Building Management Perth for Commercial and Strata Property

What a Building Manager Does on a Perth Commercial Site

Building Manager, Strata Manager and Facilities Manager Are Three Different Roles

These get confused constantly, and the confusion costs owners money because they end up paying twice for one thing and nobody for another.

• Strata manager. Administers the strata company. Levies, budgets, meetings, minutes, insurance placement, the trust account and the by laws. An administrative and financial role.
• Building manager. Runs the physical building. Inspections, statutory compliance, maintenance coordination, contractors on site, defects, common area condition, and the day to day of the asset.
• Facilities manager. The same function at a larger or commercial scale, usually covering multiple services and multiple sites under one contract.

Cameron Facilities is a building manager and a facilities manager. We are not a strata manager, and we never hold your money. No trust account, no levies, no insurance commissions. Your strata manager keeps that role and we work alongside them. It matters because a provider who holds the money and also approves the works has an obvious conflict, and separating the two is the simplest protection an owners corporation has.

What Building Management Costs in Perth and How It Is Priced

Building management in Perth is usually priced one of three ways, and comparing quotes is only possible once you know which one you are looking at.

• A fixed monthly fee for a defined scope and a defined number of site attendances. Most common for strata and smaller commercial.
• An hourly or per attendance rate where the building wants occasional oversight rather than a standing service.
• An on site resident or full time manager where the size of the building justifies a permanent presence.

The questions that decide whether two quotes are actually comparable are how many site attendances are included, whether after hours attendance is inside or outside the fee, whether contractor coordination and quote comparison is included or charged, whether reporting is included, and what happens when the building needs more attention in a given month than the scope assumed. A cheaper fee with attendances stripped out is not cheaper, it simply moves the cost to a variable line you will see later.

Statutory Obligations Do Not Wait for a Budget

A building in Western Australia carries obligations that run whether or not anyone is managing them. Essential services and fire safety measures have to be maintained and records kept. Electrical and emergency lighting testing runs on a cycle. Lifts, backflow devices, cooling towers and confined spaces each carry their own regime. Asbestos registers have to exist and be current where applicable. Contractors coming on site have to be inducted and their insurances verified.

Where these lapse, the exposure is not theoretical. It surfaces at the worst time, usually during an insurance claim, a sale, or after an incident, and the question asked is always the same: show the records. A large part of what building management buys is that the records exist and are current on the day somebody asks for them.

Signs a Building Is Underserviced

• Nobody can produce a current asset register or maintenance schedule on request
• Contractor invoices arrive without a quote comparison behind them
• The same defect is reported repeatedly and reopened rather than closed
• There is no 10 year maintenance plan, or there is one and nothing has been checked against it
• Owners find out about work after it has happened rather than before
• The reserve fund balance has never been tested against what is actually coming

That last one is the expensive one, and it is why we offer a 10 year maintenance plan review as a standalone piece of work. Finding a shortfall three years out is a levy conversation. Finding it three weeks before the work is a special levy and an angry general meeting.

What a Building Management Contract Should Contain

• The scope, in plain terms, including what is expressly not included
• The number and frequency of site attendances, and what an attendance covers
• The reporting format and how often it is issued
• Response times for routine, urgent and emergency matters, and what counts as each
• The after hours arrangement, who answers, and whether attendance is charged
• The approval threshold below which works can proceed without going back to the owners
• How contractors are selected, and confirmation that their insurances and licences are verified
• Notice periods, matched for both parties
• Your right to your own records at the end of the contract, in a usable form

That last point catches people out. Records held in a provider's own system, in a form you cannot export, are a soft way of making a contract hard to leave.

How We Report

Every building we manage gets a written report on an agreed cycle covering attendances completed, defects raised and closed with ageing, statutory and essential services items and their status, contractor activity and spend, anything requiring an owner decision, and what is coming in the next period. It is written so a committee member with no technical background can read it and know whether the building is being looked after.

Questions to Ask Before Appointing a Building Manager

• How many attendances are included, and what happens in a month that needs more?
• Do you hold any of our money, or take any commission from contractors or insurers?
• How do you verify a contractor's licence and insurance before they come on site?
• What do your reports look like, and can we see a real one?
• Who answers after hours, and is attendance charged separately?
• What happens to our records if we leave?
• What is your notice period, and is it the same as ours?