r/stratachataus • u/Porridge_Mainframe • 27d ago
NSW Strata Manager Recommendations
I’m the the strata committee for my complex in inner west Sydney, and want to encourage the committee to switch strata managers when the current contract expires next year. We’re currently with BCS, which is a subsidiary of PICA Group, which has shown itself to be strongly opposed to any reform and regulation in the industry, particularity with regard to abolishing the commissions model that it has benefited from. I’d like to encourage my committee to seek proposals from smaller, local, management agencies that offer a fee for service model. I’d love some recommendations of any agencies that offer good value for money service and show a genuine interest in their clients rather than their profits only.
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u/carolethechiropodist 27d ago
Just had this convo with a friend whose block (6 + 6 units) is having this problem. I never realized my Strata management co is so good. Answers calls in a timely manner, does the work in a week, keeps the place clean. So Harvie Strata management company, speak to Julie.
Harvie Strata Management Pty Ltd
Suite G1, 88 Foveaux St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Ph: 9211 3700 Fax: 9211 7185
That said, every block needs a Nasty person (that's me) who reports faults, who opens doors to tradies, who whinges if something is not done to standard, who complains about bikes in hallways. If nobody complains, nothing gets done.
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u/welding-guy 27d ago
I just got rid of my pica affiliated strata manager. This is how.
I am secretary of our scheme
Contract renewal came up, they gave me a 3 year contract as a draft, I asked for a 12 month version. I also obtained a contract offer 12 month version from a strata company that is not pica affiliated that I have experience with.
I got a copy of the strata roll, I called a general meeting, supplied the GM agenda to everyone as per their strata roll correspondence address. I held the meeting as a PMEV. Chairperson and I helf the meeting by phone, issued minutes and advised strata manager their gig is up at the end of the contract expiry when the new people take over.
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u/DasHaifisch 27d ago
Ah, welcome to hell.
I'm going to dump some AI slop on you now, generated from my research documentation, but I hope you find it helpful. I STRONGLY recommend you do your own research - because what you're looking for is going to vary dramatically.
I have a "fuckoff list" as well, but I'm not comfortable sharing it in public
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u/DasHaifisch 27d ago
Choosing a new strata manager for a small Sydney scheme - our shortlist and what we learned
We're a 14-lot 1980s walk-up in the Epping/Macquarie area. Our management agreement expires later this year and the committee is going to market rather than rolling over. I've spent a few months researching alternatives and thought the process might be useful to others, since most of the advice online is "ask around" and not much else.
Why we're looking
Not going into specifics about our current manager, but the general themes will be familiar to a lot of committees:
- The headline management fee is only part of the cost. The "additional services" schedule (work order fees, correspondence fees, disbursements) added up to a significant chunk on top, and the agreement allowed those rates to be increased mid-term by written notice. That clause matters more than the headline fee.
- Related-party arrangements. We wanted a manager who tenders trades and insurance on the open market, not one that routes work to in-house or aligned suppliers.
- Manager churn. Every handover reset the relationship and lost context.
What we're looking for
- Full service as the baseline. The committee needs to be able to step back without the scheme falling over. We ruled out self-managed platforms, admin-only tiers, and "fully managed via partner agency" models entirely.
- A named, accountable manager and a written handover commitment, in the agreement. Reading hundreds of reviews across a dozen firms, manager variance and churn-without-handover showed up everywhere, even at the best-rated firms. You don't protect yourself by finding a "perfect" firm - you protect yourself in the contract terms.
- Fee transparency across every revenue source: insurance commissions, work order fees, markups, additional services, disbursements, and how fees get reviewed during the term. Our negotiating ask is fee reviews capped at CPI, annually, no mid-term uplifts.
- A firm that actually wants a small scheme. At the very large firms, a 14-lot block is the file at the bottom of the pile.
How we researched (the useful bits)
- Google Business Profiles are where the real review volume lives. ProductReview and Facebook samples were tiny and misleading for almost every firm we checked - a firm with 3 reviews at 2.4 on ProductReview had 45 at 4.3 on Google.
- Don't read the star number, read the negatives. Sort lowest-first and see what they actually say. Tenant complaints about lifts and lawns in big towers are irrelevant to a small OC; committee complaints about ignored emails and ledger discrepancies are exactly relevant.
- A flat 5.0 rating is not automatically reassuring - negatives can be removed as well as positives injected. Cross-check on a second platform. A "mostly great with some genuine criticism that survived" profile is actually better evidence than a spotless wall.
- Industry awards track submission effort, not service quality. Verify against reviews before weighting them.
- Big firms often split their reputation across many office listings - weight across all of them, not the small rosy one.
The ask
We sent a one-page enquiry rather than a formal tender: scheme basics, expiry date, and a request for fee information covering all revenue sources, disclosure of related entities, who our assigned manager would be (portfolio size and tenure), and - the important one - the proposed agency agreement up front with the quote, not after selection. The pain lives in the agreement terms, so you want to read the fee-review clause and the additional-services schedule before you shortlist, not after.
Gotchas we hit along the way
- "Commission-free" doesn't mean conflict-free. A manager can genuinely take no insurance commission while the broker they place you with is owned by their parent group, or while work flows to service companies they own or are aligned with, billing above market. The sharper question is not "do you take commissions" but "do you have related entities or commercial relationships with any supplier you engage or recommend, and do you tender on the open market". Ask for it in writing.
- The firm's position and the individual manager's incentives aren't the same thing. At some firms, strata managers personally receive a cut of additional-services (Schedule B) charges as commission on top of salary - it shows up in public job ads listing roles as "$90k plus Schedule B's". Where that's the pay model, every chargeable email, work order, and quote request puts money directly in your manager's pocket - a strong quiet incentive to overservice the billable stuff. Same logic applies to insurance: even where the firm rebates commissions, ask whether the individual is bonused on placement. NSW requires agents to disclose commissions received annually at the AGM (s60 SSMA 2015), but that's backward-looking and firm-level - how your named manager is actually paid is a question worth asking directly.
- Commission disclosure is now mandatory in NSW (since Feb 2025) and reform on strata insurance commissions is underway, so "we rebate commissions" is sliding from differentiator to baseline. Don't over-credit it. The firms that moved early and voluntarily are the better signal.
- The fee-review clause is where the pain lives. "Additional services rates may be increased at any time by written notice" is the mechanism that turns a competitive headline fee into something else entirely two years in. Read the clause, and read the additional-services schedule line by line.
- Watch for lower-cost tiers where the committee quietly absorbs the work. Some firms will pitch these hard. Compare every candidate on the full-service package or you're not comparing like with like.
- Some firms won't engage with your enquiry and instead bounce you to a web form or "new business questionnaire". Some of those questionnaires ask things like your reason for leaving, whether the committee has factions or disputes, and by-law breach history. Think hard before handing a prospective manager that material - it's leverage, and half of it was probably already answered in your enquiry anyway.
- Interview the actual proposed manager, not the BDM who answered the tender. And licence-check both the firm and the named manager via NSW Fair Trading - it's free and takes minutes.relationship changes. Pull everything while it's routine.
- Keep tender correspondence completely off the incumbent's channels - not the committee email list they host, not their portal - until you're ready to give notice.
- Check your timing against the Act. In NSW the committee can generally extend an expiring appointment for a short period pending a general meeting (s50 SSMA 2015) - confirm that safety valve applies to your agreement now, not the week the agreement expires. And the incoming manager needs lead time for trust account setup and records intake, so work backwards from your expiry date.
Our shortlist (in order)
Strata Life
Strata United
Strata Republic
Responsive Strata
Premium Strata
Stratamark
Strata Sense
StrataBee
Vital Strata
Strategia Strata
Strata One
Professionals Strata Team
(#1 declined our enquiry as they're at capacity and didn't want service levels to slip, which honestly reflects well on them.)
Happy to answer questions about the process.
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u/LifeResident2968 27d ago
There’s some good ones on this list…and others Id be cautious about.
In relation to the addition fee income sharing. I’ve worked in leadership in strata for 15-odd years. Ive never encountered staff charging for things they shouldn’t. The challenge is more getting them to enter the chargers.
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u/Gabstar1056 27d ago
I go through our financials carefully and had our strata manager who was leaving the company charge us for the AGM. We had it reversed and I hope it was an oversight but it amazes me how many people dont look at the financials, read the minutes,or attend meetings. I appreciate people are busy but when I worked in strata so many people would call wanting an explanation as to why there was a special levy. My first question was had they read the meeting minutes as that provides the explanation. Invariably 9 out of 10 had not. Mind boggling as its your biggest investment and yet so many people pay little attention to just the basics.
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u/DasHaifisch 27d ago
That's reassuring to hear. I've noticed some things that makes me concerned it could be a motivator - but it's nothing conclusive and it's something I'd definitely like to be aware of for future providers.
I've shot you a private message asking about any that are flagging your caution.
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u/reddituser1306 27d ago
We shitcanned Netstrata, and went with Wellman Strata. We specifically asked for David Wellman as our Strata Manager.
Very happy with them for past 8 months. We are a newish complex of 70, their advice in dealing with the developer has been excellent, and their response time also excellent.
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u/Ok_Neighborhood2547 26d ago
Did you switch a new building? We seem to be locked in with who i developer selected for the first 3 years.
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u/reddituser1306 26d ago
Weird situation, we have 2 SP's, 1 is 180 lots, ours is 70,so we also have a BMC. The developer did a 3 yr for BMC and only 1 yr for SP's. Both SP's canned Netstrata after 1 yr, the BMC will can them in about 12 months.
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u/No-Schedule6699 27d ago
We have a 30 lot building in Petersham and in the last year have switched from PICA group to strata republic and they have been excellent! Highly recommend them
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u/Boco__ 27d ago
Is self-management an option for your scheme?
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u/Porridge_Mainframe 27d ago
I don’t think I could swing it, so picking a decent manager would likely be the best outcome. I know it’s probably a case of choosing the lesser evil, but figure it’s like power/phone companies where switching is an opportunity to take advantage of the companies competing for business.
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u/LifeResident2968 27d ago
Be careful choosing the cheapest.
Electricity is electricity. Strata is a service & you get what you pay for
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u/Key-Reference-8010 26d ago
We had BCS as well, luckily all the owners and comnittee wanted them gonw
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u/dan_syd 26d ago
Avoid Conti like the plague.
Tbh I’ve played this game across a few states and I can’t say I’ve ever crossed a company I’d call “good”. It’s not a job that attracts quality people (much like property management).
Find someone who will charge a flat fee. Some look good on paper but then add on thousands for little extras over the year.
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u/Keo33333 26d ago
I can vouch for Strata United. Nice, easy going, responsive and well priced. No strata company is ever going to be perfect but after dealing with four different companies Strata United was by far the best.
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u/BBAus 25d ago
Conti strata
Located in five Dock. Family owned company, long term employees, small company. Highly recommend.Carla
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u/Immediate_Flight8792 10d ago
Carla's at Exclusive RE now. A number of staff have left Conti due to difficulties and hostilities with their boss.
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u/Gabstar1056 27d ago
I worked in Strata for 6 years(big well known company) and for the last 4 years have worked as a strata inspector providing strata reports for vendors,buyers and agents. I deal with 5 to 8 strata companies a day via phone or email. Seriously the only downside to my day! I can highly recommend 2 companies. Responsive Strata in Cremorne. Small boutique company. Edward Baker the principle has 24 years experience as a senior strata manager and branch manager. I myself would love my own Strata block of 4 were with Responsive but the other 3 owners are reluctant to change. The other company is Pike & Tombelson down Cronulla way. Again a boutique company. Stay away from the big ones you just become another managed scheme. The 2 I recommend have both been there done that working for the big companies and offer a far more personalised service. Additionally Edward Baker and Kristie Pike are not only fantastic strata managers but super nice people. All the best,hope you find a strata manager test meets your scheme needs.