bpositive said:
so this means if you do not have exclusive use of common property you are not a caretaker?
Nope. The opposite of the definition “a caretaker is a person who is entitled to exclusive possession (whether or not jointly with another person or other persons) of a lot or common property and assists in exercising any one or more of the following functions of the owners corporation …” is not that someone who doesn’t have exclusive use of CP can’t be a caretaker. For instance, a building manager may be considered a caretaker under the Act, even though they don’t own a property in the building. Is an on-site manager someone who lives on-site or is just there during working hours? And is an on-site manager who lives in the block but is only available during office hours any different from one who lives in another suburb?
This is what Fair Trading says HERE:
Caretakers and building managers
Caretakers … do not have the same delegated functions as a licensed strata managing agent.
Caretakers may operate as letting agents within the building and are often referred to as the building manager. They may assist the owners corporation in:
Caretakers may not enforce by-laws or carry out other similar functions of the owners corporation.
A person is not a caretaker if they exercise those functions on a voluntary or casual basis or as a member of the executive committee.
Protection of strata owners in relation to caretaker contracts under the Strata Schemes Management Act also apply to anyone carrying out the role of an on-site caretaker even if they use a different job title such as a ‘building manager or ‘resident manager’.
Understandably, there is a lot of confusion about this, not least because of the fudging of duties between building managers, on-site managers, strata managers and executive committee volunteers (and those who do some work voluntarily and other work that they are paid for … which is how this discussion got started).
This is an area of the law that Fair Trading really needs to clear up. They need to define the roles, the rights and the responsibilities and basically say you can’t call yourself one thing if you are, to all intents and purposes, another.
There is so much confusion in Strataland about this. Whenever I get postings that says “I got a letter from Strata …” I have to ask what they mean by “Strata” becasue it could be any of the above as well as the EC secretary, the rental manager or even the developer.
A little clarity would not go amiss.