It really is very difficult to find a good managing agent and the only satisfactory way is by referral, as Jimmy states.
We moved into our 4 lot block, 18 years ago and had to put up with the most useless manager you could imagine. He regarded me as “difficult” because I tended to question him on basic things such as building maintenance and the incorrect drafting of accounts. Shortly after we moved in we were given a notice of the balance of a special levy which had been raised and which had not previously been properly recorded! We didn’t raise a fuss as we wanted to start off on the right foot and not antagonise our new neighbours. Silly us! We had water running into our upstairs cupboard because of a problem with the sealing of the penthouse verandah above. This took 6 months to resolve because he just ignored all our requests. He then sent out a letter one day saying that he had consulted with his engineer (at a fee of $800.00) and that the verandah etc needed repair and that he had approved a firm to do the work at a cost of around $15,000. We we were smartly on the phone and told him that the EC had not approved the work and that it wasn’t happening. I then obtained an independant contractor who did the work for $1,400. After numerous other problems with accounting errors etc I lodged a complaint with Fair Trading which was upheld as he was in numerous breaches of the Act and we were able to get rid of him.
The replacement agent from a large firm in Crows Nest were also not so bright. They charged for everything you could imagine, storage of documents, phone calls, postage, stationery etc but were unable to pay tradesmen so that we were receiving letters of intent to sue for non payment. The person doing the accounts could not balance and the budget was a joke. After 2 years of this nonsense we decided to manage it ourselves and have never looked back. I am secretary and we have money in the bank, have organised tenders and managed a large repainting project with no hassles. I do the accounts and banking and everyone is happy. There is a bit of work to do and organise but one other owner and I do it all with no difficulty. One owner is in dreamland and wouldn’t lift a finger to help and the other owner is an absentee landlord who doesn’t want to spend any money (tough on that – majority rules!).
So if you have the expertise you might want to do it yourself but in some places, taking into account the personalities involved, you might want to have a competent external firm do the work. At least that way you don’t have to personally harangue your neighbour for late payment of levies.
Good luck