Hi Sujenna,
I imagine with only 2 owners and 2 townhouses it would be fairly easy as long as the other person is cooperative. If they’re not, or refuse to pay levies it could become difficult. Or if you’re not good at budgeting and record keeping.
How much shared property is there? Driveway/ plumbing/ roof/ walls/ electrical? You need to see the plan drawings.
The main things will be –
1. Hold a meeting with the other owner with a motion to move to self management. Minute this and both sign it.
2. Inform the strata manager and give any required notice and/ or pay exit fee.
3. Set up a business transaction account with both owners as co signatories to keep trust funds – you’ll probably both need to go into the bank with the original signed minutes and your ID.
4. If insurance is due for renewal – Organise insurance – I recommend contacting Strata Fair brokers – they are very helpful and will save you money.
5. Inform utility companies of change in where to send the bills
6. Pick up your records/owners seal from the strata manager.
7. You may want to store your records using dropbox, Strata box, or Our Body Corp. The last 2 have more options to help with managing your strata. It’s also good to set up an email specific to your strata plan. This way all your records are backed up on the cloud.
8. Hold a meeting and elect a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Decide who will do what re record keeping, reporting, how much levies, issuing levy notices, organising contractors etc.
9. If there’s a current gardener/ cleaner – contact them about continuing arrangements.
10. Ongoing keeping accurate records in an organised and timely manner.
11. Create quarterly and annual financial reports (at minimum bank statement, matching list of income and expenditure items, and matching receipts) and an Annual budget.
12. Update details on strata hub, then Annual Reporting on strata hub.
13. Annual tax return/ report – very basic
14. Have at least one meeting a year and minute it.
15. Get quotes and contractors when needed (make sure they are licensed and insured) and supervise works and pay them.
16. Most important – be able to work cooperatively with the other owner to maintain shared property.
17. Familiarise your self with the strata schemes management act and regulations, and read up on the service nsw living in strata information pages
It doesn’t matter if you don’t do everything perfectly – you’ll learn and get better as you go. The main thing is that you can get along and agree with your neighbour about how you will manage and pay for things, and keeping records of this.
Definitely get a strata report – see how long the current contract is for and what the ending the contract terms are, as well as how much is in the sinking fund and what any issues have been.
Check the lot entitlements, are they equal or one higher than the other? – with only 2 owners you can get a stalemate. The one with higher lot entitlements would win every poll vote if it came to that.
I’d speak to the other owner and see what they are like and what they think. This is the main thing – how open they are to self managing, how much work/ time they’re willing/ able to put in, if they’ll pay levies and be responsible without needing a strata manager parent, if what you both want is compatible and can work – eg. Similar vision and priorities in how you want to manage your property.
If you decide to get a new strata manager, take your time and research them – check their standard contract and how clear it is about what is included and what is extra. Insist that monthly bank statements are provided as a contract term. Have a look at some of the properties they manage.
Some strata managers offer levels of service – eg collecting levies, paying bills, record keeping, budgeting, insurance arrangement included, and anything else like arranging contractors, answering queries is extra billed per item. You could choose something like this.
I hope this helps. Good luck 🙂