Vantage Bulletin

One night, and the year behind it

Vantage AGM and Awards Night · 14 August 2026

On 14 August the whole business stopped for a day. Eighty-nine people, three pods and our Kuala Lumpur team came together for our annual general meeting in the morning and our Awards Night that evening.

We hold our own AGM for the same reason we ask your committee to hold one properly: it is where you set the goals, show the numbers, account for the year just gone and plan for the year ahead. We want to share this with you because the people recognised that night are the people who answer your calls, run your meetings and look after your building.

That figure is the one we watch most closely, because retention is the only measure of our work that owners get to vote on. Behind it: 190 clients renewed with us in a single year, insurance commission removed from our revenue base entirely, every building moved off BuildingLink and on to the Vantage Command Centre, and the defibrillator rollout under way across the portfolio. Vantage also took out the national Environmental, Social and Community Impact Award at the SCA Awards.

The 2026 award winners

• ✓Rising Star: Eve Alexander
• ✓Pod Support Team Member of the Year: Ashleigh Smith
• ✓Strata Manager of the Year: Michael Marais
• ✓Building Manager of the Year: Ryan John
• ✓Rupert Cullen Leadership Value Award: Tiarna Stekovic
• ✓Chris Miller Authenticity Value Award: Sarah Weihrauch
• ✓Paul Powderly Connection Value Award: Paras Sharma
• ✓Environmental and Community Service Award: Scott Taylor
• ✓The Keel Award, Pod of the Year: Pod 1

Our three values awards carry the names of the people who set those values in the first place, which is why they are the ones we take most seriously.

Next stop: the SCA Awards

Our winners in the professional categories - Strata Manager of the Year, Building Manager of the Year, Rising Star and Support Team Member of the Year - now go forward as Vantage's nominees at the Strata Community Association Awards for Excellence, judged against the best in the industry nationally.

We will let you know how they go. In the meantime, if one of them looks after your building, they would probably appreciate hearing it from you more than from us.

What the industry has told the Attorney-General

SCA (ACT) response to the strata inquiry · August 2026

Strata Community Association (ACT) has lodged its response to the inquiry's 33 recommendations with the Attorney-General. It is a long document, and most of it concerns how strata businesses are regulated. But several recommendations go directly to how your committee is allowed to operate, and those are better understood now than after the legislation is drafted.

On Thursday 27 August the Government published its response to the inquiry, setting out whether it agrees, agrees in principle, notes or does not agree with each of the 33 recommendations. On several of the recommendations that reach furthest into how a committee operates, it has landed in the same place SCA did.

What this means for your committee

• Five-year term limits on committee members (Rec 12) - opposed by SCA. The proposal would force a member off after five years' service, with a one-year break before renominating. SCA's argument is one most committees will recognise: many owners corporations already struggle to fill their seats, and an arbitrary cap could remove an experienced member midway through a defects claim, a major capital works program or live litigation. Annual elections, they argue, are already the safeguard - owners get to decide every year. The Government did not agree to the recommendation, reasoning along similar lines that owners corporations can find it very difficult to attract committee members. It will instead consider letting each owners corporation set its own rules about term limits.
• Mandatory training for committees (Rec 10) - supported, with a caveat. SCA strongly backs better committee education, but warns that making completion compulsory could deter people from volunteering at all. They argue the cost should sit with the owners corporation, not the individual member, with a budget line for it each year, recognised providers, and a reasonable cap on the spend. The Government noted the recommendation rather than agreeing to it, and has proposed free or low cost voluntary training, potentially delivered through a Strata Commissioner.
• Honorariums and levy discounts (Rec 11) - supported by SCA. SCA supports clarifying that an owners corporation may recognise committee service through an honorarium, levy discount or similar - decided by the owners corporation, transparently approved and disclosed, rather than becoming an automatic entitlement. The Government agreed to the recommendation and will update its guidance materials to explain how an owners corporation can remunerate or reward committee members.
• Renters attending meetings and joining committees (Recs 14 and 15) - opposed by SCA. SCA's position is that governance and financial decision-making should stay with the people carrying the legal and financial responsibility. They point to meetings routinely dealing with arrears, litigation, defects and individual owner matters. Their alternative is better information for tenants through the landlord relationship instead. The Government agreed in principle to Recommendation 14, allowing tenants to attend AGMs as observers, but did not agree to Recommendation 15, noting that committees make decisions with direct financial consequences for unit owners.
• An ACT Strata Commissioner - strongly supported by SCA. SCA calls this one of the most important reforms to come out of the inquiry. For a committee, the practical value is an independent pathway to escalate a serious complaint about a manager without having to commence ACAT proceedings first. The Government agreed in principle to the recommendation, proposing a staged approach: education, information, guidance and templates first, with dispute resolution functions to follow subject to consultation.
• Insurance commissions - supported by SCA, and then some. Rather than stopping at better disclosure, SCA argues the ACT should move to an end-state where strata managers have no direct or indirect financial interest in the insurance they arrange. That is the model Vantage moved to ahead of any regulation. The Government agreed in principle to the commission recommendations and will consider whether stronger disclosure, restrictions or an outright prohibition is appropriate.

The Government is now considering its response to the inquiry, and the detail will be worked through in consultation and, in some cases, working groups. We will keep you posted on the recommendations that affect how your committee operates.

In addition to the recommendations above, we took a closer look at no-cause termination. So did the Government. The right to end a management agreement without providing grounds sounds straightforward, but what it would mean in practice for owners corporations is a different question.

It may sound like a good idea, but the reality is more complicated. Our latest blog looks at what that change would mean in practice and where the risks sit.

A recent ACAT decision worth reading

A balcony screen, and a rule the Tribunal set aside

The Owners - Unit Plan No 4654 v Hurst & Anor (Unit Titles) [2026] ACAT · UT 30/2025 · Member M Hanna · 11 August 2026

The owners corporation of a City Walk building asked the Tribunal to have screens and shelving removed from a unit's enclosed balcony. The residents had put them up to cut sun and heat, and an earlier screen had already come down after the executive committee refused permission. The corporation argued the items were unauthorised and affected the look of the building.

The Tribunal declined the application, so the items stay. The part that caught our attention, though, has nothing to do with the balcony. The Tribunal looked at the rule the committee had relied on - Rule 3.6 of the scheme's own rules - and found part of it invalid. That part couldn't be separated from the rest, so Rule 3.6 was set aside in its current form altogether.

The reason was that the rule didn't say anything about how decisions would be made. It let the committee grant permission, and take it back, without stating any grounds - and the Tribunal's view was that a rule written that way invites unreasonable outcomes and leaves owners never quite sure where they stand.

What we took from it

• A rule with no criteria may not hold up. If your rules let the committee approve or refuse without saying what it will consider, that rule could be tested - and a problem with one part can affect the rest of it. Rules that spell out the considerations tend to be easier to rely on.
• Sustainability measures came into it. The legislation limits how far a scheme's rules can restrict sustainability infrastructure, and shading or screening intended to reduce heating and cooling can fall into that territory. Worth a conversation before a request like that is refused.
• The actual impact mattered. The Tribunal looked at photographs and found the balcony hard to tell apart from the others and the screen barely visible. Recording the reasons for a decision, and weighing how much difference the thing really makes, is worth doing before proceedings are on the table.

These are our observations, not legal advice. If your scheme's rules include broad approval powers, or your committee is weighing a request under one, talk to your strata manager - and we can help you get proper legal advice where it's needed.

Repairs in ACT strata schemes: who is responsible?

By guest author Shelley Mulherin, Partner - Thomson Geer Law

A window fails, a pipe leaks, a balcony cracks - and the first question is always the same. Who pays?

Most committees answer it by looking at who uses the area. That instinct is almost always wrong.

Shelley's latest article sets out what actually decides it, and works through the grey areas that cause the most disputes - windows and doors, utility conduits, and what a special resolution authorising "roofing" really covers. It closes with what your committee should check before authorising any work.

What the research says about strata in the ACT

Australasian Strata Insights 2024 · UNSW City Futures Research Centre

Strata is mainstream housing in Canberra, not a niche. The most recent national dataset gives us a clear picture of what that looks like here.

The shape of the market, not the size of it

The headline numbers are worth knowing, but the useful figures are the last two. Canberra strata is a large number of very small schemes and a small number of very large ones - 57% of schemes have five lots or fewer, while the biggest 3% hold more than a third of all lots. Most ACT committees are a handful of volunteers in a small block, carrying the same obligations as the largest scheme in the territory.

And with 62% of ACT schemes built since 2000, our stock is young. That is good news on defects and building standards. It is less comfortable on maintenance: almost nobody here has yet lived through a full capital works cycle, so the first major round of renewal - roofing, membranes, lifts, facades - lands on committees who have never had to procure and execute large scale capital works project or deploy the sinking fund.

That sets up the conversation for AGM season: not this year's levy, but whether your maintenance plan and sinking fund forecast reflect the work your building will need over the next ten years. This is an area that Vantage intends to resource in the coming years to meet the changing demands of our clients.

Source: Australasian Strata Insights 2024, UNSW City Futures Research Centre with Strata Community Association, reissued October 2025. There is no 2026 edition - this is the most recent national data rather than new data. The population figure is an estimate (modelled range 21.5-35.9%). Read the report.

Card payments are being removed from DEFT

Effective Thursday 1 October 2026

Payment options available through DEFT, and card payments are changing, and from Thursday 1 October 2026 you will no longer be able to pay levies at deft.com.au using a credit or debit card. That also means any card payment already scheduled to process on or after that date will be cancelled automatically.

The change follows the Reserve Bank of Australia's reforms to card surcharging, which have led Visa and Mastercard to prohibit businesses from passing card costs on to customers. Rather than absorb those costs, DEFT is consolidating around fast, fee-free payment methods.

How to pay from 1 October

• PayID®: Instant, fee-free payments from your bank account using your DEFT reference number followed by @deft.com.au.
• BPAY®: Pay by mobile or internet banking using the biller code and DEFT reference shown on your levy notice.
• Direct debit: Set up a one-off or recurring debit from your bank account at deft.com.au.
• Post Billpay: Pay in store at Australia Post using the barcode on your levy notice.

DEFT has published a step-by-step guide covering how to find your PayID, how to switch an existing direct debit from a card to a bank account, and how to change a scheduled or recurring payment. It includes screenshots for each step.

How to know a message is really from us

Phishing, spoofing, and what we've done about it

Strata is an attractive target for fraud. Levy notices carry bank details, they arrive on a predictable schedule, and they go to hundreds of people at once. Criminals know this, and payment redirection scams built around fake levy notices are now common across the industry.

We've taken a step to make our messages easier to trust. Vantage Strata is now a registered sender with the Australian SMS Sender ID Register, which means legitimate text messages from us arrive from the sender name Vantage Strata - not from a mobile number, and not from anything else. Anyone attempting to impersonate that sender ID is blocked at the carrier.

Four checks before you pay anything

• Check the sender name, not the display name: Our emails come from a @vantagestrata.com.au address. Hover over or tap the sender to see the full address before you act on anything.
• Be suspicious of changed bank details: We will never email or text you to advise that our banking details have changed. If you receive a message like that, it is not from us.
• Slow down on urgency: "Final notice", "account suspended", "pay within 24 hours" - manufactured urgency is the most reliable signal of a scam.
• Verify by phone: If anything feels off, call us on 02 6171 9700 using the number from our website, not a number contained in the message.

Backing our community

Running a successful building relies on transparent leadership, strong alignment, and holding an AGM where your committee can set goals and track real progress. At Vantage Strata, we practice what we preach - applying that same level of governance and accountability to our own business through our annual company AGM.

Coming off the heels of our recent internal AGM, we took time to reflect on our achievements over the past year. Beyond operational milestones, the numbers that brought us the most pride centre around what we've been able to raise and give back to our community.

Here is where it came from:

How we show up

• ✓The Menslink Great Walk: five days and 145 kilometres on the Centenary Trail, raising funds for youth mentoring and counselling in the Canberra region. More on this below.
• ✓The Geocon High Society Stair Chase: our team's long-standing annual fixture, climbing for Menslink and Love Your Sister.
• ✓Canberra Lifeline: newly added this year, supporting crisis support and suicide prevention services across the ACT.
• ✓Kids sports: a dedicated pool for local clubs, with recipients nominated by the team.
• ✓Community days: dedicated volunteer time for the team, spent on the ground with the organisations we support.

The year ahead

At our AGM the team voted to commit $36,000 for the year ahead - allocated, budgeted and split three ways before the year started, rather than decided cause by cause as it went.

Community impact is now a formally tracked measure on our internal scorecard, sitting alongside client retention and staff retention, and reported every quarter.

If your building supports a local cause and would like to see it considered, mention it to your strata manager. Nominations go to our Community Committee.

145 kilometres for Menslink - and Rupert is doing it in thongs

The Menslink Great Walk sends a group of Canberra CEOs and community leaders along the Centenary Trail on foot over five days, covering 20 to 35 kilometres a day. It is genuinely hard - longer than the Kokoda Track, longer than the walk to Everest Base Camp - and it exists to fund Menslink's mentoring, counselling and school programs for young men in the Canberra region. Across five walks since 2021 it has raised more than $1.83 million.

Our CEO Rupert Cullen is walking this year. In thongs. This is not a metaphor and we have been unable to talk him out of it.

The Vantage team is backing him with a $15,000 fundraising target, voted up by staff at our AGM. If you'd like to add to it, every dollar goes to Menslink.

Menslink provides free counselling, mentoring and education programs to young men aged 12 to 25 in the Canberra region and their families.