Strata Building Management

Lesson 3: Your role and your agreement

Goal: explain how a building manager or caretaker is appointed in your state, what duties the law adds to your contract, and what a workable agreement contains.

Two ways to do the job

You’ll do this job in one of two ways:

• As a contractor. You (or your company) sign an agreement with the body corporate to provide building management services for a fee. This is by far the most common arrangement, and the only one Queensland’s caretaking model allows.
• As an employee. The body corporate employs you directly, with wages, super, leave and workers compensation. Some large NSW and Victorian towers do this, as do some building management companies that then place their staff in buildings.

The difference matters more than people expect. An employer has duties under work health and safety law that a residential body corporate with only contractors usually doesn’t (Lesson 12). An employee can’t be “terminated” under the strata Act, only dismissed under the Fair Work Act 2009. And the tax, super and insurance arrangements are completely different. Practitioner tip: if you’re called a contractor but you work set hours, use the body corporate’s tools and can’t send anyone in your place, get advice: you may legally be an employee.

Queensland: caretaking service contractors

The law: under the BCCM Act a service contractor is anyone engaged by the body corporate for a term of at least one year to provide services to the scheme (cleaning, gardening, pool care). A caretaking service contractor is a service contractor who is also a letting agent for the scheme, or who is associated with one. That’s the management rights model, covered in its own Queensland elective.

The rules for engaging you are strict:

• The engagement must be in writing and state the term, the duties and how you’ll be paid. It can’t be made through a by-law.
• The developer can make the first engagement. After that the body corporate decides by ordinary resolution at a general meeting, and the notice of that meeting must include the contract’s terms and any options to extend.
• The term is at least one year and at most 10 years under the Standard Module, or 25 years under the Accommodation and Commercial Modules. That maximum includes all extension and renewal options.
• You must follow the code of conduct in Schedule 2 of the BCCM Act. If your contract and the code disagree, the code wins.

The code requires you to act honestly, fairly and professionally; to use reasonable skill, care and diligence; to act in the body corporate’s best interests (unless that would be unlawful); to keep the body corporate informed of significant developments; to supervise your employees properly; not to engage in fraudulent, misleading or unconscionable conduct; and to deal with conflicts of interest openly.

How it ends: the body corporate can end your engagement by agreement, under the contract’s own terms, for certain criminal offences, or if you fail to comply with a remedial action notice. A remedial action notice must say what obligation you’ve failed to meet, give details, and allow at least 14 days to fix it. If you don’t, the owners can terminate by ordinary resolution at a general meeting. Read every remedial action notice the day it arrives and get advice: your livelihood (and in Queensland, the value of your business) may depend on it.

NSW: building managers

The law: the SSMA lets an owners corporation appoint a building manager under a written building management agreement (Part 6, Division 4). Key points:

• An agreement the developer signs before the first AGM ends at that meeting. Any later agreement can run for at most 10 years.
• The Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2026 would cut that maximum to 3 years for new agreements, with regulations allowed to set different terms for some kinds of building manager. It had passed Parliament in mid 2026; check whether it has started before you sign or renew.
• Since 27 October 2025, building managers have statutory duties: to act in the owners corporation’s best interests, to carry out common property maintenance, repair and safety work promptly and with due diligence, and to give written notice of any connection with a supplier, with the developer, or any financial interest in the scheme. A candidate for appointment must also disclose any benefit that could affect the fees in their agreement.
• Volunteers, committee members acting as such, and tradespeople doing their own trade (an electrician, a cleaner) are not building managers.
• NCAT can vary or end a building management agreement, including (since October 2025) where the building manager has acted unlawfully, such as by breaching one of those duties.

Victoria

The law: Victoria has no special regime for building managers or caretakers. You’re a contractor (or employee) of the owners corporation, under whatever agreement you sign. The Owners Corporations Act 2006 does regulate owners corporation managers: anyone paid to manage an owners corporation must be registered with the Business Licensing Authority and hold at least $1.5 million of professional indemnity insurance.

So if your “building management” contract hands you administrative functions (issuing fee notices, running meetings, holding the owners corporation’s money), check whether you’ve become an unregistered manager. Keep your role to the building and its people unless you’re registered.

Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT

The law: none of these has a caretaker regime like Queensland’s or building manager duties like NSW’s. You’re engaged under a contract with the strata company, corporation or body corporate, and ordinary contract law, consumer law and WHS law apply. WA’s 2020 reforms regulated strata managers (insurance, education, annual returns to Landgate) but not building managers. The ACT licenses owners corporation managers under the Agents Act 2003. Again: if your duties drift into strata management, check the licensing rules.

What a good agreement contains

Whatever your state, a workable agreement covers these points. Industry practice: many disputes between committees and building managers come from agreements that are vague on exactly these items.

Practitioner tip: the duties schedule is the clause you’ll live with every day. Before signing, walk the building with the schedule in hand and time each task. If the schedule needs 45 hours a week and the fee pays for 30, renegotiate now, not in year three.

At Banksia Court

Your agreement says you’ll “maintain the common property to a high standard”. After a year, two committee members complain that the car park is dirty. You point out that pressure washing isn’t in the schedule; they say it’s obviously part of “a high standard”. Nobody is wrong, and that’s the problem. At the next review you propose a measurable schedule: car park swept weekly, pressure washed quarterly by a contractor, paid from the admin fund.

On the job 3

Read your agreement (or a sample one) and highlight every duty that isn’t measurable. Rewrite three of them so a stranger could check whether they’d been done. Then list your state’s rules on term, termination and disclosure for your role.

Sources

• Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld), Schedule 2: codes of conduct
• Queensland Government, Engaging a service contractor and Terminating an engagement
• NSW Government, Changes to strata scheme laws
• LookUpStrata (2026), NSW building management agreements: the 10-year term limit
• Grace Lawyers (2026), What NSW strata managers need to know about the 2023 to 2026 reforms
• Business.gov.au, Owners corporation manager registration (Victoria)
• Landgate, WA strata law and reform

General education, not legal advice. Strata law is different in every state and territory and it changes often (NSW and Victoria both changed theirs in 2025 and 2026), so check the current Act and your own agreement, and get advice before acting on anything here.