While I can understand the point of builders relationships with a company you must remember that the strata manager works for the owners corporation, and should always be in your corner.
Furher builders are a dime a dozen and will continue in most cases to close up and then re-start the buisiness. The best interest for the company is to do the right thing by the client and unfortunatley in most cases that is to advise them not to fight the builder but to strike the special levy and get the works repaired.
In a few cases I have seen that the owners corporation has battled it out the words I hear that follow most of the way through are “we didnt expect to spend this much”. However for some its the justification that they tried.
If you dont have confidence in the manager then get out of the contract with them and find another manager that will give you the advice you require as defects and so forth arent worth the relationship if in fact it does exist.