Navigating Strata Management: Insightful Tips

Transcript

Peter Fletcher

Peter Fletcher: [00:00:00] Welcome to the WA Property q and a, the podcast where I explore the ins and outs of buying property in Western Australia. I’m your host, Peter Fletcher, and each week I interview local property experts to help you to develop a deep understanding of the nuances of buying property in wa. Market trends, legal considerations.

No topic is off limits, but before we dive in, a friendly reminder, while we provide valuable information, it’s important to note that nothing discussed in this podcast should be construed as personal investment advice. Always remember to seek the appropriate professional advice for your specific circumstances.

Now, let’s get started and unlock the secret to successful property buying in. So welcome to another episode. Hi. Welcome Nick. It’s good to have you back. And for those of you who visiting for the first time, tell us a bit about [00:01:00] yourself.

Nikki D’Agostino: Oh I’m Nikki and I now own and manage Resi Strata.

Peter Fletcher: Yes.

Nikki D’Agostino: In partnership with you, Peter.

Oh. And we’ve set up a strata management agency to try and change the way things are done and make the industry a little bit better. Lead by example. Yeah.

Peter Fletcher: Cool. So you’ve you’ve been doing strata for. Yonks now, haven’t you?

Nikki D’Agostino: Very long time. I’m actively involved in the Rewa Strata Network Committee, so, you know, I, I advocate for the industry and ahead of the game with legislation.

I’ve just finished my certificate four in Strata Management, which is offered by Rewa at the moment, and that’ll be coming into the regulation soon as an education requirement to work in the industry. So, although I had the. 20 years of experience, I still had to RPL my way through and get a certificate for.

I advocate for running as a licensed agency and the benefits for the client that come with that. And [00:02:00] yeah, just been around a long time. I’ve managed properties all over.

Peter Fletcher: Nick you’ve managed some big properties, haven’t you?

Nikki D’Agostino: I have. And we’re starting to win some of those clients now where our portfolio growth has been, although organic and word of mouth at the moment.

Happening very rapidly. It’s been a very good response. So,

Peter Fletcher: and you’re a bit freaked out about it?

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah, I’m a little bit overwhelmed, you know, but we’ve got the right software and systems and we’re trying to automate and really have our SOPs in place and really leverage my ability to do the client facing work.

And have it all operating very smoothly and consistency consistently for the clients.

Peter Fletcher: What would be the biggest development that you’ve managed that you’ve been a strata manager for?

Nikki D’Agostino: That would likely be mantra on Murray. So that is known as Pacific International Apartments.

It’s 252 lots scheme. And it had split grouped budgets with. Part hotel, lease, part residential, part commercial. And that [00:03:00] was one of the bigger, probably more complex, it was a bit older as well. So lots of things to think about with that. And then some other interesting and complicated schemes would include Bunker Bay Resort Freight, and a estate.

They’re quite well known amongst the strata consultant world because of the intricate bylaws and budgets and things that come with them. And the mix, the mixed use of, you know, including leases and hotel operators and things like that on top of your day to day strata and residence.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah.

So a strata like a set of accounts would just usually be broken into admin levy, reserve levy or admin fund, reserve fund. But in this case it’s a whole bunch of others. Is that right?

Nikki D’Agostino: That’s right. And ’cause they weren’t set up as community title ’cause that didn’t exist at the time. They’re set up as a strata title, which means to be able to group budgets, you need bylaws in place to determine what the unit entitlement [00:04:00] is per area.

So as example, the hotel might pay for certain things in the budget that the residents do not, and they’ll have a certain unit entitlement and they’ll be grouped and split budgeting requirements for those. But we do like, you know, our, just our standard, you know, 12 lot schemes with a very simple budget of maybe five to 10 line items and very, you know, simple and easy to manage.

But they can get quite complicated with the groupings. And, you know, I think the commercial and reside commercial and real estate experience comes in really handy when you’re dealing with things like, you know, further leases and license agreements in place and hotel operators and the terms and things that.

The strata company are then in contract for?

Peter Fletcher: So in terms of the. Smaller developments, quite often it seems that like those small developments, they have their own bunch of standard kind of questions that would come up from people. Is that right?

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah, we’re talking residential more so here.

Yes. ’cause [00:05:00] we obviously do a bit of commercial as well and you do get a very different. Type of client or customer or owner, I should say. Lot owners varying from the residential to the commercial strata and the type of questions that will come from it when you’re dealing with residential, which is probably the most common type, you know.

People are often downsizing from their McMansions and not used to, or understanding that there are rules in place and legislation in place, and that they need to make applications for things like installing a patio as example, which was one that came up yesterday.

Peter Fletcher: Okay. So, so let’s say I wanted to in install a patio, so my nephew, this is a good, this is actually a good question. Okay. Because my nephew owns a a.

Property in a group of eight. He’s got a he’s his bound lot. Boundaries is his courtyard. So it’s included as part of his lot. What what like things does he have to do before he actually goes and [00:06:00] gets the patio done?

Nikki D’Agostino: Look, my, there, there is always, in this instance, I would always give the owner some information about what requirements are for structural alterations to a lot. There’s, you know, from Resi Strata, we offer a bit of an FAQ and some information and some guidance on how to and a solid application form, which will guide them on the process that’s required.

The easiest way of thinking about it is one, if you’re drilling into common property it’s going to be a structural alteration. It’s gonna need to go through the legislative process. If. It needs local council approval, like the installation of a patio or something like that, then it’s likely you’re going to need your strata company’s approval as well at a general

Peter Fletcher: meeting.

Okay. So if he’s going to construct a patio, he’s gonna need a building permit. Is that right? That from the local council?

Nikki D’Agostino: More than likely. So I can’t talk on, well I can talk on the local council side ’cause I have been in that field before too. But what we [00:07:00] would generally ask for from a strata perspective is depending what it was.

So in the instance of your patio, we would ask for the contractors details and scope of works, the materials being used, including the colors and what the structure’s going to look like designed to ensure it’s keeping with the scheme and it’s going to fit. That the contractor has the appropriate insurances that if council, so this is from the strata side of things.

From the strata side of things. If the council, local council requires an approval that they’ve obtained that approval from the local council to make the installation, if it impacts any other law owners that we have written submissions from them to say, confirm their agreement. Or otherwise, and, we would sort of survey and assess from there.

Some strata companies, and depending what it is, may have bylaws in place that allow for the council of owners to make these kind of decisions. But more often than not, it would need to go to a general meeting and require a resolution without dissent.

There was a case in SAT actually just recently and Mark Atkinson [00:08:00] just had the good outcome for the owner, but as an example, it was down south. He wanted to build a. Patio or shed for his boat. As a holiday home, to leave it as storage. One little owner dissented, they brought it to SAT and they were able to get it approved because it wasn’t of substance.

The descent wasn’t. It wasn’t reasonable of substance, but you know, that does take legal process and things like that. So,

Peter Fletcher: so are you saying that in my nephew’s case, that he would have to wait for a general meeting? So like the AGMs just been, had, they would call an

Nikki D’Agostino: extraordinary general meeting or, you know, now with electronic voting and things like that, they could probably do it by an electronic vote.

An electronic, meeting. But yes, it would likely for what he’s looking for, depending on the bylaws, depending what exactly comes through the application and assessment.

He, it would likely need to go for a vote, whether that’s electronic or a physical general meeting.

Peter Fletcher: [00:09:00] Really. Okay. So, right.

So it would have to go to a vote of all the members. Without dissent. Without dissent. Yes. So everyone’s gotta agree to it. That’s right. Is it,

Nikki D’Agostino: I mean, the thing that people don’t get their head around or understand, I guess is, you know, like the instance of this person I was speaking with yesterday who had the concerns she’s coming from, you know, a big five bedroom home on a big plot of land where she’s been able to do whatever she wanted and didn’t understand or realize that buying into Strata came with certain.

You know, responsibilities and obligations and requirements and rules. So, you know, it took a bit of discussion and educating, empowering her. I also take the approach that we need to practice some common sense. So, you know, as the strata manager, I would actively engage the community, discuss it. Maybe set a precedent, et cetera.

Really work with them to [00:10:00] help get everybody on the same page. This particular scheme, you know, it’s a 12 lot scheme of single dwelling, but detached and, you know, they would likely like to put their patios and awnings up, so. And it’s a brand new development, so it’s likely that there’s going to be many of them wanting to do that.

Peter Fletcher: So let’s say that let’s say that the, and we’re doing hypotheticals, and I would be, and that’s a bit, bit hard that you, well, his lot boundary is is the front courtyard. It’s a substantial little courtyard. Let’s say that he didn’t wanna drill into any common property, just wanted to put.

A patio and maybe a swimming pool in there

Nikki D’Agostino: again. You know, those sort of things would require local council approval. So the best thing to do is make the application through the strata company to be assessed. And it’s likely that it would need some kind of approval process. But in saying that, you know, under the legislation, there’s also keeping with plot ratio and don’t.

[00:11:00] Quote me on it. But if you are covering X amount, and it comes to, down to the planning regulations and things, which is why local council approvals also required to get these things through.

Peter Fletcher: What if what if he just wanted to he just said, well, I’m not even gonna seek council approval as in strata council approval or strata approval.

I’m just going and go ahead and. Constructed, sort of ask for forgiveness, not permission.

Nikki D’Agostino: We would probably request just like a local council would that we do a retrospective approval process and it could be requested for it to come down if it was an issue and disputed it would likely need to go through mediation or the state administrative tribunal to determine what would happen.

But you know, retrospectively getting that approval, you know. Is it harmonious and a good community member doing that kind of thing? Yeah. You know, are you upsetting the other owners? Are they not bothered and they’re happy to do it? And it’s just, you know, getting it done and [00:12:00] then the retrospective approval goes through fine.

The other thing to consider, interestingly as well now with structural alterations and things. If it does impact common property, it can be required to come under the 10 year maintenance plan as well. So consideration that if you’re constructing a patio that you know, drills into the common property, which might be the external wall, that, that may then need to be considered.

One with the strata building insurance, so the valuation sum insured. And two also included in the 10 year maintenance plan and reserve fund forecasting. So it’s quite a complicated yeah. It’s, yeah.

Peter Fletcher: Okay. It doesn’t sound like much fun. No. See,

Nikki D’Agostino: it’s not much fun for the strata manager either, I can assure you that.

Peter Fletcher: Yes. So what if the thing they wanted to do it was on their lot but didn’t involve any sort of like, [00:13:00] visual, like no one could see it? It’s as long as it’s not an alteration to the structure. So long as there’s not an alteration to the structure. Right. So was if it was free standing patio, it was a free standing not installed in any way.

Like no, it was installed like if it was four post concreted into the ground, but separate from the building.

Nikki D’Agostino: Look, I would be determining from the surface boundaries, from the ground, because if they’re going below, you know, they might be going into common property or they might be going out. So it really does take a bit of an assessment and guidance from your strata manager.

With regards to interpreting the strata plan and understanding exactly what you need to do, but like I explain to people, it’s not that. It’s gonna be a straight out no or anything. It doesn’t, we don’t have to over complicate the process, but help us educate you along the way. Start with a

Peter Fletcher: scope of design.

Interesting. [00:14:00] Interesting. Now, one of the questions I hear a lot is why and this is the case for my nephew’s building is like his strata, levees are about 1600 a quarter. On an eight lot scheme. Like, why are they so expensive?

Nikki D’Agostino: Okay.

Peter Fletcher: What are the parts in there that would make them expensive?

Nikki D’Agostino: Well,

Peter Fletcher: I’d

Nikki D’Agostino: need to look at the budget and that’s the first place I would direct people when they say, you know, often. People paying strata levies because they’re paying it to the strata manager. They think that’s your fee, which is not the case. Your fee is a very minimal portion of that levy. That levy entails things like insurance costs and usually they can be high if this is like an older building that might have some requirements on insurance, that the premiums are going up and higher.

That can be a big. Cost factor. You’ve got things like common utilities. Insurance is quite high, isn’t it? It depends. It depends on the building. It’s obviously I can’t give insurance advice, but obviously [00:15:00] it’s assessed building by building and. On the terms that they do. So for example, if there might be asbestos or no registers in place and no management plans in place, it might come at a higher premium.

If there’s been lots of claims for a certain thing, then it’ll come at a higher premium or a higher excess, or it will just not ensure, it’ll exclude, it’ll have exclusions in your insurance policy. So insurance can be quite a big factor. And usually it is. I can safely say it’s usually the biggest cost

Peter Fletcher: per

Nikki D’Agostino: annum to the strata company.

Then there’s. You know, like I said, common utilities, whether they’re sub-metering and things like that, there’s still always gonna be a common supply. So often people will say, but I get my electricity bill from Synergy. Yes, but there is still another meter that’s powering the common areas. If there is amenity, you know, if you’ve got pools and lifts and things, you’ve gotta think of the maintenance and running costs of those things.

Fire safety standards garden maintenance, you know, your lawnmower man, [00:16:00] all the things that are taken care of for you in regards to the common property and the building and the administration of the scheme.

Peter Fletcher: So in terms of common property, a lot of people forget that. The common property needs to be maintained in just the same way as the driveway in your house.

If you owned a freestanding house that needs to be maintained. Yeah. Your verge lawn needs to be maintained, and all of those things come at some sort of cost. If you own your own home, it’s just that you don’t sort of realize it because you’re sort of paying it in dribs and drabs throughout the year.

Yeah. Whereas with common property maintenance, it’s like there’s a contract in place for somebody to come along and do this stuff.

Nikki D’Agostino: That’s right. And it’s gotta be insured because you’ve gotta consider. You know, like talking the common driveway, you’ve gotta have public liability insurance. ’cause say the neighbor at unit two has a visitor that comes and trips and breaks their leg on the driveway, they’re going [00:17:00] to sue the strata company, and you need to have your public liability insurances in place.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah, I’ve actually seen that happen. Where a lady where we were at 4, 4 3 Albany Highway it was rainy one day. She slipped and fell and within no time at all, we had a an, a call from a lawyer acting for us, saying, you know, like, what’s your insurance policy? And, you know, it was, as it turns out, it was for the common property and it wasn’t our direct concern, but.

You need those insurance policies in place. I

Nikki D’Agostino: have to say, in my time managing shopping centers slip and falls were a weekly occurrence. Like that was a common thing to occur, whether it was, you know, and then thinking the liability, like did the cleaner not pick up that? Banana pill that lady slipped on and broke her hip, or you know, they slipped down the travelator.

That was always another big one. But slip and falls at shopping centers and claims on that was probably one of the biggest part of management for shopping centers.

And then [00:18:00] consider that like, you know, on, on common property, common thoroughfare.

So

Peter Fletcher: in terms of the. The strata managers, the cost of the strata manager inside the levies, that’s not a lot of money per unit, is it?

No.

Nikki D’Agostino: For the amount of work and correspondence a strata manager deals with, they’re very under underpaid. Yeah, let’s put it that way. Not the strata manager themselves, but fees, and this is a big, hot topic of discussion. I think there needs to be, you know, an increase in this. This is where, you know, I guess a lot of them are sort, trying to double dip with commissions and referral payments which we’ve seen in the news.

So what,

Peter Fletcher: how much would a strata manager’s fees add to someone’s quarterly levies? It

Nikki D’Agostino: wouldn’t be much. You’re probably looking at the cost of a cup of coffee a week.

Peter Fletcher: Per lot. Yeah. More than that, surely.

Nikki D’Agostino: You know, a lot of strata managers will try and make it up in additional services, and so it really depends.

We, we [00:19:00] just, you know, listened to Amanda Farmer recently, who’s just done a full review of 50 independent different. Strata management agreements and contracts to determine, you know, which are the fairest and which are, you know, irrelevant clauses and what they look like. So there’s so many varying terms and not a lot of consistency.

There’s no regulation on how or what fees can be charged. So it’s open to negotiation. It’s a commercial negotiation.

Peter Fletcher: Talk to me about reserve funds, like in the case of my nephew, there’s a fair bit of money flowing into that reserve fund. What’s that all about?

Nikki D’Agostino: So I would say in that case that they have a 10 year maintenance plan in place and they are forecasting per.

Per that maintenance plan of what needs to happen over the next 10 years, that there might be, you know, in 2025 they might be painting the building in 2026. They might be replacing a lift in 2027. They might need to do an overhaul of fire services, or, there’s many different things and depending [00:20:00] what the building has, so always refer to the 10 year maintenance plan and get your head around that and understand, you know, what the forecast entails.

Have a look at what’s in the reserve funds. You know what? What’s in the kitty and what do we need to keep operating over the next 10 years? Looking at lifecycle maintenance, preventative maintenance and capital works that are going to be required.

Peter Fletcher: And the big cost centers in a strata.

What would they generally be? I’m thinking pools and lifts.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah. Look, pools and lifts. They pool electricity and water usage as well as ongoing maintenance contracts and compliance. So those kind of things, you know, it’s not just operating a pool. There’s many facets to what’s going to cost you to operate the pool, the lift, the gym, the liability, the insurances on those things, the compliance checks, the regular maintenance that’s required, you know, for lifts, the emergency phones that are required, the lines to run those [00:21:00] phones.

It goes on and on. So although you think, oh, there’s a lift, you don’t stop and think what comes. What cost does that lift come at?

Peter Fletcher: So with both lifts and pools, there’s a, there’s the cost of maintenance of them. But then you’ve gotta put money into an account for depreciation so that at some future point I don’t know, 20 years or something. They call it 20 years. To replace the lift, you’re gonna have to replace it. Yep. Replace surface. And that is gonna be six figures as a starting point.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah. And pool might not be quite that much, but it’ll be an expensive exercise.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah. Yeah. You’ll still empty it, resurface it, et cetera.

Make sure, you know, you’ve got your weekly pool check to make sure it’s safe to swim in.

All that, the liability that comes with that. Again, keep an eye on the 10 year maintenance plan, and if you’re buying into a scheme or in a scheme where you’re at.

[00:22:00] To estimate your forecast. You know, what does this look like for me as an owner?

What do the levies look like today? What do they look like in three years time? What do they look like in 10 years time? Is my strata manager appropriately? Budgeting and forecasting the levies to keep it smooth? Or are we gonna see rise and dips based on the forecast?

Peter Fletcher: If you owned a property with a in a development with a pool with a.

If you didn’t see a minimum of a hundred thousand dollars in that reserve levy, you’d be going. There’s not enough.

Nikki D’Agostino: Well, it depends on where you’re at in the life cycle of that building. You know what I mean? If you’re buying into a brand new development, yeah, you know, there’s gonna be about 20 years of raising levies and forecasting for that

Peter Fletcher: fair.

If

Nikki D’Agostino: you are buying in year. 10 and the reserve fund is quite empty. And then all of a sudden you see that, hey, painting’s gonna happen. Replacement of fencing’s gonna happen, pool needs to be [00:23:00] resurfaced, whatever it is, that’s when you may start having some concerns about the investment you’re going to have to make in the upkeep and capital works.

Peter Fletcher: And let’s say that you get to year 20 and there’s nothing in the reserve levy for. The replacement of a lift and the lift claps out and it has to be replaced, what happens then?

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah, so you would either have a special levy and everybody gets stung with a very substantial amount to facilitate the costs involved in replacing the lift.

Or you can look at loans for the strata company as well, but which in turn you’ll have a special ongoing levy to pay off the loan on top of your admin and reserve funds.
Peter Fletcher: So a strata company can take out a loan. Yes. Really? Okay. Through any bank?

Nikki D’Agostino: No. Look it’s certain lenders and I’ll mention Lanoc because they generally do, I’m not making any recommendations, but that would be generally Lanoc.

Lanoc would be generally the first port call.

For loans. [00:24:00] I’ve had a scenario at a building in Rockingham that was brand new developer went bust. It was over four stories, so, you know, there was no warranties involved. It was the time of a CP, so aluminum composite panels that came as

Peter Fletcher: a surprise to a lot of people.

That came as

Nikki D’Agostino: a big surprise. And the insurance built or, you know, lack of ability, availability of insurance options because of it also came as a big surprise. So that strata company, you know, being a new strata company, needing to get some major remediation works done.

Took out a loan at that time to, you know, quite quickly

Get through the replacement of the entire facade. Wow. Rope access, you know, all the bits and was sort of money to replace. I think thinking about it at the time, the loan, about the loan, this was going back quite a while. The loan amount was probably in the million dollar mark.

Peter Fletcher: Wow. Wow.

Okay. So those learn loan [00:25:00] repayments get added to the. The levies?

Nikki D’Agostino: Yep. Well, they’ll be raised either as a special levy. If you’re paying it in a once off, you might have to put forward $80,000 as an example, or for the life of the loan. So in this, I’ve seen different scenarios where owners have agreed to pay a lump sum up front to cover the loan amount.

And then I’ve seen others where it’s been a repayment option over 10 or 15 years. A special levy will be raised at x per quarter to cover the loan repayments.

Peter Fletcher: Wow. Wow. Wow. That’s pretty heavy.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah.

Nikki D’Agostino: It’s dire. And you really want. To understand it and have someone on your side that knows.

But I think as a property owner, to really understand and see the value in what you’re doing, just because you buy into an apartment complex, it doesn’t mean that you are not gonna need to do the same kind of refurbishments and renovations. It’s just at a larger scale. But there’s more money in the pool.

There’s more purses to come out of. [00:26:00] I guess. It’s not all on you.

But it’s a hard. Hard

Peter Fletcher: pill to swallow. Yeah. Especially if it’s not planned. Like the Yeah. Those aluminum cladding. Yeah. That wasn’t planned. And No. And things like that often
Nikki D’Agostino: come as a big surprise. You know, generally the trigger is being uninsurable, so generally the trigger will be.

Holy cow, we can’t get insurance because of this. The only way we’re gonna get insurance is if we take this action. And that’s where the kicker sort of comes in. So being proactive and understanding the requirements in advance knowing I. The materials and, you know, warranties and things like that in place.

There, there can be a lot of risk, but I think, you know, owners should try and view it with the mindset of that adding the value to their home and their property.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah, so there’s a bunch of unit complexes, a around where there’s one’s down at 1 5 9 Hubert Street. [00:27:00] There’s some up at, there’s 53 Leonard Street, 69 to 71 King George Street, that back in the day and I’m talk going back into the the late eighties, early nineties.

These were incredibly low strata levies. Minuscule. Yeah. And you think, wow that’s amazing. There’s low strata levies. Fantastic. We’ll buy one. But the problem was you roll forward. 20 years, and suddenly you’ve got concrete cancer, you’ve got rusted balconies, you’ve got as lifts roofs, asbestos roofs.

You’ve got retaining walls that are starting to fall over. You’ve I think one of those complexes the outer leaf of the building, you can actually see it is it’s, and you go, oh, there’s some major work to be done there. Yeah. And that comes from a lack of maintenance. Early days, so I would argue that, well, I don’t, I argue that you’re better off having [00:28:00] higher levies, putting some money in the bank and having a proactive maintenance program a

Nikki D’Agostino: hundred percent

Peter Fletcher: than.

Low levies and then catch up with special levies. A

Nikki D’Agostino: hundred percent. And this is, you know, obviously legislation starting to catch up with 10 year maintenance plans. Strata managers are having to be a bit more astute or taking on facility management. I. And commercial management practices in lifecycle planning and understanding that this is why Reserve for Reserve Fund forecastings come into play.

You know, building standards and legislation and compliance change all the time. So there’s many factors that, that happen to ma to make that occur. But, you know, it’s really. Being proactive. I’m a big advocate on preventative maintenance. One of the first things I will do when I take on a new strata company is look at, you know, the maintenance schedule on all the new items, what it’s going to look like.

Get your reserve fund, forecast [00:29:00] and set, you know, put contracts in place for those regular requirements. You know, even things like you don’t think about soak wells, you know, the amount of times like a new building will come on. It’s a big. Building and people don’t think to add budget for annual soak.

Well maintenance and then the things overflow.

Peter Fletcher: Funny you should mention that because in my nephew’s courtyard, his paving is starting to dip and there’s obviously a soak well under there and, you know, one of the one of the lot owners said, but that’s on your land. You should fix it. And his response is, well, it’s draining from your roof.

I, I think you probably should help out. Yeah. And you know, to your point, it’s like, it’s just one of those things that you don’t. It’s hidden. You don’t even think about it.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah. That’s it. Sequels pumps and hydraulics and things you don’t see, but they’re operating your building and I guess not having that [00:30:00] mind, you know, we’ve gotta have a, we’re all in it together.

Mindset in strata. You know, we are all in it together. This budget is for all of us. We, the common property adds to the value of all of our property. Although I might not personally. Use or be attached to that part of this issue?

I’m It’s still applicable.

Peter Fletcher: Is this all a deterrent for people to buy into a strata title, or is it the other way where you go, well, I’m always gonna be living into something in something that is well maintained?

Nikki D’Agostino: I, I. Would hope it becomes opportunity. I would like to, you know, strata title’s going to be a more common type of titling system. It’s gonna be a more type, more common type of residence. It’s, you know, it’s got a lot to. A lot to give in supporting our housing shortages and things. Our, you know, building urban centers, building community, and the development side of things.

I think strata is a great way [00:31:00] for density and infill. But you know, if you are going in like this lady who’s coming from a five bedroom house who has no idea.

You’re gonna be angry, you’re gonna, you know, because you’ve kind of been blindsided into your kids, convincing you to buy something that you didn’t understand.

So I think there’s real importance in really understanding, you know, ask the questions, inspect the records. Get a buyer’s agent to work through it. Do your due diligence and checks. Really understand, you know, read the Land Gate Wa Strata Living Guide as a starting point to just understand what buying in strata means.

Especially for those that are coming from downsizing and are so used to a certain way of life.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the, this I often relate it back to you, you own a property and you’re doing all the maintenance. You’re doing it all yourself. You are you know, you go down to Bunnings and you spend a hundred bucks at Bunnings.

You don’t even think about these things. I. [00:32:00] Because you’re just spending the money. Yeah. And, but when you put it into a levy and then send out an invoice at the end of each quarter and you go, oh, it’s 1100 bucks, or It’s you 1200 bucks, or whatever it is, you go, oh. It’s like I’m spending, I. Yeah, too much money, but that levy includes your insurance.

It includes your,

Nikki D’Agostino: yeah,

Peter Fletcher: a whole bunch of mainten maintenance.

Nikki D’Agostino: If you get a household budget and tallied up your Bunnings invoices and your annual insurance costs, your petrol in the lawn mower, whatever else it is that you are doing day by day. Yes. You know, you are right. It’s probably an actually like a more cost effective option and a done for you option.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah.

Nikki D’Agostino: You know, I like that. I think it’s a done for you option and I think there’s big merit in strata living. It’s big merit.

Peter Fletcher: Okay. I’m gonna subdivide. No, I’m not. I haven’t finished mowing my lawns. So what are the other questions that you get asked often, Nick?

Nikki D’Agostino: Do you know? It can be the [00:33:00] craziest, weirdest and wonderful things that, what’s the weirdest question you’ve been asked?

Oh, where do I dunno if I should mention it, but I’ve got one where an owner is. Looking to sell their property, but they wanna a refund of all the special levies ’cause the works hasn’t been done yet. Oh. So, you know, like, you know, there’s been a general meeting and levies have been raised and collected, but now that they’re selling, they see the opportunity to get a refund of the whole lot.

Trying to explain that is, is a bit tricky. I definitely see the reasoning other weird and wonderful things, you know? Yes.

Peter Fletcher: That is a flat no.

Nikki D’Agostino: Flat, no. Like it would need to go to a general meeting and you know, the owners would have to agree to refund it, but it would shortfall the owners and think of the implication, you know, from your perspective, Pete, for the buyer.

And then the buyer would have to, yeah and the disclosures have been made and everything, and then what happens to the buyer? They get lumped with this debt. It just, it, you know, trying to, I think. It doesn’t matter what the question is. It’s [00:34:00] trying to reason with people, and a lot of the time there is a lot of self-interest.

In a community of owners there is, you know, an individual with self-interest and trying to get that individual onboard, understand, empower them with education. Make them see, and it’s sometimes near impossible and you’ve just gotta sit there and. Handle the shit fight. You’ve just gotta keep going back and forth and stand your ground.

Like it’s yeah. Some things are just not going to happen.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah. Yeah.

Nikki D’Agostino: And not going to happen on your timeline or, you know, so, I think the real difficult things are or the questions that come about generated from self-interest or people’s ideas of capitalizing on something.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah. Okay. All right. So we’ve covered patios, sort of, sort of, yeah. What about car parking? Nick

Nikki D’Agostino: car parking? So depending, you know, obviously on the complex, what the [00:35:00] visitors bays are like, whether there’s rules in place, whether there’s a contract in place with your local council to issue fines, whether there’s bylaws available to issue, fines to law owners, how that parking is monitored.

There’s a whole that, that could be a whole nother topic.

Peter Fletcher: So, some developments, they’ve got the car parking as part of the lot. Yeah. So that is your lot. That is your lot. You can, well, not, you can do whatever you want with it, but that’s your lot and yours rights only. That’s right. Yeah.

Yeah. And there are some older developments. For example, there’s, oh, they’re all over Perth.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yep. I think was built in the sixties or I had car bays for 18 units, but none of them were allocated. And it was great because we had plenty of parking enc closed, but none of it was allocated. But people still.

Take, say that one’s closest to my unit, so it’s my parking bay. Get out of it.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah. So. Then how do you police that in terms of who can [00:36:00] park in there?

Nikki D’Agostino: Again, it comes down to bylaws. It comes down to the engagement of your strata council. It comes down to how it’s being policed. You know, that the care factor at the end of the day, you know, the local council might.

Put a park parking management agreement in place where a ranger can be called and come issued fines and things like that with the appropriate signage and agreement. And there’s a cost for that. It may just be, you know, barreling lot one saying such and such, and this is parking here. I’ve had situations where we’ve actually.

As part of the registration process of lot owners taking their number plates to know whose number plate belongs to what lot. So it really depends on how far and how much.

Time and energy is going into policing that you know it, and it can be an issue. You know, saw one on our licensees page the other day, where a poor property manager had someone, whether it was an abandoned vehicle, they were [00:37:00] just parked in this rentals lot and it was their bay and strata company couldn’t do anything about it.

The police couldn’t do anything about it. It was on private property. It was like. You know, wasn’t, was it abandoned? They didn’t know. It really can get quite complicated and gone are the days where, you know, I used to manage a lot of apartments with wheel clamping, but that’s not really a thing anymore.

You can’t do it. No. But that was a very good deterrent. Yeah, it was. And it was a great money maker for the wheel clampers, I’ll tell you. And even as the strata manager, I would pack my Dax if I was out staying my welcome in those car bays. And I’ve been clamped a couple of times at some schemes, so.

You know, it’s common courtesy.

Peter Fletcher: You’ve got mobs like parking enforcement services now. Yep. Yep. And they send you out a fine, you know, 60 bucks or something like that. And my advice to people is just don’t pay it. Like,

Nikki D’Agostino: I dunno, Pete, I’m a good citizen, if I do the wrong thing, I need to [00:38:00] remedy it

Peter Fletcher: well, what are they gonna do? Yeah, there, they’re a toothless tiger, aren’t they? I they can’t do anything. I can’t comment, but I see there’s, well, they’re gonna do take you to court for 60 bucks.

Nikki D’Agostino: You know, they may take debt collection action.

They may wait till it gets to a certain amount. I’m not sure. I’m not in that field. You know, if it’s. A bylaw that says you get a fine and it’s charged through the strata company, then yes, you will get charged interest and you will go through debt collection. And I

Peter Fletcher: was at Curtin University back in 2008 or something.

I got this parking fine down there for, yeah. And it was only 20 bucks or something, 40 bucks or something. And I went, no, I’m not gonna pay. What are you gonna do? Take me to court for 20 bucks or so. Obviously they were never gonna take the court and then come graduation time they go.

Nikki D’Agostino: You’ve gone.

Outstanding. Fine. Yeah. Do you wanna get graduated? And that’s it, isn’t it? It’s time to [00:39:00] sell my unit and come time to sell your unit. Well, hey, you know Pete, as a settlement agent, here’s your certificate. One 10. Here’s everything owing to the strata company before you get, is that

Peter Fletcher: right? Oh my God. Oh, that a j you?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah, own invoices. You’ve seen it as a settlement agent. You know, you’ve seen outstanding balances get paid before settlement.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Okay. They get their money one way.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah. But you know what maybe bring a parking inspector on to the show to, to talk about this.

I’d be keen to sit in on that conversation and have a laugh and under. Dan, but I also, you know, from a strata manager perspective where you are trying to work on governance and working with your strata councils and the bylaws and things like that, I don’t really wanna be promoting don’t pay your fines.

I’d wanna be promoting, do the right thing, be a good community member. You know? So don’t park, it’s not,

Peter Fletcher: yeah.

Nikki D’Agostino: Well,

Peter Fletcher: so in our building at work there’s a couple of areas of common [00:40:00] property that they’re not used. Yeah. So I just parked there. Yeah. And I got a, you know, some of the owners, they go, Hey, you’re not supposed to park There I go, well, tow me like to, to the car away.

You’re not gonna do it. Hey, yeah, Pete, you are

Nikki D’Agostino: badass.

Peter Fletcher: You are bad. I don’t think so. But I to your point about, you know, like instead of getting bent around the axles about rules get bent around the axles about. Making the community a good place to live.

Nikki D’Agostino: Yeah. Harmonious living like, you know, that’s what I don’t, that sometimes apply common sense, sometimes.

Give a bit of leadway. Yeah. Have some leniency that’s my message. This is people’s lives and homes and. You know, we want them to be happy and comfortable and harmonious. I don’t wanna be the police. I, you know, I don’t feel good issuing fines because you’re parking in the wrong spot. Just don’t do it, and you won’t be upsetting anyone else.

And you’ll all live happily, and you can share a cup of sugar and do whatever it [00:41:00] takes. Yeah. But yeah the real message, Pete, like you said, is be a good community member. If you’re living in a community, be a good community member.

Peter Fletcher: Yes. Yes. Nick, that’s, I think about all we’ve got time for today.

This has been good.

Nikki D’Agostino: Thanks.

Peter Fletcher: You’re always you tell a good story and you’re passionate about your subject. Yeah. Which is, yeah.

Nikki D’Agostino: I want to make it. Better for everyone. I want to see the industry’s mindset shift and change and be better and do better, and that’s why I do what I do.

Peter Fletcher: Yeah.

Nikki D’Agostino: I don’t enjoy those daily phone calls. I don’t enjoy being. Treated like crap because I’ve sent an invoice that, or a, a breach or whatever. I want to see it get better. Yeah. I, that’s my why. Yeah.

Peter Fletcher: On that note, thank you.

Nikki D’Agostino: Thank you.

Peter Fletcher: And that wraps up another episode of the WA Property q and a.

We hope you [00:42:00] found our discussion valuable and gained some valuable insights into the. World of property buying in Western Australia. Remember, while we strive to provide useful information, it’s crucial to consult with the appropriate professionals. Before making any investment decisions, don’t forget to tune in next week for another exciting episode where we continue to unravel the mysteries of the WA property market.

If you have any questions or topic suggestions, feel free to reach out to us. Until then, happy property Hunting and remember to seek the right advice for your personal circumstances.

Thank you for listening.