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Building Managers

Building Managers

A building manager is person who assists to carry out any of the following functions of the Owners Corporation: –

  1. managing the common property,
  2. controlling the use of common property, and
  3. maintaining and repairing the common property.

A person is not a building manager if the person exercises those functions on a voluntary or casual basis or is a member of a strata committee.

If the Owners Corporation wishes to delegate some or all its functions it does so to a strata manager, not to a building manager.

An on-site residential property manager is also a building manager but onsite or not the functions of building manager remain the same. A building manager may be entitled to exclusive use of a lot or common property in a strata scheme. It does not matter if the building manager’s job description is either building manager, care taker, resident manager, facilities manager or other title. To use the old expression “If it looks like a duck, swims like, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.”

A building manager may be an employee of the Owners Corporation and if so is entitled to all the benefits of an employee. Often the building manager is a corporation and it provides one of its employees or sub-contractors to physically carry out its functions.

A building manager is appointed in general meeting and must enter into a written agreement with the Owners Corporation known as a Building Manager Agreement. A building management must end after 10 years after which the building manager may be reappointed.

Under the current legislation, a building manager before appointment is duty bound to disclose: –

  1. If there is any connection to the original owner; and
  2. If there is any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in the strata scheme.

The provisions in the Strata Schemes Management Act relating to building managers are contained in Part 4, Division 4 Sections 66 to 70. Bear in mind, a building manager is different from a strata manager and in an upcoming article, I will distinguish that difference.

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