Short answer
A strata managing agent (often just “strata manager”) is a licensed professional the owners corporation can appoint to run the scheme’s administration on its behalf — levies, bills, insurance, meetings, records and compliance — under functions the owners corporation delegates. The owners and committee still make the decisions. Appointing one is optional: many NSW schemes have no agent and self-manage.
What they are
A strata managing agent is a business or person licensed in NSW to provide strata management services. They’re engaged by the owners corporation under a written management agreement and act as its agent — not as its boss.
What they do
The everyday administration of the scheme: issuing and collecting levies, paying invoices, arranging insurance, preparing and running meetings, keeping the records and strata roll, and helping the scheme meet its legal obligations. (More detail: what a strata managing agent actually does.)
They don’t make the decisions
An agent acts on delegated authority. The owners corporation and committee set the direction and make the decisions the Act reserves for them; the agent runs the machinery within the agreement.
Appointing one is optional
There’s no requirement to have a managing agent. Plenty of NSW schemes — especially smaller, engaged ones — self-manage. The administration still has to be done; it just gets done a different way. You’re a self-managed strata: Straita — an automated system that supports the committee through every step — does the work a manager would, and the committee just approves the decisions, keeping the management fee in the scheme’s pocket.
Primary sources
- Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) — appointment and functions of a strata managing agent.
- NSW Government — Strata schemes (Fair Trading) — strata managing agent licensing and role.