Professional strata management services are a great way to easily manage your strata scheme. They can take care of all the financial, legal and building maintenance responsibilities that come with a strata scheme, including organising general meetings, dealing with resident complaints and making sure building maintenance is taken care of as quickly as possible. Let’s look in more detail at how a strata management service can help.
Expertise
Strata and community living is governed by complicated rules and regulation. Professional strata managers have expertise and experience in guiding Owners Corporation to make informed decisions that are compliant within such a complex regulatory framework. Depending on the tenure of the strata manager in the industry, well-experienced managers would have managed thousands of communities during their career so they are often more qualified to handle tricky situations than volunteer committee members who work in different fields by trade.
Financial management
Strata management services are well-placed to manage the financial aspects of your scheme. This is a very broad task but can include collecting strata levies, debt recovery, organising cost-effective services such as maintenance, finding better value insurance policies or energy contracts, plus so much more. Unless you have experienced financial controllers on your strata committee and appropriate accounting systems, you’ll find it difficult to handle the finances as well as professional strata managers can. They also take care of capital works funds and drive any initiatives to save money for the scheme.
Managing building maintenance
When you engage a professional strata manager, they will often organise and manage the maintenance of your property, unless your community has engaged a dedicated Building Manager. This can include things like cleaning, landscaping, and painting, down to handy-man type jobs. Of course, anybody can call a repair service when something goes wrong. But strata management services typically have a trusted network of professionals they can call upon – often at more affordable prices. They are also more experienced in helping contractors define the job scope and ensure the job is done right and in a compliant manner, the first time around. The rectification cost of a poorly executed repair job can end up costing the Owners Corporation 100 times over what they thought they were initially “saving”.
In addition, your committee no longer has to deal with regular maintenance requests or reports of things needing repair. Your strata manager will deal with all such matters so that you don’t need to.
Organising general meetings
General Meetings are all part of strata life. The Annual General Meeting occurs once a year but other General Meetings can also be called throughout the year if required. These meetings are a chance for all owners to voice their concerns, raise issues, suggest improvements and discuss the overall state of the strata scheme.
Your strata manager handles these meetings, which includes notifying owners, setting an agenda and ensuring the meeting runs smoothly. They will also take minutes and progress activities arising from these meetings.
Dealing with resident complaints/disputes
If you’ve ever had to deal with resident complaints, you’ll know it’s not much fun. Complaints can vary in nature, from noise complaints to abuse of visitor parking spaces. These complaints should be managed quickly and without fuss, but strata committees generally don’t have time to investigate and respond to every concern. A professional strata management service, on the other hand, is more than capable of handling these issues and disputes effectively avoiding unnecessary confrontations impacting negatively on the overall harmony of the community.
Making communication easy
In many strata buildings, there can be a disconnect between the Owners Corporation, the committee, lot owners and tenants. By bringing a professional strata manager on board, there is a more central point of contact for everybody – a bridge for all the stakeholders so to speak. Plus, having a strata manager who doesn’t live on the property removes any suggestion of bias, making life more comfortable for everybody.
Need expert strata management services?
More Than Strata specialises in the smooth running of your strata building. From organising maintenance to scheduling and running General Meetings, we can take care of everything. Plus, your scheme’s finances are in safe hands with our team providing you with expert advice. We’ll even intervene in disputes and conflicts. If you’d like to see your strata building operating much more smoothly, contact us today.
