An Auckland apartment owner says he has saved thousands in annual maintenance fees and is urging others to look into payments to contractors.
Clive Walker said a roofing contractor was charging nine times too much and he saved more than $4000 annually on annual work on his block of units, questioning how many other contractors were overcharging and underperforming.
"Nobody likes to be told they have been rorted but let's look on the bright side: we have identified savings of $4400, 18 per cent of the expense budget which will be ongoing reductions, and you will be dealing with contractors who actually know what they are doing," he told neighbours.
"Having made a particular study of body corporates over the past 14 years I suspect what you have experienced is being replicated all over Auckland, probably New Zealand.
"Contractors on the preferred supplier list to body corporates know they rarely have to quote against competition and often no one checks what they actually do. As a consequence, charging double what is normal is common, although your roofer charging nearly nine times what we can get the job done for must set some kind of record," Walker said of a $3000 annual bill reduced to just over $300.
