Monthly Care Packages
Building management for small strata buildings
A visiting building manager for North Shore blocks that don't need, or can't justify, one on site full time. Scheduled site visits, contractor coordination, a live maintenance register and monthly committee reports: a preventative maintenance program run for you, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time building manager.
How pricing works
Your monthly fee is based on two things: your building's size (number of lots) and your chosen service level. Every building gets a tailored quote — the prices shown are for a typical 16-lot North Shore block. Smaller buildings pay less, larger buildings pay more.
Request a quote — no obligation, and we'll come back to you within 2 business days.
Choose your level
Essential
Cover the basics for smooth, predictable building maintenance.
Typically $492+GST/month
Based on a typical 16-lot building
4 site visits a year, one of them a full on-site inspection
- Quarterly site visits (4 a year), including an annual full on-site inspection
- Monthly committee maintenance reports
- Live digital maintenance register
- Full-year scheduled maintenance plan
- Contractor quote coordination
- Business hours Email/Phone support
Standard Recommended
Reliable care that keeps your building running at its finest.
Typically $656+GST/month
Based on a typical 16-lot building
6 site visits a year, one of them a full on-site inspection
- Everything in Essential plus
- Upgrade to site visits every 2 months (6 a year), including an annual full on-site inspection
- AGM-ready annual maintenance report
- AGM attendance availability
- After hours Emergency remote support*
- Yearly Capital Works Fund Project Management*
Premium
Your building, the best it can be.
Typically $836+GST/month
Based on a typical 16-lot building
12 site visits a year, two of them full on-site inspections
- Everything in Standard plus
- Upgrade to monthly site visits (12 a year), including two full on-site inspections
- General Meeting attendance availability
- After hours Emergency on-site support*
- Priority Email/Phone support
Prices shown are typical for a 16-lot building and exclude GST. Your quote is tailored to your building's size and selected service level. No lock-in contracts — 30 days notice to cancel.
*Limits, terms and conditions apply. Contact us to discuss details.
A building manager, without the full-time cost
Large buildings employ a full-time building manager. Most boutique blocks can't justify one, so the job falls to a volunteer on the committee, or to nobody. A Care Package gives your building the core work of a building manager on a visiting schedule sized to your block.
| Full-time on-site building manager | Finer Property visiting building management | Committee does it themselves | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical fit | Large buildings (often 70+ lots) with lifts, pools, plant or concierge | Boutique walk-ups and small-to-medium blocks | Very small blocks with an active, practical volunteer |
| Time on site | Daily, sometimes resident | 4, 6 or 12 scheduled visits a year, depending on level. Urgent issues between visits (like a burst pipe) are handled same day | Whenever volunteers have time |
| Typical cost | Salary alone is roughly $63,000–$90,000 a year by industry estimates, before on-costs or an agency margin | Typically $492–$836+GST a month for a 16-lot block (about $7–$12 per lot per week) | No fee. Paid in volunteer hours, and in the issues that get missed |
| Maintenance register & forward schedule | ✓ | ✓ Live digital register | Rarely kept current |
| Contractor quotes, access and sign-off | ✓ | ✓ | Volunteer |
| Written reports to the committee | ✓ | ✓ Monthly | Ad hoc |
| Documented evidence of s106 maintenance | ✓ | ✓ | Patchy |
You keep every decision. The committee approves all works; we inspect, document, recommend and coordinate.
Weighing the options in more depth? Read do small strata buildings need a building manager? — the four ways to cover the job, and what each costs.
Getting started with a Care Package
One-off setup fee — When you join, we conduct a thorough assessment of your building, map it into maintenance zones, and build your dedicated digital Maintenance Register. This is the live system that drives your monthly reports and tracks every item across your property.
| Building size | Setup fee |
|---|---|
| Small (under 10 lots) | $995+GST |
| Medium (10–20 lots) | $1,495+GST |
| Large (over 20 lots) | $1,995+GST |
Already completed a Stage 2 report? The full fee is credited toward your setup — so most buildings only pay the difference. For a medium building, that's just $750+GST after the credit.
Haven't started yet? Take our free Building Health Check to get a 10% discount on your Stage 2 report — and that report fee is fully credited toward your Stage 3 setup when you're ready.
What is preventative strata building maintenance?
Preventative maintenance means inspecting and maintaining common property on a planned schedule so small issues are found and fixed before they become expensive failures — the opposite of the reactive pattern most boutique blocks fall into, where nothing happens until something breaks and the committee scrambles for quotes.
In practice, a preventative maintenance program is a rhythm: scheduled walk-throughs of the whole building, a live maintenance register that tracks every item from detection to resolution, seasonal tasks done on time (gutters before storm season, not after), contractors booked ahead rather than in a crisis, and a monthly report so the committee always knows where things stand.
Preventative vs reactive: why it costs less
Reactive maintenance looks cheaper because months can pass with no spend — until the deferred items surface at once. A blocked gutter is a minor job; the water damage it causes to render, ceilings and balcony membranes is not. Deterioration in a building compounds the way interest does, and the end state of the reactive pattern is the one every committee dreads: a special levy.
Preventative maintenance converts that volatility into a predictable monthly cost. It also protects the two documents that increasingly matter under NSW law: your Section 106 maintenance duty is best evidenced by a documented inspection rhythm, and your 10-year capital works fund plan stays accurate when the register feeding it is current.
Preventative maintenance questions
What is preventative maintenance in a strata building?
It's maintaining common property on a planned schedule — regular inspections, a live maintenance register, seasonal tasks done on time, and contractors coordinated ahead of need — so problems are caught small instead of discovered as failures. It replaces the reactive break-fix pattern that leads to special levies.
How often should preventative maintenance happen?
The rhythm depends on the service level: our packages run monthly or quarterly site visits, with seasonal tasks (like gutter clearing before storm season) scheduled on their own cycle and the maintenance register updated continuously.
Is a preventative maintenance program worth it for a small block?
Small self-managed blocks often benefit most. They rarely have a building manager, committee members are volunteers, and one missed issue (a slow leak, a failing membrane) can cost more than years of the program. A Care Package gives a small block the building-management function at a scale that fits.
Is this a part-time building manager?
In practice, yes. A Care Package gives your building the core work of a building manager (scheduled site visits, a maintenance register, contractor coordination and reporting to the committee) on a visiting schedule instead of a full-time on-site role. It's a hybrid model: regular visits on site, with remote support in between.
Do small strata buildings need a building manager?
Most don't need a full-time one, and few can justify the cost. But every owners corporation has a legal duty to maintain and repair common property (Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act), and someone has to do the inspecting, scheduling and following up. In small blocks that usually falls to a volunteer, or to nobody. A visiting building manager fills that gap at a scale that fits.
How is this different from a strata manager?
A strata manager is a licensed agent who handles governance, levies, insurance and meetings, mostly off site. We look after the physical building. We don't provide strata management, and if you have a strata manager we work alongside them.
How often will you be on site?
It depends on the level you choose: 4 scheduled visits a year (Essential), 6 (Standard) or 12 (Premium). Some of those visits are full on-site inspections: one a year on Essential and Standard, two a year on Premium. Buildings don't keep to a schedule, so between visits we respond to urgent issues such as a burst pipe or a failed door lock the same day, and to non-urgent requests within two business days. Premium also includes after-hours emergency attendance on site.
Do we lose control of decisions?
No. The committee approves all works — we inspect, document, recommend and coordinate. You keep the decisions and gain the information to make them early, when options are cheap.