DIY strata – for the half who don’t have managers

There was a time when the management of strata was all smoke and mirrors.  Strata managers, it seemed to many owners,  moved in mysterious ways, their wonders to perform. And the 50 percent of strata schemes that weren’t professionally managed got by with casual chats in place of meetings, and levies reminder notes slipped under the door instead of printed invoices.

But as strata life has become more complicated, with legal obligations stacking up – compulsory insurance, Section 62 maintenance, sinking fund surveys and provision of by-laws to tenants – the back of a ciggie packet management model just doesn’t cut the mustard any more.

All it takes is one owner who doesn’t like the informal approach and you could spend half your life (and all your sinking fund) being chased through NCAT on maintenance and repair orders.

Throw in the damage to your property values when prospective buyers discover there are no records and no minutes (because there have been no meetings) and the need to have an easy way to manage your own building to professional standards – however small it is – becomes critical.

The obvious thing is to hire a strata manager.  They are a lot more transparent and professional, these days  and a lot of strata schemes are doing just that. But there’s an economic “dead zone” where some unit blocks are too small to generate enough income for the strata manager to justify the time they’d have to spend managing them.

Some strata managers will tell you that a dysfunctional 12-unit block can be as much work to manage as a 120-apartment scheme for the simple reason that in the small block, every issue can become personal (and therefore often irretrievably irreconcilable) and yet they get one tenth of the income.

But now that we are in the age of information technology, it should be easier to self-manage, right?  Well, yes, although there are a lot of different approaches.

Many strata managers use software systems that are primarily management tools but which offer online portals for Owners Corporations and individual owners to access a certain amount of information.  However, we are looking at self-management software – which is very different.

The first attempt at a self-management software we encountered came from Murray Cameron of Strata Res (who, by the way,  suggested this website in its current form and was one of our first ever sponsors). Murray came up with a form of self-management software called Strata Manage IT for which the entry level is a free package but it grows into increasing strata manager involvement – and cost – if you want it.

It is significant that there is a strata manager at the top of that food chain (which may be a very good thing). In any case Strata Manage IT has gone from strength to strength and last year was one of the finalists in the Real Estate Institute of NSW (REINSW) innovation awards.

Next cab off the rank was OurBodyCorp.com.au which was started by former Adelaide Festival director  Kate Gould who launched the website when she discovered there was little support for owners who wanted to manage their own schemes.

Then we have cloud-based software called MyStrata.com which has been put together under the watchful eye of Gary Bugden – a longtime strata expert in Australia who has done a lot of work setting up strata schemes in the UAE. MyStrata, on the face of it, seems more skewed to strata managers but there is clearly an opportunity for self-managed schemes to use their very sophisticated interfaces.

The new kids on the block are housenet.com.au who are providing a kind of online meeting place for strata owners with a Facebook-like front end.

On the horizon is a new program from Strata Management Systems (on which I have been advising) which is looking for beta testers to try out the software in exchange for a year’s free subscription.   Drop me an email on beta@flatchat.com.au if you want to give it a spin.

So, from a dearth of systems to help strata owners look after their own affairs, we are suddenly spoilt for choice. But with half the 70,000-plus strata schemes in NSW being self managed (and for that, in many cases, read NOT managed) it’s an area where the right recipe will find a willing and eager market.