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Hi Dudley, our Strata underwent the change you are considering a while ago and I will outline what we did. Firstly I agree with KiwiPaul in that insurance is the single most important thing. The other thing I would stress is ‘keeping the common property in good order’. Mostly the things paid Strata Managers do are pretty mundane and not near as important as keeping up the insurance and looking after the common property.
The following steps are the main ones we did:
1. hired ourselves and insurance broker;
2. organised our bank accounts so that all owners have access to view and operate them. We neither keep nor operate with any cash. All moneys go into our accounts and all amounts are paid out of our accounts (this makes them very transparent). While all owners can view the accounts, to operate them (ie withdraw or transfer) each transaction is notified to all other owners and each transaction has to be authorised my two owners; and
3. started to use email as the preferred way of information and discussion (all owners have each others email address). With this we often ‘scan’ on papers for others to view.
For paperwork we have drawn up a few Xcel spreadsheets (for our ’10 year sinking fund plan’ and ‘year-end’ accounts) and use a word document for our AGM agenda. So it is handy if you have someone with Xcel and word skills but they are not difficult after a few practices. There are some terrific and easy to follow videos etc on line, eg youtube, on how to do Xcel and word.
Self managing was the one best thing our Strata ever did. We save ourselves $3,000 a year and put this money to maintenance.