2 out of 3
The strength of a chain will always be determined by its weakest link. In the case of strata management, the weakest link will always be the day-to-day operations on-site at the strata building itself. The challenge with hiring separate trades to do different jobs is that you are the only connection between the building, the council, and the trades. If there’s a problem, often your only option is to call the owner, or manager of that trades company; neither of you are actually on-site, or directly involved with the work itself. If problems ensue, or the job ends up being more than expected, you have to then scramble to get quorum from council at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon.
Communication can also be a major challenge. Children around the world are familiar with a game that has a universal theme. It’s called ‘Whispers’, ‘Broken Phone’, or ‘Operator’ in which they form a line, then the first child whispers something into the ear of the 2nd child, and so on, until the last child recites the message they heard. The message is very rarely translated accurately, and ends up being quite humourous, and vastly different from the original. The same thing happens in strata, except that it ends up creating unnecessary confusion, and then mistrust, and questions from council as to what really happened, and why things went so wrong.
It's for this reason that smaller stratas of 50 – 100 strata lots can end up being just as much work as one with 500 – 750 suites, simply because the bigger stratas can pool their money to justify a full-time caretaker, and concierge. Forcing you to rely on a volunteer strata council member, or owner could put you in an awkward situation, and you may not be able to rely on them long term. You can end up stuck with smaller portfolios that cause you way more work than they're worth. Is there a way out of this situation?