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Topic
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Our small northern sydney beaches apartment building has a long established strata manager. Because of the age and general deterioration of the building, we require regular contractor work to be done on plumbing, lighting and general building works. The executive committee (EC) keep a pretty tight reign on delegated authority, and asked the strata manager to refer copies of the contractor invoices to the EC for payment. Since doing this, it has become apparent that the strata manager has not previously required much information on the contractor invoice, before agreeing to pay. Our concerns were further raised, when they refused to put their name to a standard notice, to accompany each order on “do and charge” work, that required basic details to be included on the invoice, including time of arrival and departure, service call cost if any, billing hours and hour rate charged, and material cost list. It would seem they felt contractors would be affronted in having to provide this information, when they hadn’t in the past, and that it implied distrust. Our EC have since modified the form to delete any reference to the strata manager, but are insisting it still be sent with purchase orders for non quoted work, and that no invoice be forwarded for authorisation, unless it meets the requested format. Further inquires with friends who have strata residential properties suggest this practice by strata managers of not insisting on basic information on invoices for minor audit purposes, is widespread. Accordingly, is the trust we are placing in Strata managers missplaced, and are they obusing this trust by not exercising reasonable business practice, to ensure fair value for money on behalf of their strata plans?. Are contractors getting away with daylight robbery, due to lazy or disinterested strata manager or worse still, are strata managers getting kick backs for allowing contractors to charge what they like for “do and charge” work, by resisting billing that offers an opportunity for audit
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I don’t think asking for clarity on invoices is unreasonable.
You do need to look however at what you are paying per annum for strata management. If it is not in the higher price bracket then you shouldn’t be expecting your agent to add extra work to their already extremely busy day. A strata manager with a large portfolio may get up to 100 invoices a day to approve so they will not be wanting to add extra time to this process.
Pay more for your strata manager and they will be able to manage less buildings and give better customer service.
Pay budget rates and they will give budget service.
If you pay premium rates and get low service – look for a new strata manager.
Gerrymando – it sounds to me like your Plan is facing precisely the same conundrum that ours faced 8 years ago, where as JGOWI suggests we resolved to amend our Agency Agreement to the extent that our then Strata Managers were engaged to oversee all activities at our Plan as if they themselves were paying the bills.
Well in summary, we paid for a Rolls Royce and our Strata Managers delivered a pushbike!
There were too many problems to list here, but suffice to say that many of those were of the same types as your Plan now experiences, and additionally, we found out that we were paying a premium price to the Strata Manager’s “Preferred Contractors” to offset the payment that they themselves were required to make to the Strata Managers in order to be on that preferred list, and to account for the Strata Mangers’ inability to meet their payment terms.
In my experience, and I know I’m generalising, the quality of the training that Strata Managers receive has been compromised by the fact both their initial assessments of competency and the nature of their professional development can be delivered and assessed by Registered Training Organisations that are often industry- based, and where in too many instances everyone who pays the fee, and turns-up, passes!
Whilst I don’t think that poor training and development leads to deliberate incompetence, in my opinion it does lead to ill-prepared people being loaded-up with a large portfolio in circumstances where they simply don’t know that they don’t know (what they’re doing), and therefore don’t seek assistance from their more experienced Licensee, and lead their Clients down the proverbial garden path.
Our Plan’s path lead to self-management where our Executive Committee (and particularly it’s hard-working Secretary / Treasurer
) DO manage it as if every dollar spent was coming out of the pockets of the individual Members, as if every plant and blade of grass was in their individual front yards, and every light was on their individual front balconies. I’d venture to say that NO Strata Manager with a portfolio could manage a Plan as well as a committed E/C with one, so if you and your E/C wants to pull the reins as tightly as you’ve indicated, then it might as well bite the bit and manage the Plan itself on the O/C’s behalf.