Strata managers to be banned from taking secret kickbacks
Strata managers pocket thousands of dollars from insurance companies they present to apartment owners – to date, perfectly legally.
“If you’re paying strata fees, you deserve a manager who works for you – not one pocketing a kickback,” Richardson said.
Strata managers have been legally required to disclose whether they receive commissions since 2021. But Dr Nicole Johnston, a socio-legal researcher and former lawyer who authored a recent report with NSW Fair Trading, previously told this masthead that disclosure did not remove the inherent conflict. “Information can be disclosed yet incomprehensible, overwhelming, misleading, and simply not useful,” she said.
A 2025 survey from owners advocacy group Australian Apartment Advocacy – which receives sponsorship from “preferred suppliers” in the industry – showed 59 per cent of Victorian owners said they did not know if their strata manager received a commission. Only 34 per cent were certain their manager did not take kickbacks, which can run into the thousands of dollars.
Advocacy group Strata Owners Alliance welcomed the proposed ban on kickbacks, saying insurance commissions had been a scourge on the strata sector for far too long.
The registered charity, which refuses all industry sponsorship, has repeatedly demanded an outright legislative ban, and said one needed to be enforced within six months of the November state election result.
