Schedule B Fees: The Silent Budget Killer in Strata
How "additional service" charges quietly drain your building's funds — and what your committee can do about it
If your building's strata management costs have been creeping up year after year despite no change in the base fee, the culprit is almost certainly Schedule B.
These "additional service" fees are charged on top of your agreed management fee for any work the strata manager considers outside the standard scope. And for many Australian apartment buildings, they represent the single largest source of budget blowouts in the administrative fund.
What Exactly Gets Charged Under Schedule B?
Schedule B covers a wide range of activities, and the specific items vary between strata management companies. But here are the charges that show up most frequently:
| Schedule B Item | Typical Fee Range |
|---|---|
| Extra committee meeting attendance | $200 – $500 per meeting |
| EGM preparation and attendance | $500 – $1,500 |
| Insurance claim management | $180 – $280/hour |
| By-law breach correspondence | $150 – $250 per matter |
| Debt recovery (per lot in arrears) | $150 – $300+ per lot |
| Obtaining maintenance quotes | $60 – $150 per quote |
| NCAT/Tribunal application | $500 – $2,000+ |
| Strata Hub annual reporting (NSW) | $100 – $400 |
| Section 184 certificate preparation | $100 – $350 |
| After-hours emergency call-out | $250 – $500+ |
| Managing contractor compliance | $100 – $200 per contractor |
| Coordinating major works / defects | $180 – $280/hour |
The fees themselves might not shock you individually. But add them up across a 12-month period — especially for an older building with active maintenance needs — and you're looking at $4,000 to $10,000+ in charges that never appeared in the headline management fee.
Why Schedule B Charges Blow Out
The perverse incentive
The fundamental problem with Schedule B is that it creates a misaligned incentive. The narrower the base agreement (Schedule F), the more opportunities there are to charge additional fees. Some strata managers deliberately quote a low base fee to win the contract, knowing they'll recoup the difference through aggressive Schedule B billing.
This is particularly problematic for buildings going through challenging periods — defect claims, major maintenance programs, by-law disputes, or committee turnover. These are precisely the times when owners need the most support from their manager, and they're also the times when Schedule B charges spike.
The billing increment trap
Another common issue is the billing increment. Many contracts specify Schedule B work is charged in 15-minute or 6-minute increments. A quick five-minute phone call can be billed as a full 15-minute block at $70. A two-minute email response gets rounded up to six minutes at $28.
Over the course of a year, dozens of these small billing increments add up to significant costs that are almost impossible to audit after the fact.
No approval required
Unless your contract specifically requires it, most strata managers can perform Schedule B work and bill for it without seeking committee approval first. You may not even see the charges until they appear as line items in the quarterly financial report — by which point the money has already been spent from your admin fund.
Real-World Example: How Schedule B Doubles Your Costs
Consider a typical 60-lot building in Sydney with a base management fee of $18,000 per year. Here's what a year of Schedule B charges might look like:
| Activity | Hours/Events | Rate | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 extra committee meetings | 3 × 2hrs | $250/hr | $1,500 |
| 1 EGM (by-law amendment) | Flat fee | — | $1,200 |
| Insurance claim (water damage) | 4 hours | $250/hr | $1,000 |
| 2 by-law breach matters | 2 × flat fee | $200 each | $400 |
| 3 lots in levy arrears | 3 × flat fee | $250 each | $750 |
| 8 maintenance quotes obtained | 8 × flat fee | $100 each | $800 |
| Strata Hub reporting | 1.5 hours | $250/hr | $375 |
| Section 184 certificates × 4 | 4 × flat fee | $150 each | $600 |
| Total Schedule B | $6,625 |
That $18,000 management fee just became $24,625 — a 37% increase. And none of this is unusual activity for a building of this size. Committee meetings, levy arrears, maintenance quotes, and the occasional insurance claim are the normal rhythm of strata life.
The "All-Inclusive" Alternative
An increasingly popular approach is to negotiate an all-inclusive management contract that eliminates Schedule B charges entirely. Under this model, the base fee is higher, but it covers everything the strata manager does for your building — no surprises, no additional invoices, complete cost certainty.
The right model depends on your building's activity level:
| Building Profile | Better Contract Model |
|---|---|
| Quiet, well-maintained, few issues | Lower base fee + Schedule B (activity is low) |
| Active committee, regular maintenance | All-inclusive (Schedule B would add up fast) |
| Older building, defects, frequent claims | All-inclusive (you'll save significantly) |
| Large building (100+ lots) | All-inclusive (per-lot disbursements also compound) |
The golden question when comparing strata managers: "What would an all-inclusive contract cost, with zero Schedule B charges?" This gives you the true comparable price and takes the guesswork out of budget forecasting.
Newer Charges Creeping Into Schedule B
As regulatory requirements evolve, new charges are appearing in Schedule B that didn't exist a few years ago.
Strata Hub reporting (NSW)
The most notable example is Strata Hub — the annual data submission to NSW Fair Trading that became mandatory under the Strata Schemes Management Amendment (Information) Regulation 2021. Many strata managers currently charge for this as a Schedule B item, billing one to two hours at the senior manager's hourly rate.
For some buildings this means paying $200–$500 per year just for regulatory reporting. Industry commentators have argued this work should be part of a manager's core duties and incorporated into base management fees at contract renewal, rather than charged at premium hourly rates.
NSW Fair Trading also charges $3 per lot directly to the scheme for the Strata Hub platform — a separate cost on top of whatever your manager charges for the data entry.
Insurance disclosure compliance
Changes under the Strata Managing Agents Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (NSW) created new disclosure requirements around commissions and financial remuneration. Some managers are billing the additional administrative work as Schedule B, adding yet another line item.
Contractor compliance checks
Increasingly, strata managers are charging to verify that contractors hold current ABNs, appropriate licences, and adequate insurance before they work on common property. While this is a sensible compliance step, some committee members have questioned whether a basic ABN check justifies a $150–$200 charge.
Seven Ways to Control Schedule B Costs
1. Require written approval
Insert a clause in your contract requiring the strata manager to obtain written committee approval before performing any Schedule B work. This prevents billing for work that was never authorised.
2. Set a dollar threshold
Agree that any single Schedule B charge over a set amount (say $300) requires committee pre-approval. This allows small administrative tasks to proceed without delay while flagging significant costs before they're incurred.
3. Convert rates to per-hour for comparison
Schedule B fees are often presented in 6-minute, 15-minute, or 30-minute increments. Convert everything to an hourly rate so you can compare providers on a like-for-like basis. A rate quoted as "$70 per 15-minute unit" is actually $280/hour.
4. Negotiate key items into Schedule F
If your building regularly needs certain services — like maintenance quote coordination or insurance claim management — negotiate to include them in the base agreement rather than leaving them as Schedule B extras. This shifts the cost risk to the manager and gives you budget certainty.
5. Request quarterly Schedule B reporting
Ask your strata manager to provide a detailed Schedule B summary each quarter, showing every charge, the time spent, and the outcome. This creates accountability and lets you spot patterns of over-billing before they compound.
6. Use committee members' skills
If you have committee members with relevant expertise — accounting, legal, project management — they can handle certain tasks directly instead of paying the strata manager's hourly rate. A committee member who coordinates maintenance quotes saves the building $100+ per quote.
7. Retender before contract expiry
Always retender your strata management near the end of the current contract. This ensures your manager can't increase fees unreasonably, knowing you'll simply roll over. The tendering process itself often reveals how competitive (or not) your current arrangement really is.
Pro tip from the OCN: When tendering, convert all Schedule B charges to a dollar-per-hour equivalent and ask providers to estimate total annual Schedule B costs based on your building's typical activity level. This makes comparison dramatically easier.
The Bottom Line
Schedule B isn't inherently bad — some buildings genuinely don't need many additional services, and paying per-use is more efficient than a bloated base fee. The problem arises when:
- The base agreement is deliberately narrow to generate Schedule B revenue
- Charges are billed without committee approval
- Billing increments inflate the true time spent
- New regulatory requirements get charged at premium rates
- Owners never see the total Schedule B spend in one place
The fix is transparency and accountability. Know what's in your contract. Track what's being charged. And hold your manager to the same standard of openness you'd expect from anyone handling your money.
See Where Your Money Really Goes
UnitBuddy tracks your building's management costs and benchmarks them against similar buildings — so Schedule B charges never catch you off guard again.