A body corporate manager should make the administration of a shared property easier to understand. Before comparing providers, establish what work they will do, what decisions they can make and how owners will know what is happening.
In a public post about Williams Body Corporate, I put the standard simply: “Clear books, clear communication.” That is a useful starting point for evaluating a service, not a reason to skip the detail. My post about body corporate administration.
Business relationship: I am a director of Williams Body Corporate. This guide explains a service offered by a business I am involved with; it is not an independent comparison of management companies.
Start with the right distinction
The body corporate and the body corporate management company are not the same thing. Unit Titles Services explains that owning a unit in a unit-title development makes you a member of its body corporate. Its work includes matters such as shared-area maintenance, financial statements, insurance and operational rules. A management business can be engaged to provide services to it. How a body corporate works.
Start by identifying the arrangement for your property. Do not assume that every development of adjoining homes has the same ownership structure or management needs. If you are buying, ask your lawyer to explain the title and the obligations attached to it.
Then separate three questions: what must be administered, who is authorised to decide, and who will carry out the work. An agreement to organise a contractor is not automatically an agreement to perform the repair. A report asking for a decision is not evidence that the decision has already been made.
What Williams Body Corporate offers
The company’s current services page describes support for three groups:
- Unit owners: administration including meeting notices and minutes, annual accounts, levy preparation and collection, insurance coordination and common-property maintenance arrangements.
- Committees and chairpersons: administrative, budgeting, reporting and contractor-management support.
- Developers: body corporate setup work alongside the project’s lawyers, surveyors and architects.
Those are service categories, not a promise that every item is included in every proposal. Ask the team to set out the work for your particular development, the fee basis, exclusions and the information needed to begin. Confirm specialist advice separately where it is required.
Ask for the work, not just the package name
“Full management” can mean little without a scope behind it. Take the matters your property actually needs handled and ask what the proposed service does with each one.
For maintenance, distinguish receiving a report, gathering information, obtaining a quote, seeking approval, arranging access and recording completion. Establish who does each step. For meetings, clarify what is prepared before the meeting and what follows afterwards. For financial reporting, ask to see the kind of information owners will receive and how questions about it are answered.
A useful discussion can start with a redacted sample report or an invented scenario. It does not require another client’s private information. Ask the provider to explain the process in ordinary language. If both sides understand a different task when they hear the same service label, resolve that before appointing anyone.
Keep authority separate from administration
Someone needs to know when they can act and when they must seek a decision. Owners need to know where a request goes, who can give an instruction and what happens if the matter is urgent.
Ask how the proposed arrangement deals with work outside the normal scope. Does the manager bring back a proposal? Who can approve additional work? How are decisions recorded and communicated? Agree the escalation route rather than assuming that the most recent person to send an email has the authority to decide.
Unit Titles Services says a manager’s written agreement must cover matters including reporting, performance reviews, their meeting role, termination and the return of records and funds. Its guidance also distinguishes administration services from building management. Use the official guidance and your adviser to check the agreement, rather than treating this article as a statement of your property’s legal arrangements. Managing contracts with service providers.
Clear reporting should make the next action obvious
A report can be accurate and still be difficult to use. Ask what the reader is meant to understand or decide after reading it.
For an outstanding maintenance matter, useful practical information might include what was reported, its present status, the next action and who is handling that action. A date for the next update is more useful than an indefinite promise to keep everyone informed. The level of detail should match the matter; routine work should not require an essay.
Separate a new issue from an old one that has changed. Explain why a reported figure has changed rather than merely carrying it into the next report. Keep the language understandable to an owner who does not spend the working day administering buildings.
Compare the management fee with the management work
Do not treat the total body corporate levy as if it were simply the management company’s fee. Ask for an explanation of the budget and the management charge within it, then compare service proposals on the same basis.
Look at what is covered by the regular fee and what is charged separately. Ask about additional meetings, unusual administrative work, project coordination, transition work and any other likely extra for your property. These are questions to clarify, not a statement that a particular provider charges for all of them.
Confirm whether quoted amounts include GST and how additional work is approved. Ask about supplier relationships, commissions or other interests that could affect a recommendation. A lower headline fee does not explain an omitted task; a higher fee does not prove that the task will be done well. Compare the actual arrangement.
Developers: prepare for the people who inherit the administration
A new development’s management arrangements need to make sense after the project team has moved on. The next owner should not need access to somebody’s memory to understand where an important document is or who to contact.
Bring the proposed administrator into the appropriate conversations with the project’s professional advisers. Clarify what information will be available at handover, which matters remain open and how those matters will be passed on. Label a draft as a draft. Keep unresolved questions visible.
Williams Body Corporate advertises setup support alongside lawyers, surveyors and architects. Ask for a project-specific proposal. Do not infer a legal structure, appointment term or fee concession from a general description or an older social post. Have the relevant advisers confirm the arrangements for the development.
Think about handover before you need one
An appointment is easier to assess when the beginning and the end are clear. Ask what the incoming manager needs, which records are expected, how open matters will be tracked and who will communicate the change to owners and relevant providers.
If you are considering changing managers, have the existing agreement reviewed before making commitments. Clarify the transition process, any charges and the agreed return of records and funds. A new proposal should not leave a gap between the old arrangement ending and the new work beginning.
Bring a clear brief
For a first conversation, describe the development’s location, its ownership structure if known, whether it is new or already operating, and the main administrative problem you want solved. Explain whether you are enquiring as an owner, committee representative or developer. Share sensitive records only through an agreed secure process and with the appropriate authority.
Ask for a proposal covering the work, authority, reporting, fees and transition. If the answers are clear, you have something useful to evaluate. If they are not, ask again before proceeding.
Contact Williams Body Corporate to discuss its current services. For the different task of managing an individual rental property, read the property-management service checklist. My ventures directory explains my involvement in each business.
Service information and linked official guidance reviewed on 20 September 2026. This is a general purchasing guide, not legal, financial, insurance or building-condition advice. Obtain advice about your own property and confirm current scope and terms with the provider.