What a strata managing agent does

The owners corporation can delegate some or all of its functions to a strata manager, including all or some of the duties of the treasurer, secretary and chairperson. Fair Trading’s own lists draw the edge clearly.

Fair Trading gives four broad examples of jobs an owners corporation can delegate: running meetings, from organising them to chairing them; banking the levies it collects and arranging insurance; giving advice on managing the scheme’s assets; and keeping its financial records. A strata manager has a duty to make sure it performs the jobs it has been given.

Its own statements of duty are short. A strata managing agent must exercise reasonable skill, care and diligence, act honestly, fairly and professionally with all parties, and act in the owners corporation’s best interest at all times unless doing so would be unlawful. It must also act on the owners corporation’s instructions, which Fair Trading says should be settled at properly convened meetings.

Since 1 July 2025, a strata managing agent has had to report to the owners corporation every six months on the work it does for it. Fair Trading’s examples of jobs that belong in that record:

• calling or running a meeting, sending its notice and agenda, and preparing and sending the minutes
• making the strata records available for inspection
• sending levy notices, and preparing a section 184 certificate
• reporting to Strata Hub
• obtaining and renewing insurance, and making an insurance claim
• accounting for money paid into and out of the administrative fund and the capital works fund
• issuing a notice to comply with a by-law

A strata manager can face penalties for failing to do work the owners corporation delegated to it. The penalty may fall on the owners corporation instead where the agent shows that the owners corporation caused the failure and that the agent took all reasonable steps to do the work.

A scheme may have a strata manager, a building manager or both, and owners who rent out a lot often deal with a property manager too. Fair Trading separates them like this.

A tenant typically has no direct dealings with the strata manager, who represents only the owners. And unlike strata managers, building managers are not licensed by Fair Trading.

In NSW, overseeing strata or community land schemes needs a strata managing agent licence, which comes in two classes. The classes differ in the qualifications they need and in the ongoing training (continuing professional development) that keeps them current.

A class 2 licence covers the management services: organising and running meetings, maintenance and repairs, managing and reporting on funds, insurance and budgets, general notices, and advice on complex strata issues and laws. A class 2 holder can’t open or manage a trust account. Getting one first takes at least 12 months as a registered assistant agent, working under a licensee’s supervision.

A class 1 licence follows at least two years on class 2. Only a class 1 agent nominated as the licensee in charge of a business can authorise withdrawals from the agency’s trust account. Fair Trading’s Strata manager finder, inside Strata Hub, shows the licence status of strata managers and agencies and any compliance record, such as disciplinary action, on the Verify NSW public register.

If an owners corporation isn’t carrying out its duties, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal may appoint a compulsory strata manager to take on all of the owners corporation’s jobs, the committee’s or its office-bearers’, or only some of them. Fair Trading’s examples include not keeping proper financial records, not complying with a Tribunal order, failing to do repairs and maintenance, and owing a Tribunal judgement debt.

Since 1 November 2024, Fair Trading itself can also apply for a compulsory appointment where a scheme is severely mismanaged, and says it treats this as a last resort after an investigation. Owners can still make their own application.