What Matter Most For A Good Professional Strata Manager?

By Author: Christopher Whelan
Total Articles: 74
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In the early days of strata, schemes were mostly small management of body corporate and were generally carried out by real estate agents .Later as the legislation, size and complexity of scheme developed, many people started to specialize in strata management and a separate class of license was introduced for strata managing agents in NSW.

In NSW strata managers are need to be licensed by the office of Fair trading .A strata manager is allotted to help the council of strata company to perform its function, responsibility and powers as needed and permitted by the strata management act .This act requires that every strata company carries out some duties and also facilitates it to exercise a wide range of powers, all of which are management functions planned to protect and maximize asset values.

Typically, a professional strata company manager is hired as a matter of expediency to give a centralized point of communication a range of agreed services .Each Strata Company has distinctive aspects which affect the nature and scope of its management and service requirements and may conclude the degree of participation the ...
... manager is expected to have. Such factors include:

· Location
· use
· physical aspect if the property
· type of scheme
· age of the building
· extent of the common property
· Economic situation of the owners
· long term plans for the appearance

Some of the major benefits of appointing professional strata manager include:

· Technical knowledge and experience in respect to the Act
· No personal involvement with other owner or occupiers
· Availability of management system and staff
· Reduce time demands on volunteer Council members
· Access to competent contractors and service providers
· Ability to objectively deal with owners about behavior or money matters
· Availability of business and financial systems
· Risk management experience

When it comes to managing a strata scheme, every owner brings a different set of values and prospect. In addition to the prospective for pressure and conflict between owners .Certainly, many owners are themselves unsure of exactly what their strata manager is and is not paid to do, and what kind of performance they should expect from them. If strata schemes are full of owners with opposing viewpoint and indistinct thoughts about where their responsibilities end and the strata manager’s begin.

The potential managers should also be encouraged to demonstrate their ability to meet the expectations of the strata company. A strata company manager should not undertake the duties or powers of the strata company without first receiving clear written authority to do so. The manager cannot and should not be requested to perform duties and responsibilities which require any form of resolution of the strata company or the Council until and unless such resolutions have been properly passed. This is especially so where any major obligation of the strata company is created. Any agreement must set out the services to be provided, the fees and other expenses payable as have been agreed between the parties.

Christopher Whelan is a Licensed Strata manager at Whelan Property Group Pty. Ltd., a professional and proactive Strata title management Company Sydney.