If you live in a shared apartment building, the chances are, you have a strata manager that keeps life in the building ticking over smoothly. Sometimes known as body corporate management, the role of a strata manager fits snugly beside the role of the body corporate to deliver comprehensive support to the community within the building.
Strata fees cover the cost associated with taking care of shared buildings. These enable someone to manage the common areas and facilities, take care of the physical structures and build the community spirit and sense of ownership for residents.
What is the purpose of strata management?
Great strata management is about far more than bricks and mortar – although this is obviously important too. Strata managers handle a number of key issues within strata properties. While this varies slightly from state to state, it includes liaising with the community’s body corporate to ensure committee meetings take place in accordance with state laws, organising and coordinating repairs and maintenance of the common property – including a preventative maintenance program – and managing finances associated with the property.
In simple terms, a strata manager is responsible for keeping the body corporate within the bounds of state laws and also for actioning the body corporate’s decisions and responsibilities. Without a strata manager, no one could be relied upon to take care of shared areas, building finances, or the community’s relationships.
Community relationships are arguably the most important and difficult aspect of the strata managers role. Whether it’s keeping people informed or untangling resident disputes, a great strata manager is able to smooth the path to happy relationships within the complex.
How to be a better strata manager
To do a great job in any area, we need the right tools. When it comes to strata management, a community management system that incorporates communication, scheduling, tracking and reporting functions is imperative. Disparate systems only make more work and detract from what strata managers need to give their attention to each day.
The right system can empower residents to take care of their apartments and be involved in the community, and in doing so, lighten a little of the strata manager’s load. Building management systems that enhance communication and streamline common requests, such as parcel collection, reduce the cognitive load strata managers need to carry for their communities. This creates more time for them to focus on more complex tasks – be it maintenance work or preparing financial reports for the next body corporate meeting.
By handing some of the responsibility for the community back to residents, a greater sense of community is built. Great strata managers further enhance this feeling by bringing special offers to their community, giving access to shared exclusive marketplaces and arranging events that bring residents together to provide opportunities for people to get to know and support one another.
Strata management is not an easy role, but it is an integral role for the growing communities and shared residential buildings in Australia. There are almost three million strata-titled properties in Australia and New Zealand – a number that clearly shows the continued growth in apartment living over the past decade. Without strata managers, our buildings would be mere shells in which people reside rather than the vibrant and supportive places that our communities now thrive in.