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The Intricacies of Strata Management Explained by Aidan Gorjy

• Ashleigh Goodchild

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Ever wondered about the inner workings of strata management and the unique challenges they face? Aidan Gorjy from Lockhart Strata Management joins us to share his insights and experiences, diving straight into the heart of strata complexities. From his transition into the entrepreneurial world to the impact of his dedication to personalized service, Aidan’s narrative is not just enlightening; it's a testament to the delicate art of balancing multiple stakeholders. You'll get a feel for the nuanced interplay between property and strata managers, and discover why managing a council of owners requires a deft hand compared to addressing individual property concerns.

This episode isn't just about the challenges; it's also about the tools and procedures that make strata management tick. We uncover what property managers must have in their arsenal, such as scheme summaries, to confidently address maintenance disputes. Aidan offers a treasure trove of knowledge on how strata schemes vary, why fences and roofs can cause headaches, and how to streamline communication for repairs and reimbursements. The discussion even includes the sensitive area of breaching tenants, offering a peek into the delicate dance of authority and diplomacy that strata managers must perform.

As we round out this insightful conversation, the hot topic of strata bylaws and pet legislation takes center stage. With new changes afoot in Western Australia, we debate the implications for strata communities and the broader societal shift towards pet inclusion in residential living. The discussion is not only rich with differing perspectives on pets in strata complexes, but also shines a light on the importance of clear, modernized bylaws. Aidan and I dissect how property and strata managers must collaborate to maintain harmony within these diverse communities, ensuring that the living experience is peaceful for everyone, feathers and fur included. 

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Speaker 1:

Today we have a guest who is not a property manager but a strata manager. His name is Aidan Gorgie and he is from Lockhart Strata Management. Aidan, welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Now tell me a little bit more about yourself, because I think last time I spoke to you I think you were just getting into strata management. So give us a little bit of a brief history about sort of where you've been previously in your career and what you're doing now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so prior to this I was working in property development and then went into real estate, sort of to get a bit of experience in that that sort of area and and or within an agency, so to speak, and started in doing strata management. That was about nearly five years ago now. So I was at salt in apple cross and working on their strata management portfolio there, so and then. But I always had a goal really to work for myself. So I set up this business about six months ago and basically just to, I guess, realise that dream of working for myself and it's been going really well. Yeah, that was my next question was is Lockhart yours?

Speaker 1:

because I thought that it must be your business. So that's really great to see. Where does the name Lockhart come from. What was the reason for that business name?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, good question. I was actually living on Lockhart Street in Como with a group of friends and that was the idea sort of started around then that you know, the real dream would be to be working for myself, and Strata Management's a great sort of business to be able to do that in. So that's, yeah, that's where that name come from.

Speaker 1:

As simple as that. I was living on the street.

Speaker 2:

That's it, yeah, yeah, I didn't want to get too bogged down with the name, because I'd probably still be thinking about a name now and wouldn't have even gotten started if I had been.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, that worked so, um, talk to me a bit about sort of previous strata roles you've had, and then the um, the need to sort of go out on your own. From a strata manager's point of view, the interest of going out on your own was that because, potentially, you saw strata management being done in a certain way and you wanted to sort of change the way you did it. Or was it that you just had more of that entrepreneur mindset and so you wanted to get into business?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think where I was working they had quite a lot of freedom and flexibility, so I kind of was really doing it the way I would have wanted to do it anyway, but I think it's more. In reality it probably comes down to a lot of the income earning potential as well. I think that Australia manages that. Income is probably fairly capped if they're working for someone, but I guess if you're working for yourself, there's obviously no limit as to how much someone can earn and how big they want to be with it. So I think that's something that was probably a pretty big motivator for me, because I do like the challenge to be constantly feeling as if I'm growing and challenging myself, and I think that working for someone else probably wouldn't have given me that sort of challenge I'm looking for.

Speaker 1:

It would have just been yeah, every day, you know, going in, doing your job, going home, so at least um yeah, by owning a business you've got that challenge and those goals. Um, in place it's really good, the um. So at the moment is it just yourself. Have you got a team yet? Do you plan to have one?

Speaker 2:

no, it's just myself at the moment and it's, it's gone quite well. I've probably got, you know, close to close to 20 buildings now, so different schemes and uh, it's quite. That that is in itself is quite a. It's not a large number at all, but it it's a lot better than I would have thought it would have gone. So i'm'm really happy with that, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, in comparisons to the strata manager role, to a property manager role, are strata managers in that virtual assistant space like property management, or is that not really something that strata managers have or use like offshore support?

Speaker 2:

I think there are some that are are doing that, but I probably won't go down that path as such, because I feel like I'm offering a little bit more of a personalized service, that that people are sort of engaging with me because of the fact that I would be doing the work and I do think there is a lot of benefit to it, but probably more suited to bigger companies rather than myself. And and also I'm not exactly sure how it works in terms of making sure that any offshore people have those qualifications that they need to have if they're doing strata management work. So that's something I'd have to to look into as well. But yeah, at the moment I think I'd probably stick with just local.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so. Let's get into a little bit about the property manager to strata manager communication. It's something that I love sort of exposing and just talking about, because there's definitely that gap where we have the same client but sometimes we can work against each other a little bit and I would imagine you would deal with a lot of property managers as well with things come up. Is there any common problem that you're seeing that us property managers are oblivious to like something that we're doing? That's like really frustrating. You've got permission to vent for about two minutes.

Speaker 2:

Sure, I think the biggest thing is that property management is quite different to Strata in that a property manager probably has a lot more authority in terms of getting work done on that particular place. If there was a hot water unit that went out or whatever the case is, they're almost somewhat expected in a way to attend to that urgently. But a strata manager is working for a council of owners, which could be potentially seven owners, and those seven owners could be theoretically representing 500 lots in one of the biggest schemes that are in WA. So it's not as easy to get decisions made and there's also a lot more eyes questioning any decisions that are made. So people are probably more cautious to make sure that they've protected themselves and followed the right process.

Speaker 2:

A property manager might be dealing with one owner or a husband and wife and they can build that relationship with them, or they know that that owner is going to be fine with this, or they would prefer me to do that. It's a little bit more personalized, but with strata it's. It's not easy to do that. So I think property managers almost expect the strata manager to sort of instantly get it fixed and we it's not really possible to do that. We have to go through a process and send it to the council of owners, take an instruction from them, and it can just take longer.

Speaker 2:

What I suggest is that if a property manager is not happy with how things are working out, their best course of action would be to go to the owner, who can actually become a member of the council and be actively involved in the decision-making of that scheme actually become a member of the council and be actively involved in the decision making of that scheme. So that is probably a key difference that I find I have to explain to property managers. I have to go back to them. They follow me up quite regularly and I say look like there's nothing I can do. I can just forward your follow-up email on, but I'm waiting for instructions from them is there?

Speaker 1:

do you find that it's hard for hard to get people to be on the council of owners? Do people like rush to put their hand up, or is it quite hard to find owners wanting to do that role?

Speaker 2:

I think they want to join when there's something they're not happy about. If they're happy with everything going on in the scheme, they're probably less likely to join. And I explain that to owners as well, because they get a bit upset. They say, oh, no one wants to be involved in this building. I say, well, it's probably not a bad thing. Really, it means that they're happy. You know you'll get people wanting to join the council of owners when they're not happy with with what's happening.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, so tell me then, because I think this might also be where a lot of property managers we, you know, assume what certain roles are do. In a property management world where we might have authority to deal with emergency maintenance and also we might have a maximum expenditure limit, do strata managers not have the same? Do they not have potentially authority to deal with anything emergency or authority to spend up to a certain amount of money?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that would be individual to each scheme, so it's not something there by default and I guess if there was a burst pipe or something like that, then that's something that they can get a work order to get it sorted out.

Speaker 2:

Or if an owner had that issue, they could get that emergency work done and then seek reimbursement for it. But I believe it would be quite different with property management, compared to Strata, to have that sort of authority to undertake that work. Some of it could be quite costly and it's something that they need to approve, but most of it seems to be more larger maintenance items. So someone complaining about a brick wall that's cracked or painting work that needs to be done, much larger, bigger ticket items and that really requires a process. In some cases it might actually need to wait until an AGM to vary a budget to undertake that sort of work. So it's not as easy as property management where they can just flick an email to the owner and the owner says, yeah, go for it. They'd have to budget for it and make sure they've levied for it and it's quite a process for that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, and a lot of those things, if they don't affect a tenant. Hopefully property managers don't stay on your case about it more. Hopefully those things are sort of coming from those own occupiers. When it comes to like crack brick walls and stuff reports maintenance to you. I was talking at an event not long ago and I was saying one thing that I feel is that there needs to. Yes, I think property managers need to be educated, but I think a lot of owners, investors, I should say need to be educated as well, because what happens is a property manager will call up an owner and say something like let's just say, use a fence, for example. The fence is cracked and then an owner just automatically says contact the strata, now the property. The gap I feel is that and I'm not saying there's right or wrong from a property management or strata management point of view, but what?

Speaker 1:

happens is a property manager just works on the instructions of an owner, doesn't seek to find out whether that fence was part of the strata's responsibility or not. So then the owner just says to the property manager give it to the strata, tell them to sort it out. Property manager goes to strata, tells you to sort it out. Property manager goes to strata, tells you to sort it out. You come back to us to say it's not under strata. We go back to the, you know, to the owner and tell them that.

Speaker 1:

But I guess I feel, I feel like there's a need and I I don't know if this is unrealistic to expect, but I I just feel like it would be so helpful is like a little summary for each scheme which says things like fencing issues refer to strata, or, you know, roof bleak issues, uh, owner's responsibility, you know just just those real common things that come up. That would be so helpful so that if we do have that fence issue, we call the owner and they say just give it to the strata. Then a property manager has the confidence to say, well, actually, no, it's not actually strata responsibility, what can we do about it, and then keeps that conversation going with the owner. I think I know that's like in an ideal world, but in my mind I'm thinking like surely something like that would be helpful for you guys as well yes, yeah, I believe it would, but there's also quite a lot of complexity with some of the boundaries.

Speaker 2:

The Act has its rules around what is included and not within a lot, but then there's also an option for the surveyor. At the time of doing that development, they could have listed alternative boundaries as well. So it's quite individual to each scheme and I guess they could put together a summary. But it can be quite complicated and whoever's putting that document together would need to make sure that they've got it exactly correct and they've considered all the possible items.

Speaker 1:

And scenarios as well. So what you're? Saying is that it's not a problem for us to go to you to ask you? No, we're not annoying you by doing that.

Speaker 2:

No, not at all. I think that's a good method. An owner would want to. They just want to check to make sure that if it can be paid under strata, then they probably would prefer that. So they've checked that first.

Speaker 1:

And if it's not, and it's their responsibility, then at least they feel like they've checked it, because it's probably owners paying for a lot of things that the strata should have paid for so is it annoying for strata managers, like if we have a repair that we've done and we let's just use actually probably a plumbing one, which is probably a pretty self-explanatory but a plumbing issue property managers just organized it, not told the strata manager, but then plumbers gone out and seen that it's actually going in, it's affecting the strata, it's a strata pipe, getting those works done and then sending you the invoice when property managers have arranged work that then subsequently is a strata responsibility. Is that a bit of a pain in your backside or is that sort of like a simple process?

Speaker 2:

No, that's quite simple. It's good if they have that on the invoice, a report of the issue. So I would pass that on to the council of owners to basically say that this has come through and this is the report from their plumber to say you know, it's a blocked pipe, but it's actually outside of the lot, it's in the common area and taking instruction from them on that. So that is helpful and normally they'll ask for reimbursement as well. So I'll include that within the email to say that because you've got a issue, you accept or agree to reimburse the owner the cost of that. Call out yeah and yeah. So normally they're okay with that too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, excellent. That's good to know. I'm actually doing my self-training here while I'm talking to you, learning all these things, which is really helpful.

Speaker 2:

Good.

Speaker 1:

So one other thing that I am doing a little bit. I won't lie, and I'm sure people that are listening out there are doing the same thing and there might be a few goody two-shoes that are doing it properly. However, sometimes life gets a bit busy and I receive the minutes of the meetings and I just save it in the client's folder and I forwarded them on a copy and I don't read it. Is it very important for property managers to read the minutes of the meeting and bring themselves up to date with what's happening?

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't say so. I'd say a lot of the items are routine matters that probably aren't of significant relevance to the to property management insurance setting, budgets and levies unless the property manager was interested in those types of items. I'd say that if there was any major work that was being programmed, it might be in there that might affect tenants, or if there was some major roof work happening or some other works taking, painting work or that might be shown in the minutes and the property manager might want to just make a note of it so that they can let the tenants know if they're going to be inconvenienced by it or anything like that. But I wouldn't necessarily say so. I'd say that the minutes are probably more of an item for the owner to read through. But if the property manager wanted to, I'd say by all means go through it and see if there's anything they've got any queries on or things that they would wish to highlight to the owner. That's not a bad idea.

Speaker 1:

Amazing, because I was feeling a little bit guilty over that. So I feel a little bit better now, which is good.

Speaker 2:

The last one.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk about is the breaches that strata managers can do to tenants. Now, this may or may not be WA specific, so if you're listening to this and you're in another state, you'd have to check your rules there. But in WA a strata manager can breach a tenant. Now where I find this quite hard and frustrating and good just to hear your strata manager's side of it so that we understand is I once had a tenant who I actually feel he was bullied in his complex but he was picked on a lot.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, he got a breach, for maybe it was um, yeah, maybe I think it might have been being unclean in a common area or making a mess in a common area or something like that. Oh and noise. So he gets the breach. He calls me about it. I said, listen, I don't know a bunch about the breach of the complaint. Contact the strata.

Speaker 1:

Strata then say we can't speak to a tenant, we're not speaking to him. And then I was like, well, it's super annoying because, as a like, your strata managers breach the tenant but won't even speak to them directly about it. And then I've got to like be a middleman trying to pacify a tenant who said he didn't do it, a strata manager who says they did. And then I felt like it was just easier if they just sorted out between themselves. But we had to get involved. So does that come up a lot? Because, like it was quite. I don't preach this don't happen a lot for tenants from strata's, but it was quite a very hard situation for me to navigate yeah, I, there's a lot of politics that goes on in a strata and I try not to get involved in that too much.

Speaker 2:

And and with things like bylaw breaches, I I just act on an instruction from the council of owners or the the strata company from the right through their appropriate channels, and a bylaw breach here basically needs to go to the tribunal for ultimately its enforcement. So unless the strata company is going to go to that length to enforce the bylaws, then know I'd say they're probably taking it more as a warning than anything, because the the likelihood of the strata company taking it all the way to the tribunal because someone has left some mess in the common property. It it's probably unlikely, but I can't, you know, for every scheme. So I try not to get involved too much. And if there is a breach that's been sent to a tenant or an owner, I make it quite clear that this has come from the council of owners. It's a majority decision of their elected members at the AGM. And if they have a problem with it, well, there's a democratic process that they can follow, that they can join the Council of Owners, they can talk to them, they can discuss it.

Speaker 2:

It's really not something that I've done. I don't go around to strata buildings and issue breach notices to people just on my own accord, just taking instructions from them, and that's about it really. So I try not to get involved in it and I think that works best for everyone. Yeah, to just take an instruction through that process and and yeah, and really it doesn't have much to do with me after if they want to take it to the tribunal. That's well outside of my scope anyway.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, absolutely so the other. The last thing that I just want to do um is just quickly talk about the um legislation. Changes that are happening in wa um around pets that are happening this year and owners currently have a choice of whether they want to accept pets or not. When this legislation comes through, a landlord will need to accept pets unless there is a very good reason, which could be a strata bylaw, to prevent it.

Speaker 1:

Where this I think will affect you guys and be quite interesting is I'm positive that I've seen some strata's where there might be, like, an old lady in a complex that has a cat and she has lived and she owns one of the units, she's been in the unit for 20 years, has a cat, but but that's sort of a special, uh, a special arrangement and they're not allowed pets in the complex. So I guess what I'm worried about is that tenants will see that little old Betty's got a cat and then just go and get a cat or go get a dog and then we're going to have a problem in a strata position. Is there any talk in the strata industry about this legislation coming in and concerns?

Speaker 2:

Not that I've been made had too much involvement in, but I have seen instances come up like that and my my advice to them is that they should change the bylaws. Then they should. Should change the bylaws to reflect what is the actual intent of what they're looking for. If that, if having no pets was something that was registered decades ago, maybe they need to bring it in line with something that's a bit more modern, rather than just a complete ban on having pets, and I think that, again, the enforcement of the bylaws is something that the council of owners would do. So if they're choosing not to enforce it, but then they do choose to enforce it against a tenant, that could cause them an issue as well, that they're not applying or they're not amendment to the bylaws and then make it something that's applicable across the scheme and is fair to all the owners.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, do you or have you heard of pets being massive issues in strata schemes? Does it come up as a problem? Do they come up as a problem?

Speaker 2:

It has come up as a problem. Do they come up as a problem? It? It has come up as a problem in the past and it is almost a situation that that you're explaining there's. You know someone who's been in their scheme for a long time that has a pet. Bylaws say that pets are not allowed. A new owner comes in and would like to have a pet and they're using that as a precedence. So you know they would need to amend the bylaws. That was my suggestion to them to do that. But then there's some legal costs involved in doing that and you know it's ultimately the owner's decision whether they want to go down that route or not.

Speaker 1:

Because I would rather like I always prefer no pets in strata, even if the strata says, yes, you can, I still don't like pets in there. I can only imagine it would be an absolute headache, because not only have you obviously got animals inside little units and potentially barking or being left at home, but then you've got the common area and them pooing over the common area, common area and then pooing over the common area and you know if there's dogs that don't like each other, and you're walking them around. I just I I just feel like it's not a suitable environment but that's probably a bit old school of me I just don't feel like it's a suitable environment to have pets in a complex yeah, I guess that's uh, most of the new buildings they seem to allow smaller dogs and you know or other sort of pets, but without having to get to ask for consent for that.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, I think it's probably a part of people's life and and if I suppose if developers developing schemes didn't allow pets full stop, that might actually affect their ability to sell the units. There might be buyers out there who want to buy the unit and have a small dog and if the bylaws say they're not allowed to have pets, they might not buy into that scheme. So I think if they're excluding pets altogether, they might be affecting their ability to sell units as well. So I think it would probably be unlikely that they would trend towards a ban on pets altogether yeah, it's.

Speaker 1:

I just find it so weird, like going into a lift and there's a dog in there, like I um.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I also feel like in defense to there could be people that don't want to buy into a complex that also allows pets, like it could potentially be the other way, do you know? Just random story I was in the US a couple of years ago now and I'm sitting on an American Airlines flight and I kid you not, not, the lady next to me has a white poodle, not even like a little tiny poodle, a poodle, and she has it in a carrier. She's like window seat. I'm in the middle and I was thinking that was a bit weird, but I was like okay with her. But then she and I'm again, I'm not even making this up.

Speaker 1:

She asked the host, like the um, the host people, the plain people can't think of the name right now um, if they've got any dog food. When they were going around and in my head I'm thinking, please do not sit and feed this dog dog food while I'm sitting right next to you, like for me. It just grossed me out, but I guess that's sort of just what. Like you know, like you said, you know, living in, moving with the times, with the apartments, and that you know at what point do you stop that?

Speaker 2:

because planes and animals is not for me no, I've had that similar sort of experience as well in the US as someone, as a cat or something in the in the plane, and it's quite unique. So I mean, I think with these bylaws here, the council of owners have the option to ask someone to remove a pet if it becomes a nuisance. So I would say that that's probably a way that they're, I guess, pleasing both sides to say that well, if there is a pet that's a nuisance, they can ask for it to be removed. They're not guaranteed the right to have that animal there.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, interesting. Well, it'll be interesting when the changes come in and how everyone's affected. So we'll have to probably chat again when that's happening.

Speaker 1:

But, thank you very much. I know I had sort of a few situations to bring up as well, but I think it's just quite good just to hear about, like they're sort of for me, the common things that come up. So it's really great to sort of have some insight from a strata manager with regards to that and appreciate you coming on. I think this is definitely the start of doing property managers, doing more with strata managers and working together, understanding your role, what you do and having someone like yourself that's safe enough to call up and say, hey, I just need a hand with this. What do you think? Property managers, I do encourage you all to affiliate yourself with a strata manager that you like to help you in these situations as well, because we're definitely going to get a lot further with working together when we can have those discussions.

Speaker 1:

So, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it, and when I've got another curly situation I will give you a call.

Speaker 2:

Look forward to it and thank you so much for having me.