Improving Strata 02 : When knowledge is strata power [and when it isn’t]

Or, is strata information really a misnomer …

We can improve strata if we want to.  And, in this series of articles I identify things that should and can be improved, plus my ideas for doing so. 

Today,  I’m focusing on the information in strata buildings.  How it’s collected, stored, distributed, and accessed. Plus why it matters.

[8:50 minutes estimated reading time, 1113 words]

Introduction

Although it might be a bit of a dull topic, the maintenance of and access to strata information are crucial to good strata building operations, strata stakeholder awareness and decision making.

A variety of submissions by stakeholders [including strata inspectors] over the decades about strata law reforms recognised that and identified a range of strata information issues as follows:

• highly variable record keeping systems in strata buildings,

• inconsistent and non-compliant archiving systems,

• inconsistent and poorly structured [or unstructured] electronic storage systems,

• old [or no] technology use for strata information,

• inconsistent [or no] capture of email and other electronic communications,

• prevalence of paper-based records search and retrieval systems,

• strata search access, timing and cost issues, and

• incompatible or redundant record handover formats.

But, nothing much has been done in strata law reforms about these issues and they persist today to the disadvantage of all strata stakeholders [managers and strata corporations included].

So, there’s no doubt we need to focus on this issue to bring strata record keeping and the distribution of and access to strata information into the current decade [or century].

However, the challenge here is how to do that with adequate flexibility and safeguards to suit different buildings [from self-managed and small strata buildings to the largest complexes] and to reasonable protect strata stakeholders.

General comments about information & data management

Outside the strata world, there’s plenty of attention on information and data management.

So, we can use that attention to better define the purpose, structure, challenges, and strategies for information as guidance for improvements in strata information management.

I’ve summarised key information and data concepts below for brevity. 

But, my more detailed distillation of information and data management principles to use for strata buildings and stakeholders is available for paying subscribers in my article Information and Data Management Principles for Strata Stakeholders.

Key Information and Data Concepts

• Information management is about ensuring that information is available to the right person, in the right format, and at the right time.

• Information is data that is combined with other data or manipulated, to create knowledge.

• Data and information are different since data is information typically stored in binary digital form.

• Information management involves structured people, processes, and technologies to control information that is required for management and business intelligence purposes.

• Information typically exists in electronic and physical formats, all of which need to managed throughout its life.

• Data management is a subset of information management.

Effective information and data management is not easy.

Organisations are confronted with multiple information management problems and issues every day. In many ways, the growth of electronic information (rather than paper based information) has only worsened these issues over the last decade or two.

What’s to be done

Information collection, creation, storage, reporting, and generation occupy a significant part of strata operations.

But, most strata owners and virtually no non-owner strata residents really very know much about their strata building. 

They learn about things mostly through a few infrequent communication events like the following:

• their quarterly levy notices tell them how much to pay,

• general meeting notices, attached annual reports and minutes report a range of information about the last yearly cycle,

• the occasional extraordinary meeting notices and minutes identify one-off urgent issues,

• committee meeting notices and minutes provide vague clues about committee actions,

• randomly issued inspection notices arrive about onsite matters affecting them in the immediate future, and

• notices of breaches and/or other infringements.

And, typically, that’s only when there is a crisis or other problem that creates the strata communication event.

Owners can inspect the strata records [for a fee]. But very few actually do so after purchasing.  And, often, only some of the strata records are made available for inspection when they do.

When owners ask for information about other owners or residents, they’re usually told it can’t be provided for privacy reasons.

Publicly available information is limited to what can be searched at the Land Titles Office [strata plans, titles, ownership details, by-laws, and other property encumbrances].  Even the new NSW Strata Hub has very limited information that is mostly not available to anyone. Sometimes inventive Google search strings can unearth a few other strata documents that have been uploaded to the web.

Outsiders can’t find who to deal with or communicate with at strata buildings by any reliable means.  They’re usually limited to writing to an unnamed secretary at the registered address for service or leaving mail in the [often ignored] secretary’s mailbox at the building.

The history of a strata building is generally lost in its archives; if it’s been kept at all. 

And, there’s no easy way to identify and see older strata documents or information unless you’re pretty familiar with manager record-keeping practices and are lucky that they’ve been stored in accessible places.

Converting paper communications into electronic formats continues to be a random and unreliable process with variable kinds of scanning/inputting processes, variable scanning formats, mixed naming and storage conventions, and storing the documents on unreliable media [CDs, USB sticks, etc].  PS - I have personally experienced looking through scanned old strata records where pages in the same document were upside down, mirror-reversed, and out of order.

And, we now have the problem of electronic communications that are not universally kept, occurring in multiple proprietary formats and locations, and are ever-growing in number, length, and size.  Where are all those emails, SMS messages, Whatsapp messages, Snapchats, iMessages, Tick Toks, Signal messages, etc, etc, etc sent to or received by the strata building, its managers, and the committee members?

As you’ll see from my analyses and suggestions below, I think that what’s needed is not the collection of more information, but rather better guidelines about information retention requirements, improved access provisions, and clarification about ownership and use.

So, how could strata information issues actually be improved in strata buildings?

In my opinion, there are 6 main areas where changes could be made with significant impacts.

1.  Improved strata information keeping guidelines for strata buildings.

2.  Clearer provisions and mechanisms for access to strata information.

3.  Better strata information certificates.

4.  Clear guidelines and smart systems covering privacy and personal contact information.

5.  Public access to key strata building information.

6.  Data sharing options between strata buildings.

In my next 2 articles about improving strata, I’ll cover those 6 areas in a lot more detail and include my suggestions for changes.

Conclusions

Improving strata title is worthwhile and there are plenty of areas to be addressed.

But, getting strata stakeholders better strata information is a fundamental improvement area that will reap significant benefits for everyone.

March 29, 2023

Francesco …