Most committees stop asking whether they’re getting value from their building manager somewhere around year three. The service feels stable, emergencies get handled, and the building looks fine. But ‘stable’ isn’t the same as ‘efficient’ — and the gap between the two is where a building either saves its owners money or quietly bleeds it. After thirty years managing Sydney buildings, here are the seven signs we see most often, and what a committee can do about each one.
None of these on its own means you need to change building managers tomorrow. But if you recognise three or more, it’s worth a serious look at whether your current arrangement is actually working for the building — or just ticking over.
1. You Never See Competing Quotes for Major Work
When a major repair comes up — say, lift modernisation or concrete remediation — a good building manager obtains multiple quotes, explains the differences, and makes a recommendation you can interrogate. If your building manager consistently brings a single quote from the same contractor, with no comparison and no rationale, you have no way of knowing whether the price is fair.
What to do: Ask for at least three quotes on any significant job, and ask the building manager to explain in writing why they recommend one over the others. Watch how they react to the request — transparency should be welcomed, not resisted.
2. Maintenance Is Always Reactive, Never Planned
If the only time a contractor attends is after something has already broken, you’re paying premium emergency rates for problems that planned maintenance would have caught earlier and cheaper. A burst pipe at 2am costs far more than the scheduled inspection that would have flagged the corrosion months before.
What to do: Ask to see the preventative maintenance schedule and the asset register. If neither exists, that’s the problem in a sentence. Proactive maintenance planning is one of the clearest markers of a building manager who is saving you money rather than spending it.
3. The Monthly Reports Are Vague — or Don’t Exist
You should be able to open a monthly report and see what was done, what it cost, what’s outstanding and what’s coming up. If your reports are a paragraph of generalities, or you only hear from the building manager at the AGM, you’ve lost visibility — and lost visibility is where waste hides.
What to do: Set a clear reporting standard: a written monthly report with completed works, contractor spend, open items and upcoming maintenance. A capable building manager already produces this. If yours can’t, ask why.
4. Everything Is an ‘Extra’
Some building management arrangements quote an attractive base fee, then charge separately for things a committee reasonably assumed were included — after-hours callouts, site inspections, contractor coordination, attendance at meetings. By year-end, the ‘cheap’ contract has cost more than the comprehensive one you didn’t choose.
What to do: Pull out the contract and list everything that has been billed as an extra over the past twelve months. Then compare that total against what a fully itemised, all-in proposal would have cost. The difference is often eye-opening.
5. The Building Manager Is Rarely On Site
On-site presence is much of what you’re paying for. If residents don’t know who the building manager is, if issues sit unactioned for weeks, or if contractors come and go without supervision, the building is effectively running itself — and unsupervised contractors are rarely the cheapest contractors.
What to do: Check the agreed hours on site against what’s actually happening. If the contract says full-time and the reality is an occasional visit, you’re paying for a service you’re not receiving.
6. Quotes for the Same Type of Work Swing Wildly
If a job that cost one figure last year is quoted at double this year, with no clear reason — or two near-identical jobs come in at very different prices — something isn’t being managed. Either the contractor relationships aren’t being tested, or nobody is scrutinising the numbers.
What to do: Keep a simple record of what common jobs cost over time. A building manager who is genuinely managing cost will be able to explain any significant movement. One who can’t is a sign worth heeding.
7. The Building Manager and Strata Manager Don’t Talk
When the building manager and strata manager communicate well, the committee barely notices the handover between them. When they don’t, jobs fall into the gap — each assuming the other has it in hand — and the committee ends up doing the chasing. Worse, when both roles sit inside the same corporate group, you can lose the independent cross-checking that keeps contractor pricing and spending honest.
What to do: Ask both parties how they coordinate, and on what. If your building manager and strata manager are part of the same group, it’s worth understanding what independent oversight you’re giving up. An independent building manager works alongside your strata manager with no competing loyalty — their only job is the building.
What Good Actually Looks Like
A building manager who is saving you money rather than costing it tends to share the same handful of habits: competitive quotes as standard, a real preventative maintenance schedule, clear monthly reporting, a fully itemised fee with no surprise extras, genuine on-site presence, consistent and explainable contractor pricing, and a transparent working relationship with your strata manager.
If that describes your current arrangement, you’re in good hands. If it doesn’t, the good news is that none of these are unreasonable things to ask for — and how a building manager responds when you ask tells you almost everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do we know if we’re paying too much for building management?
There’s no single published benchmark, because the right cost depends on your building’s size, age and complexity. The more useful test is whether the spend is transparent: itemised fees, competitive contractor quotes, and reporting you can actually scrutinise. Waste usually hides in vagueness, not in the headline number.
Should we change building managers if we see one of these signs?
Not necessarily on the strength of one. Many issues can be fixed by setting clearer expectations — a reporting standard, a maintenance schedule, competitive quoting. But if you raise them and nothing changes, or you see several signs at once, it’s reasonable to test the market with a fresh proposal.
How often should our building manager be on site?
It depends on the model you’re paying for. A full-time arrangement should mean genuine daily presence; a part-time or visiting arrangement should mean a clear, agreed roster. The problem isn’t the number of days — it’s a gap between what you’re paying for and what’s actually happening.
Can we get a second opinion on our current building management?
Yes. Many committees ask an independent building management firm to review their current arrangement and provide a comparison proposal. Even if you decide to stay put, the exercise tells you whether your current spend is competitive and your service is up to standard.
Want an Independent Second Opinion?
Building Management Australia is a Sydney building management firm — not a strata agent. If your committee suspects the current arrangement isn’t delivering value, we can review how your building is being managed and provide a transparent, fully itemised proposal to compare against — with competitive contractor quoting, real preventative maintenance and clear monthly reporting built in. Request a proposal at bmaus.com.au or email Andrew directly at [email protected].
About the Author
Andrew Veron is the founder of Building Management Australia (BMA), an independent Sydney building management firm established in 1995. BMA is a building management company — not a strata agent — providing on-site and visiting building management, facilities management, concierge, cleaning and valet services to residential, commercial and mixed-use properties. Over the past 30 years, Andrew and the BMA team have managed buildings across the Eastern Suburbs, North Sydney, Inner Sydney, Parramatta and the Sydney CBD, with assets currently valued in excess of $3 billion under management. Because BMA is independent of any strata management firm, committees receive unbiased advice and transparent contractor relationships. Reach Andrew at [email protected] or bmaus.com.au.
