How to Change Your Strata Manager in NSW

In NSW you do not need a special resolution to replace a strata manager. A simple majority of the votes cast at a general meeting is enough. What usually slows owners down is the management agreement, the timing of the vote, and getting the old manager to hand over the records.

This guide walks through each step using the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and NSW Fair Trading's own guidance, with section references so you can check every rule yourself. The Act calls a strata manager a strata managing agent, and we use both terms here.

The Short Answer

Before You Start

NSW Fair Trading lists the usual reasons owners corporations remove a manager: ongoing trouble contacting them, facilities not being maintained, finances not being managed properly, and failure to disclose commissions.^[6] If one of those sounds familiar, write down specific examples with dates. A note like "three emails about the leaking roof in June, no reply until August" will persuade other owners far more than "they're unresponsive."

It is also worth one conversation before a vote. Fair Trading suggests raising the problem with your strata committee first, and the committee can take it to the agency's licensee in charge. If you think the manager has broken the rules of conduct, you can also lodge a complaint with Fair Trading, backed by evidence.^[7] A complaint is separate from changing managers, and you can do both.

One useful source of evidence is the manager's own paperwork. A strata managing agent must record every function they exercise for the owners corporation and hand the owners corporation a copy of those records every six months.^[8] If those reports are thin or missing, that tells you something too.

Step 1: Read the Management Agreement

The agreement sets out when and how the owners corporation can end it early, and what that costs. A copy must be available to the owners corporation at all times, so ask the secretary or the manager for it.^[6] Look for:

• The termination clause. The Act allows an appointment to be terminated "in accordance with the instrument of appointment" if a general meeting authorises it.^[1] The notice period and grounds come from the contract, not the Act.
• Exit fees. Since 1 July 2025, unfair terms in standard form contracts with an owners corporation are banned, and strata management contracts are one of the examples Fair Trading gives. A term that lets only the manager end the contract, or that penalises only the owners corporation for ending it, may be unfair. The rule applies to contracts made, renewed or varied on or after 1 July 2025.^[9]
• The start date. You need it for Step 2.

Step 2: Work Out When the Term Ends

Often the cleanest exit is simply not reappointing the manager when the term ends. Section 50 of the Act caps every appointment, including any renewal option:^[1]

• 12 months if the manager was appointed at the first AGM (usually the developer's pick).
• 3 years in every other case.

Several timing rules in the same section matter here:

• The manager must give the owners corporation written notice that the term is ending between 3 and 6 months before it ends.
• If the term runs out before the next AGM, the strata committee can extend it in blocks of up to 3 months, but not past that AGM. If the committee then decides not to extend again or not to reappoint, it must give the manager at least 1 month's notice.
• The one to watch: a 3-year appointment includes a built-in option for the manager to extend by up to 3 months if the owners corporation decides not to reappoint them. The manager loses that option if the owners corporation gives written notice that they will not be reappointed at least 3 months before the term ends.

So if you already know you want a change, get that written notice out early. Otherwise you may be stuck with the outgoing manager for an extra quarter.

Step 3: Line Up a Replacement

Do not vote the current manager out without knowing who comes next. If there is no new manager, the handover goes to the strata committee, which then has to do the work itself.^[6]

Build a shortlist. NSW Fair Trading recommends comparing at least three proposals. Its free Strata manager finder tool on Strata Hub lists managers who service your area, along with their licence status and any compliance records. Strata Hub also has a Strata managing agent engagement planner that gives every candidate the same request, so the quotes are easier to compare.^[6]

You can also look at a candidate's existing buildings on StrataChecks. Portfolio sizes vary enormously. Across the 43,000-plus NSW strata plans in our data with a known manager, 455 agencies share the work. 181 of them look after fewer than 20 schemes, while 17 look after 500 or more.^[10] Neither end is automatically better, but it is worth asking a large agency how many buildings your individual manager would carry.

Check each candidate on the things the law cares about:

• Licence. Only the holder of a strata managing agent's licence under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 can be appointed.^[11] You can confirm it through the NSW Fair Trading licence check.
• Written disclosures before appointment. A prospective manager must disclose in writing any connection with the developer, any financial interest in the scheme, connections with suppliers they routinely use, and whether they advised the developer on a strata plan in the previous 2 years.^[12]
• Developer links. The developer, or anyone connected with them, cannot be appointed as strata managing agent until 10 years after the strata plan was registered.^[11]
• Banned contract terms. The new agreement must not make the owners corporation pay for the agent's professional indemnity liability (including the insurance excess), or cap the agent's liability at a set amount unless an approved professional standards scheme covers the agreement.^[6][9]

Every term is negotiable, even when a manager calls the contract "standard". Before the meeting, the secretary must attach the preferred draft agreement to the agenda. If the fees are expected to exceed $30,000, two independent draft agreements must be attached.^[6]

Step 4: Get the Motion on the Agenda

You do not need to be on the committee to put this to a vote. Any owner can require a motion to be included on the agenda of the next general meeting by giving the secretary written notice that sets out the motion, gives your name and explains it in 300 words or fewer. The secretary must include it. If the meeting notice has already gone out, the motion goes to the following meeting.^[13]

If the next AGM is months away, you have two faster options. The secretary or strata committee can call a general meeting at any time. Or owners whose lots together hold at least one-quarter of the unit entitlements can make a written request, and the secretary must then convene a general meeting within 14 days.^[14]

A typical pair of motions:

1. That the owners corporation terminate the appointment of [current agency] in accordance with the agreement (or: not reappoint [current agency] at the end of its term).
2. That the owners corporation appoint [new agency] as strata managing agent on the terms of the draft agreement attached to the notice, and delegate the listed functions.

Putting both motions to the same meeting means there is no gap where nobody is managing the building.

Step 5: Win the Vote

Motions at a general meeting are decided by a majority of the votes cast for and against, with one vote for each lot.^[2] Fair Trading describes both removing and appointing a manager as needing a majority vote.^[6] You need a majority of the votes actually cast, not of every owner in the building. If 15 votes are cast on the motion, 8 in favour carries it.

Two practical points decide many of these votes:

• Proxies count. Supportive owners who cannot attend can appoint a proxy.
• Unfinancial owners cannot vote on most motions unless they pay their arrears before the meeting, and the meeting notice has to say so.^[15] Remind supporters to check their levies are up to date.

Step 6: Give Notice and Get the Records

If the motion passes, write to the outgoing manager to tell them.^[6] Make sure that letter comes from the strata committee and names a committee member to receive the records. Once the committee gives an outgoing agent notice of the termination, the agent has 14 days to deliver the owners corporation's property, including its records, to that committee member. Failing to do so is an offence.^[3]

The records belong to the owners corporation, not the agency. That covers the strata roll, minutes, financial records, insurance documents, contracts, keys and access devices. If the old manager will not hand them over, NCAT can order them to, and you can lodge a complaint with Fair Trading.^[7] One caveat: s 181 does not override a "just claim or lien" the agent may have over records, so settle any unpaid invoices that are genuinely owed.^[3]

Give the new manager a list of anything outstanding: open repairs, insurance renewal dates, overdue levies and pending disputes. Those are the items that tend to get lost in a handover.

When the Contract Will Not Let You Go

Some agreements have long notice periods or large exit fees. If so, the owners corporation can apply to NCAT, which can terminate the agreement, vary its term or conditions, declare conditions void, or order compensation.^[4] The grounds in section 72 include that the agent:

• refused or failed to perform the agreement, or performed it unsatisfactorily
• charges fees that are unfair
• failed to disclose commissions or training services properly, or an interest
• carries on a business supplying services to the owners corporation or residents that is contrary to law

NCAT can also end an agreement that is "harsh, oppressive, unconscionable or unreasonable", and can order the agent to return the scheme's records within a set time.^[4] Since 27 October 2025, owners corporations can also seek these orders where a strata managing agent acts unlawfully, for example by breaching a duty under strata law.^[9]

Try mediation first. NSW Fair Trading's strata mediation service is free, and it is compulsory for most strata disputes before NCAT will accept an application.^[5]

If You Are Buying Into the Building

Strata manager changes are a small but useful signal in a building's history. A change after years of complaints in the AGM minutes suggests owners who are engaged and willing to act. Three managers in five years may point to a building that is hard to manage, or a committee that is hard to work with.

The minutes in the strata report are where these changes show up. StrataChecks analyses those records alongside levies, defects and disputes. Look up the building you are considering to see who manages it and what else the records show.