Are compliance challenges putting your property management business at risk?

Legislation like the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act and the Community Schemes Ombud Service Act may be a positive step for community schemes in general, but few would deny the additional complexities that they have added to the property manager’s role.

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Where a straightforward secretarial service may have sufficed in the past, modern property and portfolio managers have a far higher bar to meet. Failure to comply with the new requirements could also result in some pretty serious consequences, including loss of business and reputation or even incarceration and/or heavy fines.

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To maintain compliance – and avoid those consequences – a property or portfolio manager needs to be able to answer the following questions (and more) at any given time:

• Has my team taken accurate and detailed minutes of every, single trustee meeting and successfully distributed them within two weeks of the meeting date?
• Has the AGM pack (including agenda, previous minutes and financials) been circulated timeously, according to the community rules and/or the ACT?
• Has all the necessary documentation been submitted to CSOS after the AGM?
• When last was a full property valuation performed, and when is the next one due to comply with the mandatory 3-year valuation update?
• Are the administrative and reserve funds being adequately separated and managed, and do trustees have consistent access to the latest budget reports and information?
• Do I have concrete proof of trustee approval for expenditure (when required)?
• Are all my invoices and records easily available for audit?
• Do I have a reliable record of all official communications with my clients?

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Despite the risks of non-compliance, many property management businesses are still struggling to consistently meet all these requirements. Why? Because traditional workflows and tools simply don’t have the necessary transparency and collaborative capacity to effectively manage and oversee all the moving parts.

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The reality is that when different individuals or departments take on different responsibilities and have to manage them on a number of different platforms, progress and accountability become extremely difficult to track. As a result, portfolio managers, trustees and community members are often left unaware of just where they fall on the compliance spectrum, despite the best intentions of everyone involved.

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But what’s the alternative for those unwilling to risk falling foul of the regulations? Like many things in life, it’s all about finding the right tool for the job.

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WeconnectU’s Community Management Software is a great example of a modern solution that has been designed to solve the specific challenges facing today’s property management industry.

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One of its primary benefits is that it centralises all workflows onto a single, intuitive platform with a consolidated overview of the status of each stakeholder and their associated processes. This not only improves efficiency and transparency, making projects easier to run and more cost-effective, it also gives managers and business owners an instant overview of issues like compliance.

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Importantly, WeconnectU also provides live reporting for trustees and automated, centralised and secure cloud storage for all documentation required for day-to-day business and annual audits. This includes distribution records, scheduling, meeting minutes, financials, invoices and official communications. It effectively ensures that everything stays in one place, and that you never lose access to data that could be vital to prove your scheme’s compliance.

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Running a property management business may not be quite as straightforward as it used to be, but that’s no reason to risk the severe penalties that accompany non-compliance. By choosing the right solution for your team, you can streamline all aspects of the management process, and rest assured that you are fulfilling all your responsibilities under the law.

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