› Flat Chat Strata Forum › The Professionals › SCs and strata managers › Are commissions such a sin? › Current Page
A few posts (including mine) have mentioned that Strata Managers should all be appointed as Agents or Distributors for Strata Insurers and be subject to the training and professional scrutiny that follows.
Yes please…. and I’d extend that to the individuals working with Owners Corporations (O/C) and not just their Licensees, as in that way those individuals would be legally required to do what (most) Brokers do now, by declaring the amount of their commission ($) instead of burying it as a % in a Schedule to their Agency Agreement, and by providing a service to O/Cs as opposed to merely pointing them in the direction of the Insurer who asks the least questions, pays the highest commission, and hosts the best conferences (for CPD).
Those of you who have been around this forum for a while would be aware that I’ve been pushing this particular barrow for years, ever since our Plan decided to self-manage and I found that our long-time Insurer wouldn’t reduce our premium to account for the fact that they no longer paid a 23% commission to a Strata Manager, and then that a detached lot within our Plan had never been covered by our Policies; so much for our previous / long-term Strata Managers’ knowledge.
I reiterate that I’m speaking to my dealings those previous / long-term Strata Managers, and that I’m not tarring all with the one brush.
One final point ….. previous posts have made observations about how well served O/C’s are by the current crop of Strata Insurers, and if those refer to the degree of competition, on the basis of my experiences I must disagree.
When consideration is given to the numbers of Strata Insurers who won’t deal directly with self-managed Plans, who only (or prefer to) deal with Plans in their home State/Territory and price others accordingly, and who are subsidiaries of other providers, then the numbers (in/serving NSW) reduce to four (4).
I’m not sure that O/Cs need the proliferation that’s recently occurred with comprehensive motor vehicle insurers, but if more competition in the Strata Insurance industry had the same impacts on service delivery and premiums, then I again say… yes please.
PS – I just edited this post to remove a phrase that may have identified our previous or a similarly setup Strata Management Organisation; that was not my intention – Whale 10am