Asset class / commercial strata
Two rulebooks. One manager.
A commercial strata unit answers to the owners corporation and to the lease at the same time. We manage your lot and the lease over it, and hold the seam between the two, so levies, outgoings and by-laws stay aligned across Sydney.
01 / Structure What you own, what the scheme owns
Lot property and common property are two different things.
Where the lot ends and common property begins decides who repairs what, who insures it and who pays. Most missed money sits on that line.
Inside the boundary
Your lot
Owned by you, leased to your tenant
- The internal commercial unit and the airspace within its boundary, as set on the registered strata plan
- Internal fit out, partitions, floor finishes and the tenant's plant within the lot
- The commercial lease, the rent, the recoverable outgoings and the tenant relationship
- Levies raised against the lot by unit entitlement, payable by you as the owner
Blox manages this side. The lot, the lease and the income.
Shared structure
Common property
Held by the owners corporation
- Structure, roof, external walls, foyers, lifts, car parking and shared services
- Building insurance for full replacement value, funded by levies
- The administrative and capital works funds and the ten year capital works plan
- By-laws, common property use and decisions taken at the annual general meeting
The scheme strata manager runs this side. We liaise with them on your behalf.
Fund 01 / day to day
Administrative fund
Pays the running cost of the scheme: cleaning, gardening, building insurance premiums, utilities to common property, minor repairs and management. Funded by levies on every lot in proportion to unit entitlement.
Set by the owners corporation budgetFund 02 / long term
Capital works fund
Built up over years for major and recurring works: roof replacement, lift refurbishment, repainting and resurfacing, guided by a ten year capital works plan. A shortfall here is what triggers a special levy.
Formerly the sinking fund02 / Roles Who does what
What we handle, and what the owners corporation handles.
Two managers, two jobs. We do not replace the appointed strata manager. We protect the lease and the lot, and work to the same budget cycle.
Blox / your lot manager
The lease and the income
- Rent collection, arrears and rent reviews on your commercial lease
- Separating recoverable outgoings from strata levies so each is billed correctly
- Holding the tenant to by-law and fit out obligations under the lease
- Options, renewals, make good and bank guarantee monitoring
- Modelling a capital works levy before a renewal so you can price it in
- Monthly owner reporting: income, levy summary and tenancy schedule
Owners corporation / scheme manager
The building and the scheme
- Maintaining and repairing common property and shared services
- Setting and raising the administrative and capital works levies
- Arranging building insurance for full replacement value
- Registering and enforcing the scheme by-laws
- Convening the annual general meeting and scheme decisions
- Keeping the strata roll, records and the ten year capital works plan
Where we add value is the seam. A capital works levy that lands the month before a renewal, a recoverable outgoing wrongly absorbed by the owner, a tenant in breach of a by-law that becomes your liability. These sit between the two roles, and that is where a commercial lot manager earns the fee.
The strata manager runs the building. We make sure the lease keeps pace with the levy.Blox Commercial / commercial lot management
03 / Mechanics What runs a strata scheme
The strata mechanisms a lot owner has to read.
Each one decides what you pay, what you can recover, or what lands on your lot without warning.
Levies and unit entitlement
The owners corporation raises levies for both funds, and your share is set by your unit entitlement on the strata plan, not by floor area or turnover. A wrong entitlement, or a budget that does not match the works needed, quietly over or under charges your lot every quarter.
Checked against the scheduleLevies versus recoverable outgoings
A strata levy is charged to you as the owner. A recoverable outgoing is what the lease lets you pass to the tenant. They overlap, but they are not the same. Treat a capital works levy as a recoverable outgoing and you have likely billed the tenant something the lease does not allow.
Mapped lease by leaseBy-laws and fit out approval
By-laws are registered against the strata plan and govern signage, parking, deliveries and fit out. A commercial fit out usually needs owners corporation approval before work starts. Without it, the tenant can be required to reinstate the fit out at lease end, a cost that drifts back to the owner when nobody documented the approval.
Approval before workInsurance and the valuation
The building is insured by the scheme for full replacement value, supported by a current valuation. If the scheme is under insured, a major loss can raise a special levy on every lot, including yours. We check the valuation is current and that the lease handles contents and plate glass cover, so a gap does not become your bill.
Cover, not assumedThe capital works plan and special levies
The ten year capital works plan forecasts the major spend. When the fund falls short of a real cost, the owners corporation raises a special levy, often with little notice. We read the plan and the fund balance so a special levy can be modelled before it arrives, not discovered after.
Modelled before renewalThe AGM and the budget cycle
The annual general meeting sets the budget, the levies and the works for the year. Decisions made there shape your costs and your lease alignment for the next twelve months. We track the budget cycle so your lease, your reviews and your outgoings sit with the scheme calendar rather than against it.
Aligned to the cycle04 / Pricing What it costs
One fee on the lot we manage.
Blox charges a 5% management fee on the commercial lot we manage for you. Where the lease is a net lease, that fee is recoverable from the tenant as an outgoing, so the tenant carries it.
To be accurate: this fee is for the lease and lot management Blox provides. It is separate from the strata levies the owners corporation charges your lot for the administrative and capital works funds, which the scheme sets, not us.
- No contractor markups
- No disbursement margins
- No renewal commissions buried in statements
See the full breakdown on our commercial property management fees page, read what sits under commercial property management, or talk to us about commercial leasing for a vacant strata unit.
Get a proposal05 / Answers What lot owners ask
Questions a commercial strata owner asks.
They are two separate jobs. The strata manager is appointed by the owners corporation under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 to run the scheme as a whole: the common property, the administrative and capital works funds, building insurance, by-law enforcement and the annual general meeting. Managing your individual commercial lot is the owner side: the lease over your unit, the rent and outgoings, the tenant relationship, and your obligations to the owners corporation. Blox manages your lot and the commercial lease over it, and liaises with the strata manager. We do not replace the appointed strata manager of the scheme.
Both are required under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. The administrative fund pays for day to day running costs of the scheme: cleaning, gardening, building insurance premiums, minor repairs, utilities to common property and management costs. The capital works fund, once called the sinking fund, is built up over time to pay for major and recurring capital expenditure such as roof replacement, lift refurbishment, repainting and resurfacing, guided by a ten year capital works plan. Levies are raised against your lot for both funds in proportion to your unit entitlement.
Strata levies are charged to you as the lot owner by the owners corporation. Recoverable outgoings are charges you can pass to your tenant under the commercial lease. The two overlap but are not the same, and that is where money leaks. A levy that funds a recoverable outgoing can usually be passed through, while a capital works levy for a structural upgrade often cannot. Misclassifying them leads to under recovery, or to charging a tenant something the lease does not allow. We map each levy to the lease so the recoverable portion is recovered and the rest is not wrongly billed.
By-laws are the rules of the scheme, registered against the strata plan, covering use of common property, signage, fit out, parking, deliveries, waste and trading hours. Your commercial lease should require the tenant to comply with them. If a tenant breaches a by-law, the owners corporation can act against you as the lot owner, not the tenant directly, so the liability lands on you. We make by-law compliance a lease obligation and coordinate fit out approvals with the owners corporation before work starts.
In a strata scheme the building is insured by the owners corporation, not by each lot owner, and the premium is funded through the administrative fund levies. The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 requires the building to be insured for its full replacement value, supported by a current valuation. If the scheme is under insured, a major loss can trigger a special levy that falls on every lot, including yours. We check that a current valuation is in place and that your lease deals with contents and plate glass cover correctly, so a gap does not become your bill.
A scheme strata manager runs the building. A commercial lot manager protects the income and the lease. The value is at the seam between them: separating recoverable outgoings from strata levies, holding the tenant to by-law and fit out obligations, modelling capital works levies before a renewal, keeping the lease aligned with the AGM and budget cycle, and making sure a special levy or an insurance shortfall does not quietly land on the owner. That is lease and lot work, run alongside the scheme, not a duplicate of the strata manager.
Blox charges a 5% management fee on the commercial lot we manage for you. Where the lease is a net lease, that management fee is recoverable from the tenant as an outgoing, so the tenant carries it. This fee covers the lease and lot management Blox provides. It is separate from the strata levies the owners corporation charges your lot for the administrative and capital works funds, which are set by the scheme, not by us.
06 / Adjacent Where to go next
Built around the commercial lease.
07 / Talk Let's discuss your lot
Send us the lease and the levy notice.
One conversation is usually enough to see where the lease, the levies and the outgoings on your commercial strata lot in Sydney pull apart, and what it costs you each quarter.
(02) 8883 4559NSW Licence 1013554 · ABN 20 633 280 109