Michael Teys is the founder of The Strata Professionals Group and the architect of the professional standard every office in the network operates to.
He brings more than 40 years in strata — including over 30 years as a specialist strata lawyer — a decade of strata business ownership, and an active programme of academic research into multi-owned property governance.
Michael practised as a specialist strata lawyer from 1994, advising committees, developers, and owners across the full spectrum of strata disputes, compliance, and governance, and served as a Fellow of the Australian College of Strata Law. He went on to own and run strata management companies across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia, managing a combined portfolio of tens of thousands of apartments. Running those businesses gave him direct exposure to the operational pressures strata managers face — and revealed the structural weaknesses that became the catalyst for founding the network.
He holds a Master of Philosophy (Built Environment) from UNSW, where his thesis examined how mixed-use strata developments create anti-commons risks that impede urban renewal, completed under an Australian Research Council scholarship. He has been accepted at the University of Oxford to undertake a Doctorate of Philosophy in Law. He has held research positions at the City Futures Research Centre (UNSW) and Deakin University, and presents regularly at international forums including Oxford, the House of Commons, and the International Research Forum on Multi-Owned Properties in Spain, Canada and Australia.
Michael writes The Strata Professional, a weekly newsletter on strata law, committee governance, and why true professionalism matters in this industry. You can learn more about him at michaelteys.com.
This combination of legal practice, business ownership, and research is the foundation of the franchise standard. Every element of how the network operates — from the no-commission pricing structure to the Balanced Strata Method™ — is grounded in something tested rather than assumed.
There are few people in the world that have seen and learnt as much about strata as Francesco Andreone. He’s controversial, but he is one of the few in the industry that thinks deeply about the strata condition and his views are always worth considering.
When your apartment suffers water damage, the last thing to ask is who should claim on their insurance. The first thing is who’s responsible, then ask what, where and why.
Apartment owners with building defects can waste a lot of time and money not knowing what to do when they find out they have significant building defects. Usually, this period of confusion sets in just after the owners receive a building defects inspection report.
In business and politics, the end of year holiday season when everyone is distracted by family and fun is notoriously a good time to bring out your dead. And that’s exactly what two high profile apartment construction companies did in the dying day and weeks of 2020.
In light of the fire risks associated with external cladding, and regardless of the building materials used, now is a good time to review fire safety of every building.
The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) has created a new way for owners corporations in New South Wales to seek compensation for building defects. This includes defect cases relating to water ingress, faulty fire safety systems and combustible cladding.
