VIC

How to change or leave your strata manager in Victoria

The strongest exit rights in the country: revoke by ordinary resolution at any time, and contract terms that try to stop you are void.

Your scheme is: Owners corporation
The law: Owners Corporations Act 2006, as amended in 2021.
Who regulates: Consumer Affairs Victoria. Managers register with the Business Licensing Authority. Disputes go to VCAT.

1Get a motion on the agenda

There is no statutory right to have a motion listed. Send it in writing to the secretary or manager before notices issue; if refused, use the 25 per cent meeting or ballot route. By ordinary resolution the owners corporation can reserve decisions about the manager to general meetings (s 82).

2Force a meeting

A lot owner nominated by owners holding 25 per cent of lot entitlements convenes a special general meeting directly on 14 days' notice (ss 74 to 76), or runs a postal or electronic ballot (s 83). Quorum is 50 per cent; without it the meeting proceeds on interim resolutions that bind after 29 days.

3The vote you need

Appointing a manager is an ordinary resolution at a meeting or by ballot, and the committee can appoint or revoke unless the matter is reserved. Revoking needs only an ordinary resolution at any time (s 119(6)); any contract term demanding a special resolution or a general meeting first is void (s 119A). Schemes over 100 lots need a special resolution to opt out of having a manager.

4Contract limits and how termination works

Maximum term 3 years. Void terms include renewal at the manager's option, automatic rollover, notice-of-revocation periods of 3 months or more (1 month for smaller tiers) and restrictions on assignment. Revoking in breach of the contract can still found a damages claim, so expect to pay fees to the termination date; the standard industry contract allows 28 days' notice after the initial term.

5What happens at expiry

The appointment ends on its expiry date. Nothing rolls over unless the owners corporation acts.

6Handover

The manager must return all records and funds to the secretary within 28 days of termination (s 127, 60 penalty units), and cannot withhold them over a procedural defect in the revocation.

7Running it yourselves

Lawful in every tier. Where there is no committee, the lot owners elect a chairperson and secretary; schemes of 10 or more lots elect a committee of 3 to 7 at each AGM. A self-managed owners corporation lodges nothing with Consumer Affairs Victoria. It must hold the AGM within 15 months of the last, keep records and the register, prepare financial statements (larger tiers), have them audited or reviewed where required, keep a maintenance plan (largest tiers) and insure.

8Protections you already have

Paid managers must be registered with $2 million professional indemnity insurance, act honestly and with care, procure competitively, keep separate trust accounts, and disclose beneficial relationships and commissions to the chairperson before contracting and in the AGM report (ss 122 to 126).

Wording for VIC

Fill in the brackets, put each decision as its own motion, and keep the minutes.

Motion to revoke

That the owners corporation, under section 119(6) of the Owners Corporations Act 2006, revokes the appointment of [manager] as manager with effect from [date] [being the notice period in the contract of appointment, or one month where the notice clause is void under section 119A], and requires the return of all records and funds to the secretary under section 127 within 28 days.