The Strata Information Hub’s second phase began on 30 June 2022

 

It is important to commence this newsletter with the fact that information for ALL Strata Schemes must be uploaded to the Hub by 30 September 2022.

If a Strata Manager uploads information about the schemes they manage in the trial period, that information will be carried over into the second phase and will not have to be reuploaded.

For Strata schemes that hold their First Annual General Meeting after 30 June 2022, their information must be uploaded within 3 months of their FAGM.

For each year, part of the follow up tasks of an AGM is for the information on the Hub previously entered, must be updated within 3 months of that AGM.

Responsibility and Fines

It is important to remember that the responsibility is for the owners corporation to upload this information – essentially they are the ones who will be fined for not uploading information. NSW Fair Trading can issue on the spot fines of $220 for not complying with the new reporting requirements.

Whilst this is a responsibility of the Owners Corporation, a strata manager must also look to what their delegated functions are within your Strata Management Agency Agreement.

If your delegated functions include the functions of the Owners Corporation for the purposes of compliance with legislation and Government reporting, then as the Strata Manager you may be considered in breach of Section 57 Strata Schemes Management Act.

57 BREACHES BY STRATA MANAGING AGENT

1. If a strata managing agent has been delegated a function by an owners corporation and a breach of the duty by the owners corporation would constitute an offence under a provision of this Act, the agent is guilty of an offence under that provision (instead of the owners corporation) for any breach of the duty by the agent occurring while the delegation remains in force.

Workflow and Considerations

When implementing this new reporting into your team’s workflow there are a couple of items for Strata Manager’s to consider:

• The cost for running this system will be billed to the Owners Corporation at $3 per lot (including utility lots) when uploading their annual information.
• Check your delegated function in your agency agreement.
• It is suggested that an authority to have information uploaded should be sought for all committee members and emergency contact people. Obtaining this authority in writing is highly recommended.
• When taking on a new building, one of the file set up/onboarding tasks should be to update the strata manager’s information on the Hub.
• Post Annual General Meetings, a workflow task would need to be implemented for updating the Hub with any changes that occur at an AGM (ie Strata Committee members, strata manager’s details).
• One of the items for the strata community to be updated on is the handover or loss of a strata scheme and how the new strata manager is able to obtain control of the strata scheme’s online account.
• Costing of this reporting – it is estimated by NSW Services that on average it should take approximately half an hour per scheme to upload initially, and continuing maintenance should be relatively minor in time as it would only be changed as necessary. Each strata agency needs to consider how they will charge for this initial uploading of information.

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