Ask RiotACT: Strata manager recommendations

I have had the pleasure of working with First Choice Strata for a while now. If you’re into surprises, they’re definitely a good pick, you’ll never quite know if your email will get a reply or if it will just disappear into the void! Communication is definitely memorable as sometimes they even spice things up with a bit of creative storytelling.

Their service could be called premium, though I’m still trying to figure out if that’s based on quality or just the price tag. If you like a bit of mystery in your finances, you’ll appreciate their approach to transparency, or lack thereof. As for keeping promises, let’s just say I’ve learned the art of patience.

In all fairness, they do excel in one area: teaching me the importance of managing expectations.

Overall, I’d say they’re a great choice if you’re into high fees, low accountability, and endless excitement!

We have had several years of bad experience with Independent. Four people assigned to look after our property in the last 2 1/2 years. Ongoing issues with being unresponsive to maintenance requests (last was flooding in basement – asked us to send photos and then no response. We ended up fixing the drainage issue ourselves). Calling an AGM and then having everyone turn up and then to say ‘I did not confirm the meeting – what are you all doing here’ and then be sent home. Subsequent meeting held months late. Not recording motions correctly at AGM that leaves Strata exposed. No apologies, just told to ‘sort it out at the next meeting’. That will have to be with our next strata managers…

Avoid Civium. Expensive, inactive, get kickbacks and charge lots of minor fees (528pa for bank fees to service four units?)

Try and avoid McNamees if you can. They are too big and stopped caring a long time ago. That said, I don’t imagine you are going to choose a unit based solely on who is managing it (and you get no say anyway) so it’s probably not worth worrying about.