Who runs a management rights business: the onsite manager's three hats, where the live-on-site rule sits, employing a manager, and how lenders read you.
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Onsite Manager · Management Rights · Who Runs It
Caretaking contractor, letting agent, occupant of the manager's unit: the onsite manager wears three hats for one business. Here is where the live-on-site rule really comes from, when you can run the business offsite or through an employed manager, and how the committee and the lender read the person behind the purchase.
Quick Answer
An onsite manager in management rights is the person who holds the caretaking contract, runs the letting pool and usually lives in the manager's unit, and whether you must do all three yourself depends on the agreements you are buying and what the body corporate agrees to. The live-on-site rule is the residency clause in the agreement, not a state rule, so changing it means persuading the owners rather than the state. Below: the four ways the business can be run, what the committee checks about you before it approves the transfer, and what a lender reads first when management rights finance is assessed on the operator, not just the business.
Also called: resident manager, resident letting agent, onsite caretaker. All describe the person who runs a management rights business from the complex; "resident letting agent" is also the name of the Queensland licence class, which the parent guide covers.
What is an onsite manager in management rights?
An onsite manager in management rights is the person who wears three hats, one business: the caretaking service contractor the body corporate engages, the letting agent the owners in the pool appoint, and the occupant of the manager's unit that usually comes with the purchase. Most buyers think the live-on-site rule belongs to the body corporate; it is usually written into the agreements they are buying, and only the owners can change it. Which of the three hats you must wear personally, and which you can hand to someone else, is the question the rest of this insight answers, one objection at a time.
The hats are worth separating, because each one answers to a different party:
- The caretaking hat. A service contract with the body corporate: it pays a salary for the common property, the grounds and the reporting, and it deals with you as its contractor, not as an employee. The agreement itself, clause by clause, and whether the onsite manager is the caretaker, are covered in the caretaking management rights insight.
- The letting hat. An agency: each owner who joins the pool appoints you to let and manage their lot, and each can leave. Whether the body corporate can make owners use you is a different question, answered in the off the plan versus established guide.
- The occupancy hat. Where you live and work from. The complex is also your address, which is the hat most buyers underestimate until the first late-night call about a car park.
What the three parts are worth together, and how a buyer gets in, sits in what management rights are. What a working week looks like from the manager's desk is covered in the apartment management rights insight, which is why this page does not list the duties. This page is about who has to wear the hats.
Where does the live-on-site requirement actually come from?
The live-on-site requirement comes from the residency clause in the agreement, not a state rule: the caretaking agreement, often backed by a by-law, says the manager must own or occupy a lot in the scheme, and that clause was drafted by the developer or the body corporate long before you arrived. It is the objection most buyers raise first, and the one they aim at the wrong target. The committee did not invent the rule and cannot waive it on its own; the owners as a body carry it in the agreements you are proposing to buy, so the owners are the ones who can change it.
On the files that cross our desk, the clause is met in one of three ways: the owner buys the manager's lot and lives in it; the owner buys the lot and a caretaking worker lives in it; or an associate of the owner holds the lot and a worker lives in it. External managers who neither own nor live in the complex are becoming more common, typically in buildings where the lot is worth more than the business and tying the two together has stopped making sense (varies by scheme). The Queensland lender view insight makes the same point from the funding side: most schemes still require the operator to own or occupy a manager's lot on site, and the lender reads that lot as its security.
Whether you personally have to live there is a question the glossary entry and the parent guide answer, and this page does not repeat them. New South Wales runs a different regime again, which is one reason a Sydney building management deal reads so differently from a Queensland one.
Can you run management rights offsite, or buy business-only rights?
You can run management rights offsite, or buy business-only rights with no manager's unit, but only where the agreements already allow it or the owners agree to change them, and the lender will price whatever it loses in the process. The objection here is the honest one: I do not want to live in a two-bedroom unit in someone else's building. The answer depends on which of two routes you take.
What does it take to move an existing manager offsite?
Changing a residency clause means changing the agreement, and the route is a general meeting, not a committee nod, commonly at least two months from the first approach to a resolution you can rely on, though it varies by scheme. The owners can say no, and some will, because the clause exists to keep a manager within earshot of the building. Buyers who plan to live elsewhere therefore raise it before they sign, with a worker or relief manager lined up for the unit, rather than discovering the clause after settlement.
Who buys business-only management rights?
Business-only listings sell the agreements and the letting pool without a manager's residence, and they are pitched at first-time buyers who already own a home nearby, investors and portfolio operators adding a complex to the ones they run. For the lender the change is structural: there is no unit to take as security, so the facility is sized on the business as a going concern alone, generally more cautiously than a deal with a unit attached (varies by lender). Where a unit exists but you would rather keep it apart from the business, the manager's lot on a separate commercial loan is the structure to read about, and commercial property loans are the lane it sits in.
| Model | Who does the work | What the body corporate must agree to | What the lender reads (indicative, varies by lender) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-operator living on site | You, or you and your partner, working from the manager's unit | The transfer of the agreements to you, decided on the committee's read of the person | Generally the simplest file: one household, the unit as security, the income and the operator in one place |
| Owner living offsite with a worker in the unit | A caretaking worker or relief manager living in the unit, with you directing from elsewhere | The transfer, plus a variation of the residency clause at a general meeting if the agreement names the owner as the occupant | Who holds the licence, what the worker is paid and what happens if the worker leaves; typically read more cautiously than an owner-operator |
| Business-only (no manager's unit) | You or an employee, from a lot you do not own or from outside the complex | The transfer, under agreements that do not require the manager to own or occupy a lot, or a variation that removes the requirement | No unit as security, so the facility is sized on the business alone and generally geared more conservatively |
| Employed manager with the owner elsewhere | An employed manager or couple doing the work, with you as the contractor the body corporate deals with | The transfer to you; the committee may still ask who will be on site and whether the residency clause is met by that person | Employer obligations, wages before the figure the lender assesses, cover for the manager leaving, and a guarantor who does not run the building day to day |
Which brings most buyers to the real decision, which is not where you live but who does the work:
Do it yourself
- You live in the unit, so the residency clause is met without a meeting
- The committee approves the person it will actually deal with
- The licence, the agreements and the day-to-day sit with one household
- No wages, so the profit the lender assesses is the profit in the accounts
Hand it to a manager
- The residency clause may still name you, so a worker in the unit needs the owners' agreement first
- Wages are deducted before the figure the lender assesses
- Who holds the letting licence becomes a question, not a given
- The lender prices the risk of that manager leaving, and the committee asks who it is dealing with on Monday morning
Can you employ a manager instead of doing the work yourself?
You can employ a manager, a couple or a relief manager to do the work, and plenty of operators with more than one complex do exactly that, but the moment you pay wages you are an employer as well as a contractor and an agent. The objection is usually put as a question of scale: I run a business already, why would I mow lawns? Nothing in the agreements stops you delegating the work; what changes is who you answer to for the people doing it.
At the time of writing, the Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance on hiring employees sets out the floor: decide whether the person is full-time, part-time or casual before you set their pay; take the minimum terms from the relevant award, any registered agreement and the written contract; keep written time and wage records; and give a pay slip within one working day of paying wages. A contract cannot provide less than the National Employment Standards, and the Ombudsman's contract tool is not built for independent contractors, which matters if your plan was to call the manager one. How an award applies to a live-in manager, what leave and superannuation look like, and whether a couple on one salary are two employees are questions for an employment adviser, not this page.
The number that changes is the one the whole purchase is priced on. Wages come off the top before the multiplier, which is how both a valuer and a lender typically treat them: the business is valued on the net profit after the manager is paid, and the loan is serviced from the same figure, so an employed manager moves the price and the borrowing in the same direction. On the body corporate side nothing moves at all. It does not employ your manager and does not pay them; its agreement is with you, and if the gardens are not kept the letter is addressed to you. Serviceability and reputation both run through the contractor, which is the operator, which is you.
What does the body corporate committee check about you before approving the transfer?
Before it approves a transfer the committee can look at the person as closely as the business. At the time of writing the Queensland Government's guidance on transferring an engagement lets the committee consider your character, your financial standing, the terms of the transfer, your competence, qualifications and experience, and any training you have completed or are likely to complete. It has 30 days to decide once it has the information it needs, it cannot unreasonably withhold its approval, and it can ask to be reimbursed for reasonable costs only. Some regulation modules do not allow an engagement to be transferred at all, so the module your scheme sits under is the first thing to confirm.
How the process runs, what it costs and when a transfer fee applies are covered in the caretaking agreement insight, along with what happens if the committee later wants you out, and none of that is repeated here. What this section adds is how buyers answer the person question in files that go through cleanly: an industry training course booked or completed, a relief manager plan written down, references from a previous body corporate or employer, and a short account of who will be on site and when. The committee reads the person, the lender reads the file, and what lenders actually look at first is often the same thing the committee asked about: who is going to be in the unit on Monday morning. Approval has to be in hand before settlement, so the timing of that meeting is part of the deal, not an afterthought.
Who has to hold the letting licence if you are not the one on site?
The letting licence has to sit with whoever is actually carrying on the letting business, which is why the question changes the moment you are not the one on site. The licence class, its conditions and how you obtain it are the parent guide's licence section, and this insight does not repeat them. What changes with an employed manager or a couple is who is named on the licence, who supervises the letting work day to day, and whether the entity that signs the agreements, a person, a company or a trust, is the same one the licence sits with, which is a company structure decision as much as a licensing one. That is one line for your solicitor before you sign, because a lender will ask it too.
How do lenders read the operator, not just the business?
Lenders read the operator before they read the business, because the same letting pool and the same body corporate salary produce a different file depending on who is running them and how. The last objection is the quiet one: the numbers are the numbers, why does it matter who I am? Because on a management rights file the income walks around the building on two legs.
What lenders actually look at first, on an onsite manager file, is who will be in the unit and what they have done before: prior management rights, hospitality or property management experience, whether one person or a couple carries the role, and who holds the licence. Then come the guarantees. Expect a personal guarantee, and a directors' guarantee where the buyer is a company or trust, because the lender is lending to the person as much as to the business. Where the work is handed to staff, the lender prices key person risk on an employed manager: it asks what happens to the pool and the salary if that person resigns, and whether you can step in the same week. On a business-only deal there is no unit to take as security, so the facility leans on the trading history and the going concern value alone and is generally geared more conservatively, which varies by lender.
How the facility is sized, what deposit the structure usually needs and whether a buyer with no experience can be funded are the lender read insight's questions and are not repeated here. What you can do before any of that is assemble the accommodation document pack a lender will ask for, because an operator who arrives with the pack reads as an operator. If the unit is part of the deal, the property lending hub covers how the lot itself is read, and the accommodation finance hub holds the rest of the lane.
If you want to know how your own file reads before you go near a committee, check eligibility and we will tell you what a lender is going to ask about you first.
The onsite manager in management rights is three hats, one business: contractor to the body corporate, agent to the owners in the pool, occupant of the manager's unit. The live-on-site rule is the residency clause in the agreement, not a state rule, so moving offsite or buying business-only is a question for the owners at a general meeting, not for the committee. You can employ a manager, but the wages come out before the figure the business is priced and funded on, and you become an employer. The committee reads the person, the lender reads the file, and both start with the same question: who will actually be on site, and what have they done before?
Key takeaway: decide who will wear each of the three hats before you sign, because the agreements, the committee and the lender will each ask, and each wants a different answer.Frequently Asked Questions
Business only management rights is a management rights business sold without the manager's unit, so you buy the caretaking agreement and the letting pool but not a lot in the complex. It suits buyers who already own a home nearby, investors and portfolio operators, provided the scheme's agreements do not require the manager to own or occupy a lot. For a lender the business is the only security, so the loan is sized on the going concern rather than on a unit it can value, and where a unit exists but sits outside the deal the manager's lot financed on a separate commercial loan is the usual structure.
You can employ a manager to run your management rights, and operators with more than one complex commonly do. The body corporate still holds you to the caretaking agreement as its contractor, the wages come out before the profit a lender assesses for serviceability, and you take on an employer's obligations for pay, records and conditions. A lender will also ask what happens if that manager leaves, so a relief plan and your own ability to step in are part of the answer.
You do not need management rights training before the body corporate approves you in every scheme, but training completed or planned is one of the things a Queensland committee can take into account at transfer, alongside your character, financial standing, competence and experience. Buyers with no industry background commonly book an industry course and line up a relief manager before the committee meets, so the question has an answer when it is asked. A lender asks the same question through a different lens, which the lender read insight covers for buyers with no experience.
Management rights lenders do ask for personal guarantees in most cases, and where the borrower is a company or trust they ask for directors' guarantees as well, because the business is only as good as the person running it. The guarantee sits alongside the security over the business, the manager's unit where there is one, and sometimes other property you own. What a guarantee commits you to is explained in the directors' guarantee glossary entry and the directors' guarantee guide.
A relief manager in management rights is a person or couple who steps into the onsite role for a set period, covering holidays, illness or the gap between a sale settling and the new manager moving in. Committees like to see a relief plan because the caretaking agreement does not pause when you do, and lenders read it as cover for the risk of the manager being unavailable. The work they cover day to day is described in the apartment management rights insight, and if the relief manager is paid, the employer obligations for pay, records and conditions apply to them too.
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