CBF – no, we’re not in a large strata plan with an onsite manager. Our plan has circa 60 apartments and townhouses and is run with a very hands-off strata manager.
We’re just lucky enough to have a EC members who include retirees, those who work from home as well as a couple top tier lawyers who can quickly draft and manage correspondence (e.g. notices, warning letters, letters to property managers).
As a number of tenants are foreign students or new migrants, there was a big issue with educating residents when the strata plan began early last year. We partly solved this by preparing a detailed “residents guide” which we’re now in the process of converting into a website, hopefully like the one we found here: http://www.cammeraysquare.com.au
One of our EC members also monitors apartments which are newly tenanted to ensure that the new residents receive a welcome letter enclosing a copy of the by-laws and residents guide. The main real estate agent managing the majority of tenanted apartments also keeps a copy of this to provide to new tenants.
It’s quite a bit of work for the current EC members, but it saves us a hell of a lot on strata manager disbursements (especially in the early years when levies tend to increase exponentially) and ensures that we’re always on top of things. 