it can be to feel like all you are ever doing is receiving, viewing and responding to emails.
That said, there isn’t a numerical limit as such, it’s more about what might be reasonable and perhaps even what may constitute a ‘nuisance’. It’s a tricky thing to prove the legislative definition of nuisance – you may want to read this order as a guide on what (or what not) is involved.
Auntie can definitely understand why you want to stop engaging with this person. You should firstly look at your contract to see what your obligations are in relation to communications and answering emails, and then you should be looking at a conversation with the committee. After all, they are the decision makers here, and if there is going to be any action, including a formal proceeding, they are going to need to initiate it. Auntie has definitely heard of some managers cutting off contact with high-volume correspondents – just make sure you are doing it right.
Finally, a thought for you, and the committee: what is driving this person? Out of those 100 or so emails, are maybe 99 of them pointless and then the remainder actually raising a valid issue? In other words, Auntie is wondering if they have an actual issue at play. If that could be addressed, then maybe, just maybe, the emails would wither and fade away.
Do you have a question for Strata Solve’s Agony Aunt? You can ask it here. While Auntie deeply cares about your strata queries, she regrets she cannot give legal advice or answer every single question, as she is a busy woman.