What does an owners corporation manager actually do?

An owners corporation manager is the professional an owners corporation appoints to run its day-to-day administration. That means keeping the records, issuing fees, arranging insurance, coordinating maintenance, preparing meetings, and keeping the owners corporation compliant with the Owners Corporations Act 2006. The owners corporation itself remains responsible for the building — a manager implements decisions, it does not own them.

What the manager is accountable for

• Records. The register of lot owners, minutes of meetings, financial records, contracts and insurance policies — and making the records owners are entitled to inspect available to them.
• Finances. Issuing fee notices, tracking arrears, paying the building’s suppliers, preparing the annual budget, and putting the financial statements in front of the committee and the annual general meeting.
• Insurance. Keeping reinstatement and replacement cover on the buildings and public liability cover on the common property, and managing claims when something happens.
• Maintenance. Coordinating trades, obtaining quotes within the committee’s approval limits, and keeping the maintenance plan and the works it funds on schedule.
• Meetings. Notices, agendas, minutes and follow-up, including the annual general meeting.
• Compliance. The obligations that follow from the owners corporation’s tier, the Act, and the rules the owners corporation has adopted.

What stays with the committee and the owners

Decisions. The committee sets direction between meetings, and the owners corporation decides at general meetings: the budget and fees, the rules, major works, and who manages the building. A good manager brings the committee the information and the options; the committee decides. When a manager is making decisions instead of presenting them, the committee has lost something it is entitled to keep.

What a manager is not

A manager is not a landlord, a building surveyor, a lawyer or an insurer. When a matter needs engineering advice, legal advice or a valuation, the manager’s job is to bring the right specialist in rather than improvise an answer. Managers who describe themselves as responsible for everything are usually describing marketing, not scope.

How Victorian regulation shapes the role

Victoria’s owners corporation reforms, in effect since 1 December 2021, tightened the rules around how managers are appointed, what has to be disclosed, and how an appointment ends — an owners corporation should not need the manager’s goodwill to leave the manager. The same reforms introduced a five-tier system that decides what each owners corporation must do about committees, financial reporting and maintenance plans. Tier 1 owners corporations must appoint a manager unless they opt out by special resolution; the other tiers may choose to appoint one.

What to look for when choosing a manager

• A named person who knows your building. Ask who will actually be handling your owners corporation, and how many buildings they handle.
• Plain fee disclosure. What the management fee includes, what is charged separately, and how disbursements are handled.
• Records discipline. Minutes that record decisions, not summaries of meetings; financial records that reconcile.
• A clean handover. Records, contracts, keys, insurance and the bank signatories transferred on a documented schedule.

Where to go next

The terms above are defined in our owners corporation glossary. The services TOCS provides are set out on our services page, and the practical questions owners ask most are answered in resources. For a proposal on a specific building, contact us.