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Are there any other sets of rules or another Act, apart from the NSW Strata Titles Act, that Strata Managers have to abide by, please can someone tell me? Are there any government, corporate or business laws they need to abide by?
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Yes – strata managers have to have a licence and are governed by the Property Stock & Business Agents Act, refer link below. The provisions that relate to strata managers are pretty general and are primarily regarding accountability re money held on behalf of the OC, and things such as records.
I have thought for a long time that there should be some more specific laws governing strata managers. You don’t want to go overboard but from my experience there are some naughty ones out there.
https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/fullhtml/inforce/act+66+2002+FIRST+0+N
Ooops – I just posted at the same time as Scotty, but can add that the Legislation mentioned is administered by the NSW Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and that Strata Managers who are Members of Strata Community Australia (NSW) are additionally guided by a voluntary Code of Ethics.
In the ACT the following is a pretty good summary:
There is also a code of practice for managers and another for EC in schedule 1 to the Act.
Just in case anyone from the ACT is reading and to inspire others to ask for the same for their jurisdictions when their Acts are up for review if you like what you see.
Peter
PeterC has mentioned the attachment to the ACT Unit Titles (Management) Act of a Code of Practice for Executive Committees and Strata Managers. This would be a welcome addition in NSW, and I sought to make this point in my submission to the recent review. I also mentioned the use throughout the Bill (as it then was) of clear and plain language, as well as the way in which it provided a clearly set-out and logical process for dealing with breaches of by-laws.
@scotlandx said:
Yes – strata managers have to have a licence and are governed by the Property Stock & Business Agents Act, refer link below. The provisions that relate to strata managers are pretty general and are primarily regarding accountability re money held on behalf of the OC, and things such as records.I have thought for a long time that there should be some more specific laws governing strata managers. You don’t want to go overboard but from my experience there are some naughty ones out there.
https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/fullhtml/inforce/act+66+2002+FIRST+0+N
I think there should be a forum just entitled “Strata Managers.”
Our Manager does not answer our emails, calls or queries, so I sent him a registered letter and quoted the act as follows:
I refer you to Part 4 division 3 sec 37 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 No 138
“37 Procedure for requiring information from strata managing agent”When he still did not answer, I went to Fair Trading who informed me that they do not get involved in customer service issues between the managing agent and the o/c – that the above part of the act only refers to financial matters. I can’t find anything on ethics under the Property Stock & Business Agents Act. You would think if someone had to be licensed, there would be a code of conduct somewhere. What do you think?
@sealion said:
I can’t find anything on ethics under the Property Stock & Business Agents Act. You would think if someone had to be licensed, there would be a code of conduct somewhere. What do you think?
I guess any OC proposing to engage a strata manager could give them a copy of the ACT code of conduct and ask them to commit to complying with that as a condition of their engagement regardless of which state they are in.
The Strata Community Australia (NSW) have a Code of Ethics for members. This can is located in the ‘Consumer Info’ top of page menu at http://www.nsw.stratacommunity.org.au in the Consumer Info menu.To make a compliant about a strata manager, who is a member, you need the endorsement of the Executive Committee unless “the circumstances are very unusual and extreme” (See SCA (NSW) Complaints Management Form Item 4 ‘IMPORTANT NOTE’.
ccbaxter & sealion – it’s the Regulations to the NSW Property, Stock, and Business Agents Act that prescribes the general rules of conduct for all licensed and registered persons, Schedule 6 contains those that specifically (and additionally) apply to Strata Managing Agents, and it’s the Strata Management Agency Agreement that your Owners Corporation (O/C) has with its Strata Manager that sets-out how each of those is applied to the agreed services.
sealion – I’d suggest that you contact the Office of Fair Trading again, as whilst whoever it was that you did speak with may be correct if their Office regards an Agency Agreement as being between an Owners Corporation (as an entity) and its Strata Managing Agent, in which case a complaint would need to be lodged by the Executive Committee Secretary under the Regulation (2003), they may also have misinterpreted your question if, as in your post, you referred to your Managing Agent instead of to your Strata Managing Agent; they’re different animals!
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