Help Centre
All information is general of nature and should not be taken as advice. Legislation varies by state and territory. If you are unsure, please contact us.
Steps to Start Self Managing
It feels like a big leap, but it’s totally doable. Especially with the right support from your community and Loma Strata in your corner. Below is your step-by-step guide.
NOTE. Each state is slightly different, but the process of voting as a community to self-manage is generally the same.
1. Confirm Committee Roles
Self-managing will result in more admin work for a few members of the owners corporation, who should already be elected to the committee, or at the next meeting.
Committee members will be responsible for facilitating the transition from the current system to self-management.
Read more about committee roles.
It's important that the people who are undertaking this role are aware there will need to invest more time and energy for self-management to work. When done well, the benefits are fantastic for the community. Hopefully everyone appreciates the effort being put in by these individuals!
2. Check your current contract
If you are currently using a strata manager, ask for a signed copy of your current management contract. If they can’t provide a signed version, you’re likely not bound to a termination process.
If there are any issues between you and your previous manager, it may be necessary to speak to a strata lawyer and to figure out how to terminate the contract.
3. Call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM)
To formally make the switch, you’ll need to vote as a community at a meeting. On the meeting agenda, include a motion to:
- End the current strata management contract
- Confirm committee member roles (if not already defined)
- Begin self-managing using Loma Strata.
Read more about meetings and how to run them in our detailed guide.
If you don’t have contact details for other owners, request them from your current manager. They’re required to provide them, unfortunately you may need to push them to provide the details you are entitled to.
NOTE. You can also wait until the next Annual General Meeting to add this to the agenda, if you cannot wait for the next Annual General Meeting, then you will need to call an Extraordinary General Meeting and inform all the owners to attend.
4. Vote as a community to self-manage
Hold your meeting and make sure you have a quorum. A quorom is the minimum number of members of the community that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.
In most states that is 50% of the total vote. But again, check your local state legislation, which can be found under other helpful resources.
Once you’ve got quorum, you can vote to:
- Remove the current manager
- Confirm committee members roles
- Transition to self-management
5. Notify and remove the manager
If the vote passes, follow the process in your contract to officially terminate the manager’s appointment. An email should suffice to the current manager. Once they’ve been removed, they generally have 28 days to return all records and funds to the owners corporation.
6. Opening a Bank Account
It is highly recommended to have a bank account that is solely for the community. This keeps funds secure by requiring multiple signatories to approve transactions.
- Check out this checklist from Commbank regarding how to open a bank account for a self-managed body corporate account. **Loma Strata has no affiliation with Commbank.
- Some of the things you will be required to bring to you to the branch are:
- Minutes of meeting signed by the chairperson (or equivalent) in the last 6 months
- Scheme Number (should be provided to you by the previous body corp manager)
- Tax File Number (again, should be provided to you in document handover from the previous manager).
- Everyone who will be a signatory for the account will be required to attend the branch and sign in person, with a proof of ID.
- It is recommended to have multiple people as signatories on the account in order to keep the funds secure, access in case of emergency to the primary committee member and finally as lot owners come and go, there can be some consistency for the bank account.
7. Receive all documents and funds
Once the bank account is setup, it's time to receive funds from the outgoing body corp manager. As well as receiving all necessary documents for your community.
8. Set up Loma Strata
Now that you have approval to self-manage, set up the committee and organised the bank account, you can get now set up Loma Strata so that all your information is in one place. Go to https://app.lomastrata.com/ and:
- Create your property
- In the people tab, invite your neighbours via email at their respective lot numbers. You should have everyone's email from the handover documents.
- Your neighbours will receive an email to join, once they create an account they can accept and join the community.
- upload all documents provided to you by the outgoing body corp manager
- Set up your current financial numbers in Loma Strata to match what is in your bank account
9. Set up is complete!
Congratulations, you are officially ready to start self managing the easy way!