Question: Why is a large amount of fob and key spending sitting outlaid on our ledger without being reimbursed by owners?
I’ve been reviewing our administrative budget and noticed that the recovery amount for fobs and keys is less than the total expense, leaving an amount sitting on the admin ledger. My understanding is that these costs should be fully recovered from the individual owners who purchase them, so I’d expect the YTD balance to be zero.
When I raised this with our strata manager, they explained that the shortfall is because the office holds a stock of fobs for owners to purchase, and a number were issued to cleaners, caretakers and fire services contractors.
All owners already have their own keys and fobs. Our maintenance person is also an owner who lives onsite, so I’d be surprised if any contractors were issued keys or fobs permanently.
Is this a legitimate reason for the shortfall, and is it appropriate for these costs to be partially funded through general levies?
Answer: Fob and key costs for contractors are a legitimate administrative expense. The variance between total expenditure and owner recoveries may reflect devices held for operational use.
Generally, where replacement or additional keys, fobs, remotes or access devices are provided to individual owners or occupiers, it is common practice for the strata company to recover the associated cost from the person requesting the item.
However, it is not unusual for the strata company to maintain a stock of access devices for operational purposes. This can include fobs or keys issued to cleaners, caretakers, contractors, fire service providers, security personnel, and other parties who require access to common property to perform services on behalf of the strata company.
Where access devices are retained or issued for the benefit of the strata company as a whole, the associated costs are generally considered an administrative expense of the scheme and may appropriately be funded through the administrative fund. In those circumstances, it would be expected that the cost would not be recovered from an individual owner.
Accordingly, the existence of a difference between the total expenditure on fobs and keys and the amount recovered from owners does not necessarily indicate an error. The variance may reasonably reflect devices held in stock or issued for operational and maintenance purposes on behalf of the strata company.
If the council or owners wish to understand the balance better, they may request a breakdown showing the number of devices purchased, those sold to owners, those currently held in stock, and those allocated for common property operations. This would provide transparency regarding how the expenditure has been applied.
This post appears in the August 2026 edition of The WA Strata Magazine.
Rick Blampey
SVN Perth
E: rblampey@svn.com.au
P: 08 9427 7955
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