I think this is an under discussed and very important issue. We have been through three Strata Management Companies in four years! Considerable Committee time and effort is required to change SM companies and even when you think you have done your homework it still may not be a good move (grass being brown on both sides of the fence).
Our current SM company is part of a very large well known parent company with many Strata Management subsidiaries like ours. This parent company has protocols and procedures that they impose on their subsidiaries – sometime to the embarrassment of the individual strata manager.
To help others assess new strata management company proposals – some things to look out for include:
- not being able to use a long standing (good) contractor because they are not a company ‘approved’ by the parent company.
- being forced to pay a fee of $800pa for a service called ‘community health and safety pack’, in our case when the committee tried to access this to help with an OH&S issue we were told it wasn’t applicable. This ‘resource’ has never been used.
- work orders are copied to the Secretary with no identification of the work ordered in the subject line, so in a search for a particular (historical) work order every e-mail must be opened, wasting considerable time.
- ‘Trades compliance’ costs are billed to the Owners
- Owners having to pay late payment fees due to SM not paying on time
- Spurious costs appearing on SM monthly invoices – such as $70 for ‘Fire protection’
We have experienced efficient SM companies with good procedures, but terrible individuals in the SM role, and terrible SM companies with good individual strata managers, never both at the same time! In our last negotiation, the person we met and negotiated with disappeared the day after we signed up.
What our Committee would like is a no frills Strata Management service which does what the Owners Corporation asks it to do. Including basic services such as paying bills on time, transparent arrangement of work orders, and doing what the Committee wants it to do (obviously flagging anything which may not be according to the law or the ACT). Any additional frills will be added by negotiation and paid for as such.
If anyone knows of such a Strata Management company please post a clue to their whereabouts (in NSW)
.