The majority of Australians who live in or own units in apartment buildings today are part of strata. As a result, strata schemes are becoming the premier mode of property ownership throughout the country, with good reason. Living in a community can have many advantages. Top among those is the feeling of belonging to something bigger. In some cases, you may even get to claim ownership of amenities like a swimming pool or gym without shouldering the entire burden of the cost on your own.
Despite their convenience, running a strata is no easy task. A lot goes into the proper administration of a strata scheme to ensure its success. This need is driven by the ever-changing face of the requirements that every individual strata has. The change has been so significant that a whole industry has come up around the management of strata. These days, if you want to ensure that your body corporate or community is well run, the best solution lies in hiring a strata manager.
A strata manager’s primary mandate is to oversee the proper administration of a strata community. They get their marching orders from the owners’ corporation or its representative executive committee. A good manager will leverage their expertise and experience to benefit the scheme that falls under their purview. Furthermore, they will have the ability to don as many hats as needed with ease.
Taking on a strata manager is a serious matter. After all, the wrong choice can spell doom for a strata scheme.
However, once the body corporate has signed a contract and engaged the services of a strata manager, not everyone will be privy to the information of who the individual or company is. In many cases, tenants and even the more absent owners may have no idea who runs their strata scheme. If such is the case, the concerned party may run into a few problems, especially if an issue arises and the solution falls under the strata manager’s purview.
So you have wracked your brains and discovered that you don’t know who your strata manager is. How do you find out that information?
As there is no existing master database from which you can refer, your first option is to ask. If you are a renter, your renting agent or landlord may be of help. Each of these will have cause to interact with the strata manager at some point. Therefore, they will definitely be privy to that information.
If the inquiries to your landlord or agent prove unsuccessful, you can try approaching other unit owners. Their membership in the body corporate guarantees that they are aware of who is responsible for administering the strata scheme.
Alternatively, if all else fails, you may have to think outside the box. Some suggestions include seeking out a real estate agent who is showing property within the strata. You may be able to draw some information from them. Another idea is to find a posted notice in a common area whose origins lie in the strata manager’s office. Or, if you have the time, you can place a letter of inquiry in the owners’ corporation’s letterbox. Since everybody corporate is legally obligated to have one, it should not be difficult to find.
Finding out who your strata manager is can be very simple. On the other hand, it may require you to don a detective’s cap and do some digging. Either way, whenever you find the information you are looking for, you will come face to face with the person or company who makes your living community the success it is.