About 8% of everyone living in Victoria lives inside an apartment building, and every one of those buildings needs someone running the shared spaces. Lifts break. Roofs leak. Insurance renews every year, and nobody wants to chase up unpaid levies from twenty different owners. That job usually falls to a manager. Owners corporation managers in Melbourne handle the paperwork, the compliance and the day to day running of shared buildings, so committees do not drown in admin. This piece explains what the role covers, who legally needs one, and what a good manager actually does day to day.
What Is an Owners Corporation, Really?
An owners corporation is the legal group that owns and runs the shared parts of a building. Lobbies, lifts, gardens and car parks all count as common property. Every unit owner in the building automatically becomes a member. Victoria had roughly 65,000 owners corporations covering close to 480,000 lots back in 2006, and that number has grown a great deal since, as apartment living has spread further across Melbourne.
Do All Buildings Need a Manager?
Not always, and that surprises a lot of owners. Only Tier 1 owners corporations, meaning buildings with more than 100 occupiable lots, must appoint a manager under Victorian law. Tiers 2 through 5, which cover most townhouse groups and smaller apartment blocks, can choose one but are not forced to. Most committees hire one anyway, because running a building without professional help gets messy fast.
Core Jobs a Manager Handles Day to Day
- Collecting and chasing unpaid levies
- Booking and supervising repairs and contractors
- Preparing budgets and financial reports
- Running annual general meetings and recording minutes
- Managing insurance renewals and claims support
- Keeping the building compliant with the Owners Corporations Act 2006
What Does the Manager Actually Do Behind the Scenes?
A manager handles budgets, levy collection, maintenance coordination and meeting minutes. They organise the AGM, keep financial records straight and make sure the building follows current legislation. Insurance renewals, contractor management and dispute handling between owners also land on their desk. Good managers communicate constantly instead of going quiet between meetings, which is the single biggest complaint owners raise about a bad one.
How Does the Tier System Change Things?
Victoria moved to a five tier classification system in December 2021, and the tier a building falls into decides almost everything about how it must be managed. Bigger buildings face stricter rules on committees, audits and maintenance planning. Smaller ones get more freedom to decide things for themselves at general meetings.
| Tier | Occupiable Lots | Manager Required? |
| Tier 1 | 100+ | Yes, by law |
| Tier 2 | 51 to 100 | Optional |
| Tier 3 | 10 to 50 | Optional |
| Tier 4 | 3 to 9 | Optional |
Why Committees Hire a Manager Even When It Is Optional
Running a building through volunteers alone sounds cheap, right up until someone forgets to renew the insurance or a contractor invoice sits unpaid for months. Committees are made up of owners with day jobs, not property professionals, and most simply do not have the hours to chase paperwork properly. A manager brings systems, contacts and legal knowledge that volunteers rarely build up on their own. Buildings across Melbourne, from Port Melbourne apartment towers to suburban townhouse groups, lean on managers for exactly this reason, regardless of whether the law demands one.
What Should Owners Look For in a Good Manager?
Response time matters more than most owners expect going in. A manager who answers emails within a day feels completely different to one who goes quiet for weeks at a time. Ask how financial reports get shared, how disputes between owners get handled, and how many buildings one manager personally looks after. A manager juggling too many buildings at once tends to miss the small things that eventually turn into big, expensive problems.
