by Robert Van Aalst of Lawyers Central
Part 2 of 3
A ROSE BY ANOTHER NAME: THE ISTM AND SCA
In 1980, the Institute of Strata Title Management (ISTM) was created as a “peak strata body” and rebranded in 2013 as the Strata Community Services NSW (SCA).
The rebranding was a rose by another name. It or they were aspirational bodies, and without meaning to be disrespectful, were and remain privatized chambers of commerce in the guise of a professional peak body.
I suggest because the membership of the ISTM and now SCA included “strata managers, support staff, committee members, and suppliers of products and services to the industry,” there were too many self-interested hats in the ring.
I suggest this mixed bag of members became the bedrock for today’s conflict of interests.
The SCA, on its website, promotes and encourages membership of strata managers, support staff, committee members, and suppliers of products and services to the industry.
“Suppliers” included lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects, designers, insurance companies and their agents, electricians, window installers, plumbers, cleaners, fire experts, builders, handymen, strata lenders/financial providers, lift contractors, and building managers.
For suppliers, being members of the peak strata body was akin to owning the goose that lays the golden egg. This begs the question: why then would suppliers want strata management to be a profession with membership restricted to strata managers and representing only their professional interest?
This is not to say some strata managers didn’t see business benefits flowing from mixed membership. One example of such benefit was strata managers being eligible for insurance commissions.
This selfish and shortsighted attitude encouraged a tsunami of conflicts of interests being examined today.
Strata managers became beholden to the suppliers because they were and remain a large source of funding for the peak body. It resulted in an attitude of some strata managers that “you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
I also believe because of the mixed membership and the influence of suppliers that the peak body was slow to promote the proper education strata managers so badly required.
A report was commission by ISTM in 2005 asking whether ISTM should remain as an industry body or become a professional body with suppliers having no voting rights as board members. This was torpedoed by the board representatives of supplier chapter at the time with the removal of strata manager board members who had supported this proposal with the canvassing of proxies without the disclosure of why they had been procured from all and sundry.
This unwelcome influence of certain suppliers made it a case of the tail wagging the dog.
This course of action stirred the licensed manager chapter to change the constitution to disallow any chapter of ISTM to obtain proxies from any other chapter apart from their own and also to only allow members of each chapter to vote for their chapter board members.
EDUCATION
The educational programs currently available are an improvement, but they do not go far enough. I deal with this later in this paper.
Strata management educational needs, which were obvious, should have grown in tandem with the numerous legislative changes including the Strata legislation itself. Things were getting complicated fast, and strata management education has kept pace with these changes.
The promotion of proper education was not at the forefront of the minds of the members of either ISTM or SCA, particularly in the minds of the major suppliers and some growing strata firms.
Proper education risked the professional independence of strata managers and I suggest a subsequent risk of review of the control of the peak body.
SPONSORSHIP
Sponsorship, particularly by suppliers, added substantially to the coffers of the peak body. These contributions were tax-deductible and allowed large strata firms and suppliers to gain influence and, in some cases, manipulate appointments to the board. One disgraced lawyer was a case in point.
The current SCA sponsorship is divided into four categories: Platinum $49,500 per annum, Gold $27,500 per annum, Silver $16,500 per annum, and Bronze $8,800 per annum. There is no shortage of potential sponsors, and I presume membership applications by non-strata managers.
Large sums of money go into strata events which I suggest would be better spent supporting the costs of proper tertiary education, which would bring the suppliers greater public recognition and not prejudice their access to future business.
Like donors/sponsors in politics, I imagine the donors/sponsors of the SCA and before that the ISTM wanted bang for their buck and, dare I suggest, influence. Sponsorship was another nail in coffin preventing strata management becoming a standalone profession. The first nail, in my view, was the mixed membership. The second was sponsorship.
STRATA COURSES
In the early 2000s, I undertook an ISTM-run one-week strata certificate course. This included an exam. The course was designed for strata support staff who eventually may be or were planning to be strata managers. The tutors/teachers were a combination of strata managers with experience but no academic qualifications and lawyers. Even then, it cemented in my mind the need for there to be an educational review for strata managers.
To qualify as a licensed Strata Manager, one had to undertake an additional real estate course designed for real estate agents with one module for strata management but by and large, the course was not strata specific.
In 2023, I enrolled in a six-month online course run by Real Estate Training Solutions for strata assistants and consisted of five units. Though one can take six months, the course is designed to be completed at your own pace. It is strata specific, and, on successful completion, one is awarded a certificate which, for completeness, needs to be registered at the Department of Fair Trading. It was a marked improvement over the course I did in 2000.
My purpose of enrolling was to see what, if anything, had changed on the educational front. I found the course was an improvement; it compressed a lot from a huge amount that strata managers or their assistants are expected to understand and be able to apply on a moment’s notice.
The course covered broad knowledge of WHS, sourcing and extracting information from strata plans, access, and interpretation of legislation in strata community management, and identifying and analysing risks in strata and community management. It also included a module named “work effectively in strata community management.”
The course cemented in my mind what I have believed for years, that to be a licensed strata manager, a proper degree course is required. Strata managers are de facto experts in their field, but to gain the respect they deserve, they need to have more than a smattering of knowledge.
BECOMING A LICENSED STRATA MANAGER
Obtaining a Strata Certificate of registration qualifies the holder to enrol and complete a Certificate IV in Strata Community Management course. This is a 12 to 24 month online course and can be completed in less time. Completion enables one to apply to Fair Trading for a Class 2 Strata Managers License (NSW).
The course units include the following modules:
• Maintain business records.
• Implement customer service strategies.
• Apply knowledge of WHS laws in the workplace.
• Source and extract information from strata plans.
• Access and interpret legislation in strata community management.
• Implement strata community management agreement.
• Develop and monitor maintenance strategies that contribute to asset life cycle.
• Coordinate repair and maintenance of strata community property and facilities.
• Facilitate strata community meetings.
• Manage conflicts and disputes in strata community management.
• Administer insurance for strata communities.
• Implement procurement processes in strata community management.
• Coordinate preparation of strata community budgets.
• Facilitate operation of strata community committees.
• Read plans, drawings, and specifications for residential buildings.
• Identify and analyse risks in strata community management.
• Handle strata community funds held in trust.
• Build and maintain business relationships.
Knowledge of these subjects is important, but I maintain more depth of study is required. For years I believe the low entry levels and lack of support for proper formal educational standards have contributed to the general negative attitude toward strata managers.
My observation was that because a lot of the old-time strata managers who themselves lacked strata-specific education plus the influence of the suppliers sat on their hands on education standards.