How to Set Up a Maintenance Request Process for Your Strata Scheme

Why a single intake path matters

When maintenance requests come in through text messages, hallway conversations, emails to individual committee members and the odd Facebook post, nothing gets tracked properly and requests get missed or duplicated. The fix isn't more effort — it's one agreed channel that every owner knows to use, and one place the committee looks to see what's outstanding.

1. Give owners one way to submit a request

Pick a single intake method — a request form, a dedicated email address, or a portal — and communicate it clearly and repeatedly: in the welcome pack for new owners, on notices, and in the AGM minutes. Ask for the basics every time:

• What the issue is and where it is (common property or a specific lot's responsibility)
• When it was first noticed
• Whether it's urgent, and why
• Photos if relevant

2. Triage every request against urgency, not order received

Not every request is equal, and dealing with them strictly first-in-first-out means a leaking roof waits behind a squeaky door. Set out clear urgency levels the committee applies consistently:

• **Urgent / safety** — anything posing an immediate risk (electrical fault, gas smell, structural damage, security failure). Actioned immediately, often without waiting for committee sign-off, within any emergency spending limits your scheme allows.
• **High** — active damage that will get worse if left (active leak, lift fault, broken common door lock). Actioned within days.
• **Routine** — general wear and tear, cosmetic issues, non-urgent repairs. Scheduled in the ordinary work order cycle.
• **Low / deferred** — cosmetic or discretionary items that can wait for a planned maintenance round or budget cycle.

3. Work out who is responsible before you triage

Before a request goes anywhere, check whether the item is common property or the owner's own responsibility — this varies by scheme and by state, and by-laws or your state's strata legislation set the boundary in some cases (for example, some window and door components). If it's genuinely unclear, get advice rather than guessing, since paying for repairs to something that isn't common property can create its own problems.

4. Set approval thresholds and stick to them

Committees waste time when every request has to wait for a full meeting, and get into trouble when nobody has to answer for spending. A simple thresholds table, agreed once and applied consistently, solves both:

5. Turn an approved request into a work order

Once a request is approved for action, it should become a work order with a scope of works, not stay as a vague note. Attach the original request, any photos, and the urgency level, then assign it to a contractor. This is also the point to check the contractor's insurance and licensing are current before work starts.

6. Keep the owner who raised it updated

Owners who submit a request and hear nothing assume it's been ignored, even if it's quietly progressing. Set a simple standard:

• Acknowledge the request within an agreed timeframe (same day for urgent, a few days for routine)
• Tell the owner the urgency level assigned and roughly when to expect action
• Update them if there's a delay, and why
• Confirm when the work is complete

7. Close the loop properly

A request isn't finished when the contractor leaves — it's finished when someone checks the work was done to a reasonable standard and tells the owner it's closed. Record the outcome against the original request so there's a full history: what was reported, what was approved, who did the work, and when it was signed off. That history is also what protects the committee if the same issue recurs and someone asks what was actually done last time.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Letting requests come in through multiple untracked channels
• Treating every request as equally urgent, or equally low priority
• Approving spend with no record of who approved it or why
• Leaving owners to chase updates themselves
• Closing a request without confirming the work was actually completed

How Flex Strata helps

Flex Strata gives owners one place to submit a maintenance request, lets the committee triage and approve it against agreed thresholds, and turns approved requests into trackable work orders with contractor details and status attached. Owners can see where their request sits without needing to email the committee to ask, and every step — submission, approval, contractor assignment, completion — sits in the audit trail for anyone who needs to check it later.