"THE CONTINUING DEBATE ON NSW STRATA LIVING" by Col Myers

Small Myers Hughes - www.smh.net.au

Recently, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a series of articles referring to problems associated with strata living.  Daily headlines included “Welcome to strata life, your paradise lost”, “Residents losing their say about managing”, “When developers won’t let go” and “What to do about Sydney’s strata minefield”.

As you can imagine, the articles were quite negative in relation to strata living.  However, one thing that became quite obvious to me in reading this week long series was that strata residents generally did not recognise the difference between “building managers” and “caretaker managers”. 

There are many  buildings, particularly situated in Sydney, where developers have appointed “building managers” on 1 or 2 year agreements.  In most cases, these “building managers” are companies or entities associated with the developer.  The articles contained a continuous stream of criticism about these “building managers” being so closely aligned to the developers. Many residents felt that the managers sole purpose was to “gloss over” building defects during the developer’s building warranty period.  In other words, owners were of the opinion that the building managers were there to do nothing more than convert what would normally be building defects (required to be rectified by the developer) into “maintenance” issues (which are the ongoing responsibility of the Owners Corporation).

The articles did not make a clear distinction between  developer appointed “building managers” and the long term (10 year) caretaker managers. As you are aware, caretaker managers have a substantial capital investment in the complex. They generally purchase a unit (and quite often a separate office/reception lot) as well as the management rights. They provide long term services  to  the Owners Corporation and individual owners and are answerable to the Owners Corporation for the proper performance of their duties. 

Clearly, the interests of the caretaker manager is to assist the Owners Corporation in having developers rectify building defects within the building warranty period.  This saves the Owners Corporation considerable money and ensures that building problems rest with the offending party: i.e. the developer, and not the Owners Corporation.

After reading this series of articles, the Executive of the Australian Resident Accommodation Managers Association (NSW) Inc (ARAMA NSW)  have decided that they clearly needed to distinguish their members from the problems being caused by the developer associated “building managers.”