Our walk away commitment

 

All Strata Companies will claim that they offer personalised responsive service, we stand by this claim and are happy to be held accountable if we don’t deliver.

 

As a new property under our management we just ask you just give us 3 months to show our proactive and professional service levels. If you are not happy, no reason required, we will walk away from our agreement at no financial penalty and we will facilitate the appointment of another manager at no additional cost to you.

 

Changing Strata Managers

 

Changing of strata managing agents is not a complicated process but is driven by strata legislation so requires specific steps to be followed.

 

FAQ:

Q: Does the appointment of a strata manager need to take place at a General Meeting or can the Committee decide?

A: The appointment of a strata managing must take place at a General Meeting. Either your Annual General Meeting or an Extraordinary General Meeting the motion can be included to appoint an alternative strata manager. The Committee would usually put a recommendation forward to the meeting if they have looked at different options and perhaps spoken with strata managing agents.

 

Q: How many owners need to decide to change?

A: At the General Meeting where this decision is made of those owners attending (in person or by proxy) and entitled vote it is a simple majority. So only 51% or more. E.g. if 5 owners are attending only 3 need to agree for the motion to be passed.

 

Q: How do I know if I’m locked into my current management agreement and when it is due to expire?

A: Your strata manager should provide a copy of your current agreement to you upon request or if they have an online portal for document storage you should be able to obtain one there. If their Agreement is a SCA standard the term and when the agreement started should be shown on the first page.

 

Q: If we want to call a general meeting ourselves, can we?

A: Yes, the strata manager acts under delegated authority but the control and power to undertake functions like calling meetings are still yours. The Committee can call for a general meeting and hold it themselves for example and instruct the current strata manager to send the agenda.

 

What to look for in a new strata manager

 

• Communication – A lot of strata management is simple, if there is clear regular communication from your strata manager then most issues and requests can be dealt with
• Qualifications – Your strata manager should have professional qualifications, appropriate insurance cover, good knowledge of relevant legislation and experience managing similar schemes to yours.
• Reference checks and reviews – Contacting references and looking at reviews on sites such as Google reviews and Product Reviews will soon tell you how well they are regarded by their clients.
• Size – Make sure that there is sufficient size to ensure that there will be enough expertise and backup for when people are away or sick but small enough that you can contact someone who has direct responsibility
• The manager – Who will be the person that is dealing with you on the day to day activities? It might not be the person who runs the company or meets with your to discuss so ensure they are qualified and have the required time and expertise.

 

And of course:

• Cost – It can be difficult to obtain an apples for apples comparison of costs for strata managing agents as although strata management is highly regulated area and their agency agreement should set out all of the terms and conditions the pricing is not regulated by the government. Below are some areas of pricing that you should consider.

 

• Management Fee -The main component of the fee structure which is for the strata managers time, their overheads and the activities that are undertaken as an ‘agreed service’.
• Disbursement Fees – This is a term commonly used to cover a number of costs and activities undertaken by a strata managing agent. The most common of which are postage, printing, telephone costs, electronic communication etc.
• Insurance Commission – Widely used in the strata profession insurance commissions are payments received by the strata managing agents from an appointed insurance broker or underwriter when the insurance premium is paid. This income is used as a discount from the management fee in the strata profession.
• Additional Fees – Works that are undertaken outside of the Management Fee (or ‘agreed fee’) and often charged as an hourly rate. For example, additional meetings, site attendance, attendance at Tribunal matters to force compliance with by-laws etc