Anybody who owns an apartment in Canberra will know what strata management is, and will appreciate the advantage of having an award-winning strata manager in place to support your owners-and-tenants committee.
Vantage Strata managing director Chris Miller has an award-winning team that just won the Strata Community Association’s award for Strata Community Management Medium Business of the Year. It is the first time a Canberra owned and operated business has taken out the Australasian award.
The ceremony was staged virtually this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, and finalists were asked to dress up and attend a streamed awards ceremony in their offices around Australia instead of travelling to Adelaide for an awards event.
The team at Vantage Strata celebrated the win in their office.
“There’s a whole heap of new legislation about to be implemented, which every staff member will need to know and be trained in by 1 November,” said Mr Miller.
These changes involve every level of strata management and have been legislated by the ACT Government after consultation with the industry and the peak industry body, the Strata Community Association (ACT).
They are part of the ACT Government’s sweeping reforms to strata, known as Managing Buildings Better, and amendments to the Unit Titles Act will be effective on 1 November, 2020.
Changes will include providing greater ability for people to keep pets in their apartments; allowing owners corporations to tailor the way they manage their buildings to suit the size, location and specific needs of the building; allowing for more equitable distribution of building costs such as water, maintenance and insurance; and empowering consumers by informing them of their rights and responsibilities when purchasing off the plan.
Owners corporations will also be able to modernise administrative processes to make it easier for conducting meetings and casting votes.
“This is the most significant reform we’ve had in more than 10 years,” said Mr Miller. “Being the foremost experts in that changing landscape comes from hard work.
“Of course, winning the award is a nice recognition of our effort, but we have a clear focus on the tasks at hand, which is trying to advance the way we manage large-scale, complicated mixed-use and high-density buildings.”
Strata Community Association chief executive officer Alisha Fisher said it is the first time an ACT business has taken out the Strata Community Management Medium Business of the Year Award for Australasia.
“The awards recognise why their business is unique, how they have taken care of their clients, how their staff are trained and their professional conduct and innovation,” she said.
“It has to be a team effort, and the awards process requires references from clients and measurement of client satisfaction.”