Strata Building Management

Lesson 16: Getting started: training and your first 90 days

Goal: choose a way into the work, pick the training that helps, and run your first 90 days in a new building so you understand it before you start changing it.

Ways in

Path	What it looks like	Good for
Employed by a building management company	You’re placed in one or more buildings, with a manager and procedures behind you	Learning the job with support; no capital needed
Employed directly by a large building	A salaried building or facilities manager in a big tower	Steady income; bigger teams and systems
Contractor with your own agreement	Your company signs a building management agreement (NSW, Vic, WA and elsewhere)	Experienced people who want to run their own business
Buying Queensland management rights	Buy the caretaking agreement, letting rights and unit (see the Queensland management rights elective)	People with capital and a taste for letting and customer service
Assistant or relief manager	Covering leave in management rights or towers	Trying the work before committing

People come to this job from trades, hospitality, real estate, facilities management, the defence force and security. Trades backgrounds help with the building; hospitality backgrounds help with the people. You need both.

Training that helps

There’s no single required qualification for building managers (Queensland letting agents and licensed strata managers are the exceptions). These help:

Certificate IV in Strata Community Management (CPP40521): the national strata qualification, with a nominal 430 hours. It’s aimed at strata managers, but it’s the best grounding in strata law, meetings and finance for a building manager too. Offered through the Strata Community Association (SCA) and other registered training organisations.
Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice (CPP41419): needed for letting work, including the Queensland resident letting agent licence.
General construction induction (the “white card”), so you understand construction site safety and can go on site.
First aid and CPR, renewed on schedule.
Working at heights, if you’ll ever be on a roof.
Fire warden training, which many buildings require anyway.
Conflict resolution or de-escalation short courses.
Your state’s free regulator guides and seminars (the Queensland Commissioner’s office, NSW Fair Trading and Consumer Affairs Victoria all publish guides).

Industry associations: the SCA (for strata generally) and the Australian Resident Accommodation Managers’ Association (ARAMA, for Queensland management rights) run events and training and are good for meeting people who’ll answer your questions later.

Your first 90 days

Most new building managers make the same mistake: changing things before they understand why they’re the way they are. Practitioner tip: listen and learn for the first month, fix the obvious and dangerous straight away, and save the big changes for month three.

Days 1 to 30: learn the building

Collect these documents (most are with the strata manager or the outgoing manager):

Walk every part of the building, including plant rooms, risers, roof (with safe access), car park and every stairwell. Photograph it all: this is your baseline. Meet each committee member, the strata manager, and the main contractors.

Days 31 to 60: set up your systems

The asset register and maintenance calendar (Lesson 6).
Work order system, priorities and after-hours arrangements (Lesson 7).
Contractor files and insurance reminders (Lesson 8).
Your monthly report, and the first one sent (Lesson 4).
Weekly fire walk (Lesson 11).
Emergency plan contacts and shut-offs (Lesson 15).

Days 61 to 90: improve

Give the committee a short building condition report: what’s good, what’s worrying, and your top five recommendations with rough costs.
Agree priorities for the year with the committee.
Fix gaps in the duties schedule or spending authority while everyone’s still fresh.

Looking after yourself

Living or working where you work is hard to switch off from. Set office hours and an after-hours emergency arrangement, and stick to them. Not every call at 9 pm is an emergency. Take leave and have reliable relief cover. Keep a life outside the building.

At Banksia Court

The outgoing manager leaves you a box of keys with no labels, a spreadsheet of contractors last updated in 2021, and good relationships with every resident. In your first month you label every key against the register, ring each contractor to check they’re still trading and insured, and ask the outgoing manager for an hour on “the things nobody wrote down”. That hour gives you the sticking valve on level 4, the pump that needs a kick, and the committee member who prefers phone calls to email. It’s the most useful hour of your first month.

On the job 16

Make your own 90-day plan for your building (or the one you’d like to work in) using the three phases above. Then tick off which of the documents on the list you already have.

Sources

training.gov.au, CPP40521 Certificate IV in Strata Community Management
Strata Community Association, Education
Queensland Government, Apply for a resident letting agent licence
Safe Work Australia, Working on a construction site (general construction induction, the white card)

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.