Beyond NSW: The Nationwide Strata Management Transparency Crisis Exposed

There is a view among some strata managers and 'peak body' representatives that the troubles facing strata management are confined to NSW. It’s a view that’s simply not true.

Since the ABC NetStrata investigations broke, here are some things we've come across –

· A consortium of strata management firms in WA that own an insurance broker and adopt the same business model as NetStrata.

· A strata manager in SA involved in multiple undisclosed related party transactions. This case makes the arrangements investigated in NSW look virtuous. This manager received income from related parties like remedial contractors, debt collectors, and insurance brokers, without any justification or statements about how they were competitive and in the interest of the strata.

· A unit titles manager in the ACT called a meeting just before the expiration of their appointment as a compulsory manager by ACAT to a dysfunctional scheme. They put a motion that the gardener and caretaker be sacked without notice to remedy any breach and be replaced by the compulsory manager’s own (differently named) gardener and caretaking companies for a period of five years each. The only so-called conflict of interest in this case were the words ‘Conflict Declared’. That was it – nothing to see here!

So, for the love of all things good and decent, let’s stop pretending that strata management issues only exist in NSW, and that it’s just a small number of bad actors letting us down.

There is a great future ahead for strata, but not if we keep pretending that everything is fine.

In the oft-repeated words of former Building Commissioner of NSW, David Chandler OAM: ‘The best disinfectant is sunlight.’ We need to let the sunshine in.

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