Strata & owners corporations

The common-property defect register the inspector actually wants.

Log every common-property defect by unit and level with a dated photo, give owners a portal instead of your phone number, and hand the inspector, the insurer or the tribunal a register that already exists. Built for strata managers, building managers and the committee that inherits the building.

Log in
01
The dispute is never about the defect
It is about who is responsible, when it was first raised, and whether it was raised properly. The committee that cannot show a dated, photographed, assigned record loses that argument every time. This register is that record.
02
Owners see it move without calling
A resident scans a card, raises the leak with a photo, and watches it go to the plumber and come back closed. The managing agent’s phone stops being the status page.
03
The record survives the committee
Committees turn over. Managing agents change. A defect logged in year one with its photo, its assignment and its close-out is still there in year six, readable by whoever picks up the file.
Common property, raised properly

A note in the minutes is not a record.

“Lobby leak, to be actioned” means nothing to a lawyer eighteen months from now. Neither does a photo in one committee member’s camera roll. Raised properly means the defect exists as one thing: captured where it happened, with the photo and its capture time attached, the location it belongs to, and the responsibility written down. Then the lifecycle does the rest: issued, disputed if the builder wants to, fixed with a photo, closed by someone allowed to close it.

We wrote up the lobby-leak version of this in the paper trail strata can produce; the short version is that the party without one eats the cost.

Building manager · this weekLIVE
Tue 08:10Lobby leak · raised by resident 4.02
Tue 08:40Manager adds photo · Common area L1
Tue 09:05Issued to builder · due Fri
Thu 14:20Disputed · “condensation”
Fri 11:00Adjudicated · builder to rectify
  • Raised where it happened
    Standing in the lobby, in the carpark, on the roof: a photo, the location it belongs to, a description, in about two taps. Not typed up from the minutes a week later.
  • A capture time nobody can argue with
    The photo keeps its original device timestamp and who took it. It proves the leak existed in that lobby on that date. The builder can argue the cause; they cannot argue it away.
  • Common property or lot, by type
    Every location is tagged Apartment or Common area, so “everything on common property still open” is a filter, not a meeting.
  • Assigned, with a due date
    Issue it to the builder, the plumber or the fire contractor. They get a link in an email, attend, and cannot mark it complete without a photo of the finished work.
  • Closed by the right person
    A trade marks work complete; a manager or building manager closes it. Every transition carries a name, a role and a time, and nobody edits the history.
  • Disputes on the record
    When the builder says it is condensation, they say so on the defect. It pauses, someone adjudicates, and both the claim and the ruling stay on the file.
Owners and residents

A portal instead of a phone queue.

Residents get in three ways, and none of them is a password they will forget: a printed QR card handed over at settlement, the location code on the door, or an account a manager sets up. Whichever way, they raise the fault with a photo and watch it move. Nothing a stranger types in a lobby goes live until a manager approves it. The full model is in trades, tenants and clients, and the portal itself is described on the portals page.

The committee is different from the residents. Set committee members up as clients and they see the whole building read-only, comment where they need to, and pull their own Client Defect Summary before the meeting rather than asking you for one.

Bond inspection · months 15–24LIVE
Mo 15Interim inspection booked
Mo 15Register exported · 41 open
Mo 16Inspector report · 38 matched
Mo 18Builder rectified 29 · photos
Mo 22Final inspection · 9 to the bond
  • A QR card, not a password
    Hand each resident a printed card at handover. Scanning it logs them into their own portal. No app to install, nothing to remember.
  • They raise it with a photo
    The resident describes the fault, attaches the photo, and it lands in the register already filed against their lot or the common area they scanned.
  • They watch it move
    Status changes and the close-out photo show in the portal. The phone call to the managing agent stops being the only way to find out.
  • Costs and contractors hidden
    Residents see their own items with cost figures and contractor identity stripped out. The committee sees the whole building, read-only, through the Client role.
  • Nothing live until approved
    A stranger who scans a code in the lobby gets a short form and a pending request. A manager approves it, corrects the lot number if they typed it wrong, or denies it and the card dies.
  • The AGM pack is an export
    A Summary PDF of what is open on common property, a Client Defect Summary for the committee, a Defects Export for the auditor. Filter first, see the count, then generate.
Three moments, one record
01
The owner raises it
From the portal or by scanning the code on the door, with a photo. It arrives filed against the right lot or common area, not as a voicemail.
02
The manager evidences it
Photo with its capture time, a location that resolves to a point, a trade assigned with a due date. Raised properly, the day it happens.
03
The inspector reads it
The register goes to the inspector, the insurer or the tribunal as a PDF with the full trail. Nobody assembles it in a panic; it already exists.
Common property vs lot

The tree keeps them apart, so you don’t have to.

A strata building is the shape IssuesId’s location tree was drawn for: a building, its levels, the lots on each level, the rooms in each lot, and the lobby, plant room, carpark and roof beside them. Every location is tagged Apartment or Common area, and that tag runs through everything: which list a scanned code opens, which defects a resident can see, which rows the Quality Control report groups together. The residential tower template builds the whole tree from a few numbers at setup, and a CSV import handles the odd-shaped one.

The practical result: “show me everything still open on common property, issued to the builder, raised before the interim inspection” is three filters and a match count, with a QR label on the plant-room door that opens exactly that room’s list for whoever is standing in front of it.

The clock, and after it

What the inspector asks for, and where it is.

Every new building has a window in which defects are the builder’s to fix, and it closes. In New South Wales the strata building bond scheme adds an independent inspector who reports on common-property defects twice inside the first two years, and the bond the developer lodged is what pays for whatever the builder will not. Other states run the statutory warranty without the bond. In every case the committee that gets its money’s worth is the one running the window like the clock it is: a live list of every common-property defect, each one logged, photographed, assigned and tracked to close-out, so that when the builder stalls you can show exactly what was raised and when.

The same register keeps working after the clock stops. The lift fault in year six, the fire-door audit finding, the render lifting off the north face: raised, assigned to the contractor, closed on a photo, and readable by the next manager and the next committee. The building keeps one history. The people who raised it do not have to.

Date
When was it first raised?
The defect’s created time and the photo’s original device timestamp, side by side.
Place
Where exactly?
The location path: Building A › Level 1 › Lobby, tagged Common area, with the drawing pin if one was placed.
Names
Who raised it, and to whom was it sent?
Raised-by and issued-to, with the assignment email logged, including whether it was opened.
Response
What did the builder say?
The dispute, its reason and the adjudication, as states on the record rather than emails in someone’s sent folder.
Close-out
Was it fixed, and who says so?
The trade’s completion photo and the manager’s close-out, each stamped with name, role and time.
Export
Can we have all of it?
Internal Detailed PDF for the file, Summary PDF for the meeting, Defects Export as a spreadsheet for the lawyer or the auditor.
Asked by committees

Questions strata managers ask first

Can the owners corporation committee see costs and contractor details?
Committee members are set up with the Client role: they see every common-property defect on the building read-only, can comment, and can generate a Client Defect Summary PDF. Individual owners and residents get the tenant role for their own lot, where cost figures and contractor identity are stripped out. Which role a person gets is the manager’s call, and a project-level visibility setting can limit clients to defects that are already fixed or closed.
Can an owner or a resident close a defect?
No. A resident can raise a defect with a photo and comment on it, but cannot change its status. A trade marks their assignment complete, with a photo, and a manager or building manager closes it. Sign-off is a status stamped with the name, the role and the time; there is no signature pad.
How does the register help with the builder’s defect liability period or a strata bond inspection?
Every entry carries the photo with its original device timestamp, the location it was raised against, who raised it, who it was issued to, and every status change with a name and a date. When the inspector, the insurer or the tribunal asks, you export that trail as a PDF or a spreadsheet rather than reconstructing it from minutes and camera rolls.
Does it work for a body corporate in Queensland or New Zealand?
Yes. The product is the same; only the vocabulary changes. The location tree is built for buildings, levels, units and rooms, with Apartment and Common area as location types, so a lot-versus-common-property question is a filter. Pricing is per active site, which for strata means per building, with no per-seat cost for owners, residents or contractors.
Do we have to be inside the defect liability period to use it?
No. The register is the same after the builder has gone: a lift fault or a carpark leak raised in year six is captured, assigned and closed the same way, and the building keeps one history that survives committee turnover and a change of managing agent.
Also built for
Builders →Practical completion, the handover pack, and the month-eleven DLP call answered from the record.Real estate agencies →Tenants raise a maintenance request with a photo; it routes to the trade and closes with proof.Property managers →Maintenance and defects across a residential portfolio, with an audit-logged record for every owner.Facilities management →Reactive faults and condition walks in commercial buildings, logged by room and closed on evidence.Manufacturing →Line inspections with hold points, non-conformances, and an ISO 9001-ready audit trail.Logistics & warehousing →Pre-trip, asset and facility inspections with photo proof of condition at the dock.
One building. One register.

Ready to stop reconstructing the paper trail?

Residents, committee members, contractors and the managing agent all log in at the same place, and each sees only what their role allows. Pricing is per building, not per owner. If the builder is still on site, the builder’s own handover record and this register are the same product, so the handover is a change of role rather than a change of system. For what a record needs to carry when it ends up in front of a tribunal, read what makes a defect record stand up in a dispute.