@Erte said:
If a building has retained a strata management company and has a “case worker” (for want of a better term), i.e. the person I’ve been referring to as our “strata manager”, what exactly is their role? And how is that connected with the strata committee?
This depends on the committee and the manager. Basically the strata manager is there to look after the financial and legal obligations of the building if the owners don’t want to do it themselves. They collect the levies and pay the bills.
The owners can collectively decide how much or how little involvement they have with the running of their building and usually do this as a committee.
Theoretically, the strata manager takes his or her instructions from the committee, and the committee takes its instructions from the owners in a general meeting.
In reality, the strata manager often (but not always) advises the committee on what it should be doing, they get on with the small stuff, and once a year the committee takes major proposals to the owners at an AGM for approval.
In short, the role of the strata manager is defined by how active and knowledgeable the committee is. In many cases, in NSW, at least, the strata manager just goes ahead and gets things done under powers delegated by the committee, although the committee can resume any or all of those powers as and when it pleases.
To put it another way, if the SC is functioning in a customary/proper manner, what is it that the contact at the strata management company should be doing or contributing?
I’d hesitate to say any such relationship was ‘customary’ – there are so many different ways of going about this. It depends on the committee and the manager.
However, it’s common, especially in small schemes for the strata manager to do most of the work with the committee chipping in occasionally on specific issues or projects (which the SM then manages). Some schemes never have committee meetings but instead relay the outcomes of informal chats that the SM then wraps up in a notice or agenda to the owners.
In bigger schemes, the strata manager can operate almost like a company secretary, making sure the decisions made by the committee are valid and legal and then expediting them through contact with service providers and tradespeople.
I think it’s perhaps telling, in relation to my building, that there are six owners and of the three who are on the SC at present only one of those is actually resident in the building. I wonder if this may have something to do with the delegating of functions to a professional and with certain aspects, such as the garden, being allowed to slide.
I’d say this has everything to do with sliding standards. Your committee is dominated by people who don’t live in the building and can’t see what’s going on, with the numbers made up by someone who either doesn’t know they can change things or doesn’t care.
In a small scheme, the chances that your committee is dominated by people who don’t want to spend any money they don’t have to is increased. Simple answer, work out some improvements, cost them then get yourself on to the committee and push them through.
Getting back to your original question, the strata manager isn’t going to do this kind of thing unless the committee tells them to. So the committee is the key.
And be careful that you aren’t confusing the role of a strata manager with a building (or building services) manager. The roles can overlap but the former is much more about paperwork while the latter is, literally, more hands on and nuts and bolts orientated.