Management

Letting Agency Issues

It is good to see that recently ARAMA has concentrated on reinvigorating the management rights arrangements for all existing managers who are members by holding workshops to cover particularly the onsite manager’s letting agency.

I am very pleased that our firm is playing an integral part in covering this important area with managers at the workshops.

At the recent Brisbane workshop there was a lively discussion through questions and answers involving Danny Little and myself along with Trevor Rawnsley of ARAMA. Danny is now a very knowledgeable consultant to the management rights industry, where he will assist managers with many aspects of their management rights business arrangements, by applying his extensive experience and knowledge.

Danny was able to run through a great deal of information and give business tips to assist managers in their dealings with owners, bodies corporate and competing outside agents. The big message from him was to know your business, know your owners and to communicate quickly and accurately with the lot owners, to show them that they are in the hands of the best equipped person, for the management of their lot.

For my part, I was able to present from many aspects as I fill many roles:

• a knowledgeable lawyer with 35 years experience in management rights
• a life member of ARAMA through my assistance to the industry
• an owner of several apartments, where I utilise onsite letting managers
• an owner of apartments where there is no onsite management
• a long serving committee member in a Gold Coast highrise holiday apartment complex

Understanding the position for both the on site letting agent, the lot owner and the body corporate is an important path for all managers to follow. The good news is that, from my experiences, onsite management wins by a mile for the letting unit owner. There is consistency and knowledge about the needs of the apartment for its letting that can be quickly communicated to the owner, compared to the offsite agents, who rely on continually changing staff, who have no real “hands on” knowledge of the property and do not have their money invested alongside the lot owners.

The important legal and practical information given by me to managers attending the workshop centred on:

• Building a strong relationship with every letting unit owner and with any new owner buying in to the complex;
• Having the correct legal and professional relationship via a correctly completed Form 20a, regularly updated;
• Understanding how the Form 20a works as regards the “fixed” sections, with a properly filled out assignment clause, and the added terms and conditions;
• Knowing of the possibilities of a 90-day right of termination and the limitations on commission and management fees, applying to a Form 20a;
• Applying the code of conduct for letting agents under the BCCM Act;
• Strict compliance with licensing requirements either with a RLA or a full licence whether or not utilising a corporate involvement;
• Properly covering GST and compliance with the code of conduct when attending to lease back arrangements;
• Looking for alternatives to lease backs, as developed by my firm, in order to properly protect management rights.

The conduct of management rights by managers who have invested a great deal of money and time, also deserves a healthy knowledge of the law and the practicalities of its application, if we are to have a strong and sustainable industry. It is therefore very pleasing to be able to assist the industry with these types of workshops, as a part of ARAMA activities.

John Punch
Short Punch & Greatorix

Related Articles

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Back to top button
WP Tumblr Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com
AccomNews
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x