Small Strata Schemes Can Have Managers Do All Work 1/11/2009 Property owners of small strata titled blocks can see the management of their building simplified by outsourcing the work.
This can be an easy way to virtually sidestep almost all the drudgery that would have ordinarily been required by law to be done by the buildings’ executive committee.
Mr Richard Tooker, director of New South Wales Strata Management says his team of professional managers sees this happen quite often.
“Say, you own a unit in a fairly small block of from four to a dozen apartments. Now according to law such a building has to have an executive committee made up from amongst the owners. But there may be few of these people who know anything about strata laws or how to go about operating the scheme according to the rules. And none of the owners may want to involve themselves with such work even if they knew how. So the law provides a way around this.”
This neat side-step is a handy thing to know about he says. The footwork is simple and it allows the owners to rest assured that the business end of the strata scheme is operated in accordance with the law while letting the owners get on their lives free from care.
“All that needs to be done is for a few of the owners to agree to be an executive committee member. This agreement can take place at the buildings’ Annual General Meeting (AGM), which the law requires to be held once a year.
“At this meeting, which has seen a few people step forward agreeing to be executive committee members, sees these newly elected committee members then take their first step, which is to appoint their strata manager to the positions of chairman, secretary and treasurer.”
This ‘pass the parcel’ move allows a knowledgeable entity, i.e. a professionally trained team of managers, to take over the work, on behalf of the real people pulling the strings, the owners.
Mr Tooker says the authorities are happy with the arrangement because they are well aware that the appointed strata managers know what they are doing. They know the job will be done well, with all the dots in the right places because this work is all these people do.
Mr Tooker says that in a smallish block it’s easy for everybody to be more connected than in a sky-high mega-building where many dozens of owners would be involved.
“With these smaller blocks if there is a problem it can be easily passed along to the professional management team. And then each season, when the yearly AGM is held everybody gets a full brief on what has done and what needs doing.
“This information comes from the strata managers who have done all the leg work and even have arranged the AGM itself. They of course charge a fee for their work, but most participants in small strata schemes find that they more than earn their modest fees.”
Mr Tooker says that having the buildings’ business matters handled by such an independent team of professionals gives transparency to proceedings and provides considerable security of administration to all of the owners.
Strata owners wanting to investigate how much such help would cost for their building can contact New South Wales Strata Management direct on 9890 1841 to have their programme assessed.
New South Wales Strata Management (formerly Gilmour Strata Management) commenced business in early 1991, as a member of the highly respected J A Gilmour & Sons group of companies. Licensed solely and specialising only in strata management services, the company has steadily grown to become one of the largest such organisations in New South Wales.
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