If you've just been elected as a trustee, or you're a sectional title owner wondering where your levies actually go, "body corporate management" can sound vague. In practice, it covers a specific, fairly demanding set of responsibilities that the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act (STSMA) places on every scheme. Most bodies corporate appoint a managing agent to carry these out on their behalf, since doing it properly takes time, admin capacity and specialist knowledge that trustees (usually unpaid volunteers with full-time jobs of their own) rarely have to spare.
Here's what a managing agent, like Our House Management Services, actually does day to day.
Financial Management and Levy Collection
This is the core of the job. A managing agent collects monthly levies from owners, follows up on arrears (including letters of demand and, where necessary, handing accounts over to attorneys or debt collectors), and pays the scheme's expenses such as insurance, utilities and contractors on time.
- Monthly levy collection and arrears follow-up
- Paying the scheme's creditors and monitoring cash flow
- Producing monthly financial statements for trustees
- Preparing the annual budget for both the administrative fund and the reserve fund
- Arranging the scheme's statutory annual audit
STSMA and Legislative Compliance
Every sectional title scheme is bound by the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act and its Prescribed Management Rules (PMR), alongside any conduct rules the scheme has adopted. A managing agent keeps the scheme compliant with all of this, advises trustees on their legal obligations, and handles matters that go to the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) if a dispute can't be resolved internally.
AGM and Trustee Meeting Support
Annual general meetings have strict legal timeframes and procedural requirements, and getting them wrong can leave a scheme's resolutions open to challenge. A managing agent schedules the AGM, prepares and circulates the notice and agenda within the required timeframe, records accurate minutes, and advises trustees on resolutions and voting procedures. Many agents also attend the meeting itself to guide trustees through the governance side, so the conversation can stay focused on decisions rather than process.
Maintenance and Contractor Coordination
Common property doesn't maintain itself. A managing agent sources and vets contractors for everything from routine garden services to major repairs, gets competitive quotes before work is approved, and coordinates emergency repairs when something breaks outside of business hours. Increasingly, this also includes managing the scheme's 10-year maintenance plan, a requirement for proper reserve fund planning under the STSMA.
Day-to-Day Owner and Tenant Liaison
A surprising amount of a managing agent's time goes into simply being the first point of contact: fielding maintenance requests, managing conduct rule complaints, mediating disputes between neighbours, and keeping owners informed of what's happening in the scheme. Without this, trustees end up taking calls about noise complaints or leaking geysers at all hours, on top of everything else on their plate.
Why This Matters for Trustees
A good managing agent takes the operational and legal weight off trustees' shoulders, so meetings can focus on decisions rather than admin, and the scheme stays compliant without any one trustee having to become an expert in sectional title law. If your scheme is currently self-managed, or you're not entirely confident your existing agent is covering all of the above, it's worth asking directly: what exactly are we paying for?
Not sure your scheme's managing agent is covering everything on this list? We can walk you through it.
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