High-profile strata company Netstrata caught charging excessive fees and taking kickbacks

One of the country's most high-profile strata management firms has been using its wholly owned insurance arm to charge apartment owners insurance brokerage fees as high as three times the typical rate. Nina Howell said Netstrata's "referral fees" were not disclosed in financial reports to owners corporation members. Asked whether a 64 per cent brokerage fee was "reasonable in any circumstances", Mr Brell said: "It would depend on the work that's been performed." Highest of all was 2016, when Netstrata's average "net brokerage fee" on the insurance arranged for its owners was 52 per cent. "The kickbacks that come from other service providers … are added to the invoices which the strata manager passes along to the owners corporation for blind approval," Mr Goddard said.