Volunteer or paid
An owners corporation can appoint a manager to help with its day-to-day affairs, and Consumer Affairs Victoria describes two kinds. A volunteer manager does not have to be registered or insured. A paid professional does, and “paid” is read widely: it covers someone rewarded with free accommodation, lower fees or cheaper use of the facilities. Both kinds carry the same legal obligations.
Appointing a manager does not hand the job away. The owners corporation stays legally responsible for what its manager, paid or volunteer, does on its behalf. Only the largest owners corporations, tier 1 with more than 100 occupiable lots, must have a manager, and even they can opt out by special resolution. The first guide explains the tiers.
What registration means
Registration by the Business Licensing Authority (BLA) is required of every person or company in business as an owners corporation manager in Victoria for a fee or reward. Managing for a fee while unregistered is an offence under section 178 of the Owners Corporations Act 2006, with a maximum court penalty of 60 penalty units. As at October 2026, Consumer Affairs Victoria gives the value of a penalty unit for 2026-27 as $209.10.
To be registered, a manager must hold professional indemnity insurance with at least $2 million of cover. Nobody can be registered while under 18 or insolvent under administration, and certain convictions in the past 10 years bar registration unless the BLA grants permission. A registration is cancelled automatically 30 days after the manager stops being covered by that insurance. In a partnership, every partner must be registered; a company’s directors need not be registered as individuals.
Checking the register
Consumer Affairs Victoria’s advice is to confirm that the manager you are dealing with is registered, and its online search of the public register is where to do it. In its words, the online register provides:
Consumer Affairs Victoria, Public register of owners corporation managers
- “the manager’s registered name
- the manager’s registration number
- the manager’s registration status
- the manager’s registration grant date
- any business names the manager uses to carry on business
- the name of the manager’s professional indemnity insurance provider.”
The full register holds more than the online search shows, including any VCAT orders under the Act about the manager (such as orders appointing or removing them) and any undertakings the manager has given to the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria. The BLA supplies full extracts of most registers, for a fee. The register is only as accurate as the information the BLA is given, and a change can take at least an hour to appear.
To use register information in legal proceedings, Consumer Affairs Victoria’s register page says the way to get a Registrar’s certificate is to phone the BLA on 1300 13 54 52. The BLA’s own page gives the same number and its hours: 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, except public holidays.
Your own owners corporation keeps a record too: its register must hold the manager’s name, registration number and contact details, if there is a manager.
What a registered manager must do
Consumer Affairs Victoria’s list, quoted in full and in its order:
“All registered managers must:
Consumer Affairs Victoria, Working with your owners corporation manager
- be appointed by an instrument or contract of appointment in the approved form
- act honestly and in good faith. They must not improperly use their positions to gain an advantage for themselves or any other person
- take reasonable steps to ensure that goods and services which they obtain are on competitive terms and prices
- not pressure any member of the owners corporation to influence a vote or election held by the owners corporation
- disclose in writing any commission, payment or other benefit to the chairperson of the owners corporation
- carry professional indemnity insurance for the prescribed amount
- hold all money on behalf of an owners corporation on trust
- account separately for money held for each owners corporation it manages
- comply with a request by the owners corporation to provide copies of financial statements of bank accounts for any period within the last three years
- report to the owners corporation at each annual general meeting
- if there is a committee, report to the committee as required
- lodge an annual statement with the Business Licensing Authority.”
A manager must also tell the chairperson in writing about any beneficial relationship with a supplier they propose to contract with on the owners corporation’s behalf, as soon as they become aware of it. When no lot owners turn up to a meeting, a manager may pass an interim resolution, but never one about the manager’s own contract or one involving more than 10% of the year’s budget (or last year’s, if this year’s is not set). The manager must have notice sent to every lot owner within 14 days, and the resolution can be acted on only after 29 days if no petition from owners holding 25% of the votes has asked for another meeting. Owners can also take away or change this power of the manager by ordinary resolution.
Appointment, term and removal
- AppointingAppointing a manager takes an ordinary resolution, at a meeting or by ballot, and the appointment must be in writing or in the approved contract of appointment. CAV prefers a general meeting, where owners can meet the manager and ask questions.
- The termSince 1 December 2021 an appointment can run for no more than three years, or five for a retirement village owners corporation.
- Terms that are voidIn a contract made on or after that date, a term is void if it: makes the owners corporation pass a special, unanimous or other more-than-majority resolution, or call a general meeting, before revoking the appointment; lets the manager renew at their own discretion; demands three months’ notice or more from a tier 1 or 2 owners corporation, or a month or more from tiers 3 to 5; renews the contract automatically when notice of non-renewal is missed; or limits the owners corporation’s right to refuse a manager, beyond not withholding consent unreasonably.
- Missed noticeIf the owners corporation does not give notice that it will not renew, the contract is taken to be renewed, and either side can then end it with at least one month’s written notice (or less, if the contract allows).
- RemovingTo remove a manager, CAV says the owners corporation should vote at a general meeting or hold a postal ballot, and follow the removal process in the contract; it can instead ask VCAT for an order ending the contract. Once the appointment ends, the manager has 28 days to return all funds and records.
New training rules on the way
Consumer Affairs Victoria has announced new education rules for owners corporation managers. As at October 2026, its timetable is:
| Change | What it requires | When |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | Fee changes for owners corporation management businesses | From 25 November 2026 |
| Initial training | Any 5 core units of the Certificate IV in Strata Community Management, for managers registered as individuals and for the officer in effective control of a management business | By 30 June 2027 |
| Registration | Whoever runs a management business day to day must register as an officer in effective control | By 30 June 2027, or 1 August 2027 if the business is already registered |
| Continuing professional development | Annual activities set by the Business Licensing Authority, with written assessments, to keep a registration | From 1 April 2028 |
If you are unhappy with the manager
Consumer Affairs Victoria suggests raising the concern with the manager first, since many complaints start as misunderstandings. If that fails, it lists these options, quoted in its order:
Consumer Affairs Victoria, Working with your owners corporation manager
- “contact the committee or chairperson and clarify the manager’s duties and responsibilities in the contract of appointment. The contract may also set out a process for complaints with the manager
- make a written complaint to the owners corporation or committee. Your owners corporation is required to have a process for dealing with grievances
- make a written complaint to Consumer Affairs Victoria
- apply for an order at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)
- if your manager is a member of a professional body, make a complaint about any breach of its code of conduct. The complaint may need to be lodged by the owners corporation rather than an individual.”
The dispute guide follows the formal path step by step.