What is strata management?

Strata title management involves shared ownership of common property, which also means shared responsibility for the management and upkeep of that property.

Property owners and strata committees have a duty of care to carry out a variety of functions related to their strata property, including maintaining common property areas, collecting levies and fees, holding regular owners corporation meetings including an AGM once a year, maintaining adequate building insurance and keeping proper records and documentation.

So, while appointing a professional strata manager isn’t compulsory in Australia, it can be a good idea if your strata committee, body corporate or owners corporation don’t have the time, resources or expertise to do a good job. If a strata property isn’t properly managed, it can have a range of negative repercussions.

Good property management is vital for maintaining and growing the value of a shared investment such as a strata title property. That’s why most owners and strata committees appoint a manager of some kind to oversee the day-to-day operations and ensure that everyone is abiding by the rules.

Here we take a more detailed look at what a strata manager does and how that differs from the role of a building or property manager. We also look at the various aspects of strata living and how the best strata managers can treat them, not as problems, but as opportunities to add value to the property.

What does a strata manager do?

A broad definition of a strata manager’s role is assisting with the day to day running of a strata property and ensuring that its legislative responsibilities are being fulfilled.
A more detailed description of how this would be achieved might include:

Building managers and property managers can also be employed in a strata community, some people mistakenly confuse their roles with that of a strata manager.

The difference between a strata manager vs building manager

Managing strata living

So now let’s look at some of the main aspects of strata living that a manager needs to be involved in and how good strata management can turn them from potential problems into opportunities to boost value.

What are strata levies and fees?

When you buy into a strata property, your shared ownership of common areas and amenities goes hand in hand with shared responsibility for their maintenance and upkeep.

That money has to come from somewhere and strata levies and fees are how it is collected and pooled. Typically, the larger the strata property (and the more common areas), the higher your owners fees will be. The size of your lot in comparison with other lots in the strata property will also influence how much you pay each quarter.

Fees are collected by the strata manager and must be paid within 28 days to avoid penalty interest being charged. If fees continue to go unpaid over a period of time, the owners corporation would normally be forced to take costly legal action to recover the monies.

Unless they have good strata management in place. For example, PICA Group’s strata management services include a debt recovery service with a 14-day collection process that avoids legal battles and achieves higher than average recovery rates.

What is common property?

A good portion of the fees collected from owners goes towards the maintenance and upkeep of common property. Common property is any part of the strata property that is not privately owned and can include the building structure, plant and equipment, gardens, paths, driveways, lifts, foyers and fences. It can also include shared amenities such as swimming pools, gyms, tennis courts and barbeque areas.

According to federal strata legislation, a strata property with more than 100 lots is required to have a maintenance plan and funds for its common property and must hold regular inspections of its common property areas. But this is a good idea even for smaller strata properties and is one of the duties a strata manager needs to be across.

A maintenance plan should include a list of those items needing to be repaired or replaced when that will need to be done, how much that will cost and how long those items will last once it has been achieved.

Money then needs to be put aside for a capital works/sinking or maintenance fund to cover those future costs and a maintenance cycle should be created that involves regular inspections of common property areas.

The best strata management will address common property maintenance as a matter of course and PICA Group’s proactive practices are a good example. Our preventative maintenance processes ensure that any common property issues are identified and rectified long before they have the chance to become serious and expensive problems.

What are annual general meetings (AGMs)?

As its name suggests, an Annual General Meeting (AGM) is a meeting held once a year by a strata committee or body corporate. Strata regulations require such a meeting to be held every year within 3 months of the end of the body corporate’s financial year and at least 21 days after notice is given to lot owners.

AGMs are important because they are when your body corporate decides matters such as annual budgets and owner contributions (fees you’ll pay) and elects the new committee for the coming year. They are also an opportunity for residents to communicate face-to-face and hopefully discuss and resolve any issues that have arisen during the year.

A strata manager should know the importance of the AGM and be the one who organises and runs it each year, not only to ensure the strata’s legal compliance, but also because of the opportunity it presents for enhancing community living.

Case in point; PICA Group’s best practice strata management includes communicating, arranging and coordinating a strata’s AGM every year and encouraging as many residents as possible to attend.

What are strata by-laws or building rules?

By-laws are rules designed to help govern a strata title and promote harmonious living. They define what owners, tenants and visitors can and cannot do on the property.

Typical examples might include a by-law or building rule prohibiting smoking on common property, restricting short term letting such as Airbnb, allowing or prohibiting the keeping of pets, designating where residents may and may not park and so on.

While legislation surrounding by-laws varies between states, a universal requirement is that if a by-law is drafted or amended, it must be registered with the relevant state body before it can be legally recognised.

Any strata owner can have a by-law drafted or amended, providing they seek and receive approval from the committee and providing it is approved for registration by the relevant state body. To be registered, it must be considered fair, non-discriminatory and consistent with current strata legislation.

Because a by-law is a legally binding regulation, it should always be worded extremely carefully, preferably by a specialist strata lawyer. This is why PICA Group’s best practice strata management includes access to a specialist legal team who are proficient in drafting, amending and registering by-laws.

Keeping and maintaining strata records

A body corporate is required by law to keep a number of records relating to their strata title. These include;

• Initial owner records – relating to the build and legal structure of the property (i.e. plans, subdivisions, easements, licenses, contracts, warranties etc)
• Owners corporation records – documents such as owners details, by-laws, minutes of meetings, assets and liabilities, financial statements, income tax, insurance policies, maintenance plans, contracts, leases and licences.
• Owners corporation register – containing information such as the strata manager’s details, lot entitlements, by-law amendments, contracts, insurance policies and licenses.
• Owners corporation certificate – information such as lot fees, unpaid fees or special levies, planned repairs and maintenance, insurance cover, funds and liabilities, contracts, leases, licenses and any legal proceedings.

These records must be kept for specific lengths of time which vary depending on the particular legislation in each state or territory and all must be stored securely to protect the owners’ privacy.

As these records can be time consuming to collect, collate, store and issue, this is another task that should be undertaken by a strata manager. They should have the necessary systems and processes in place to keep these records safe and ready to hand if required. Best practice record keeping, such as that followed by PICA Group, ensures 100% accuracy, privacy, transparency and compliance with strata laws.

Stuck on the terminology used in strata management?

Check out our strata dictionary

Strata legislation can be complex and the terminology used can be confusing. And this isn’t helped by the fact that it changes according to the state or territory you live in.

New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria each have their own interpretations of strata terms and legislation and what applies in one state is not necessarily the case in another.

So to help make sense of it all, we’ve included a free online strata dictionary. It addresses the different terminologies used in all three states and provides a useful tool for owners and strata committees or body corporates wanting to fully understand and actively participate in strata matters.

As well as common definitions, the dictionary includes New South Wales strata terminology, Queensland body corporate terminology and Victoria owners corporation terminology.

PICA Group difference

If you choose to switch to PICA Group strata management, you’ll be teaming up with Australia’s leading property service provider.

We deliver real value to our customers in the form of:

As your strata manager, we can take care of everything to ensure the smooth running of your property including:

PICA Group has been managing property since 1948 and today we offer a full range of services from strata and facilities management to debt recovery, legal and developer services. And we provide our customers with a range of tools and resources to help them enhance livability within their strata communities.

As your chosen property manager, we also offer a range of extra benefits that can save our customers both time and money. These include:

As a PICA Group customer, we also give you access to a variety of great discounts and incentives made possible through our partnerships across related industries.

Our PICA Group Privilege offers include everything from discounted by-law drafting and insurance cover to a gift card towards the purchase of a defibrillator for your strata property.