How to change or leave your strata manager in Western Australia

No term cap and a narrow mid-term exit, so the smart play in WA is to plan for the contract's end date and give notice early.

Your scheme is: Strata company
The law: Strata Titles Act 1985, rewritten in 2020. Strata managers are in Part 9.
Who regulates: Landgate administers the Act. Disputes go to the State Administrative Tribunal. Managers are not licensed.

1Get a motion on the agenda

An owner may give written notice to any council member of an item they require on the agenda, and it must be included as special business (s 129(4)); get it in more than 14 days before the meeting. A motion to make, vary or extend a manager's contract must state the manager's name, the dates, each variation and the remuneration (s 125(4)).

2Force a meeting

Owners with 25 per cent or more of the unit entitlements can require an extraordinary general meeting. If the council does nothing within 21 days the requesting owners may convene it themselves, and it must be held within 3 months (s 128). Quorum is voters for half the lots, or whoever is present 30 minutes after the start.

3The vote you need

An ordinary resolution is more than half the votes cast (s 123). The council usually decides on the manager unless owners restrict it (s 135); put it to a general meeting anyway. A manager cannot be given any say over strata management contracts (s 143(5)(c)).

4Contract limits and how termination works

There is no maximum term in WA. Mid-term termination is only for proper grounds: breach of the Act or the contract, insolvency or a qualifying conviction (s 151), through a written show-cause notice with at least 14 days to respond and then 28 days' written notice, with SAT review available. Poor service alone is not a ground, so rely on expiry or a mutual-consent clause.

5What happens at expiry

Authority ends when the contract ends (s 144). Extend in writing or let it lapse, and give any non-renewal notice the contract requires. Use s 96 to require delivery of records, keys and property within a reasonable period.

6Handover

On termination the manager must return all records, keys and property within 28 days, even during SAT review, with no lien (s 152). Accounting information must be produced within 7 days of a written request (s 149).

7Running it yourselves

The council of owners (everyone where there are three lots or fewer, otherwise 3 to 7 elected at each AGM) appoints a chairperson, secretary and treasurer from its members. A lot owner can act as a volunteer strata manager for no fee beyond an honorary $250 per lot per year, exempt from the insurance and qualification rules. No annual lodgement; update the scheme's address for service with Landgate if it was the manager's office.

8Protections you already have

Pre-contract disclosure of conflicts and expected third-party remuneration (s 145), duties of honesty, good faith, skill and care (s 146), disclosure of benefits over $100 a year (s 147), trust accounts, criminal record checks every 3 years and $1 million professional indemnity insurance warranted in the contract.

Wording for WA

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

Motion: do not renew and self-manage

That the strata company resolves not to extend or renew the strata management contract with [manager], which ends on [date], directs the council to give any notice the contract requires to prevent automatic renewal, and resolves that from [date] the council of owners will perform the scheme functions without a strata manager. The council is directed to give notice under section 96 [or section 152] of the Strata Titles Act 1985 requiring delivery of all records, keys and property, and the transfer of all funds to the strata company's own account, within 28 days.

Motion: show cause for breach

That the strata company, being satisfied that [manager] has contravened [the Act / clause [x] of the contract], directs the council to issue a notice under section 151(3) requiring the manager to show cause within 14 days why the contract should not be terminated.