Leaked audio reveals strata giant caught asking contractor for kickbacks

For nearly 30 years, James* had operated under a simple assumption about the building services game: you pitch a competitive price, you deliver high-quality work, and the best quote wins.

But two minutes into a phone call on a weekday afternoon last month, the veteran contractor got the shock of his career.

He was pitching for a lucrative contract to execute major, multi-month project works on a luxury waterfront apartment block in Geelong, worth about $200,000. On the other end of the line was the building’s strata manager from Ace Body Corporate Management, one of Australia’s largest strata management firms.

“Two minutes in, I began to smell a rat,” James recalled. “Certain questions were being asked … I got this gut feeling that something wasn’t adding up.”

What followed, James said, was a brazen proposition that left the veteran contractor floored. The strata manager was not looking for the best deal for the apartment owners. Instead, he was looking to clip the ticket on the contract, explicitly soliciting a 10 per cent kickback in exchange for rigging the competitive tendering process.

“I was quite literally gobsmacked,” James said. “I was just like, ‘wow’. This is the first time in the strata side of things that someone has been that brazen to suggest that they need a kickback. Quite frankly, it’s not that often I get lost for words. I felt like I’d been struck across the face with a fish.“

The leaked audio recording of the conversation, obtained exclusively by The Age, captures a rare example of what is often suspected – but difficult to prove – in the sector: a strata manager soliciting unlawful kickbacks from commercial contractors.

In the recording, strata manager Nieraj Sachdev – one of the Geelong branch managers – offers to actively mislead the building’s elected owners committee and subvert democratic tender processes behind the backs of unsuspecting apartment owners to secure corporate “referral fees”.

The revelation comes amid an ongoing regulation crisis in apartment living in Victoria, with consistent calls to overhaul legislation and clean up the sector.

In the conversation with James, Sachdev openly claims control of the apartment building’s project works, and frames the kickback as standard corporate practice for Ace.

“So I’m clear in terms of what it is that you’re asking,” James is heard saying in the recording. “You’re actually asking for what, a referral fee, or something along those lines?”

Sachdev responds: “Yeah, a percentage paid to us, or like a fixed fee … because we are referring this business to you guys. And we’ll try to make sure, obviously … that this comes to you.”

When James pushes for clarity on where the financial “benefit” actually goes, the manager is unambiguous: the money belongs to the corporate brand, not the residents paying the levies.

“Something to go back to Ace itself … that’s what I’m trying to communicate,” Sachdev says. “If something can be provided as a benefit to Ace … we’re trying to get some sort of compensation from the vendor because at the end of the day, we are getting business to the vendor.”

‘Ultimate betrayal of trust’

For James, the offer was a direct invitation to compromise his professional ethics.

“What he was trying to do is he’s trying to normalise it … as though this is just the stock standard practice,” James said. “And I stopped short of actually saying, ‘Mate, I’m sorry, but you’re full of it’.”

Under the Owners Corporations Act in Victoria, strata managers are not entirely prohibited from receiving third-party commissions or “referral fees”, but the legal threshold to pocket them is exceptionally high.

A manager is strictly forbidden from seeking or retaining any financial benefit from a supplier unless they disclose it to the building’s elected committee in writing. While the chair of the owners’ committee in the Geelong building declined to comment for this story, they did confirm that this “referral fee” set-up had not been disclosed or discussed with them.

Worse than the squeeze on his own business, James said, was the exploitation of those residents who had entrusted Ace with their funds.

“You’ve got someone who is ripping their client off,” he said. “It’s an injustice that people would not even be aware of what is occurring. That’s what annoys me the most. It’s an ultimate betrayal of trust.

“It’s even more disturbing that it’s come from a company that, for all intent and purpose, would have checks and balances in place to ensure that this kind of behaviour did not occur.”

Ace manages 60,000 lots across 120 national branches. In 2018, it was acquired by PICA Group, Australia’s largest strata behemoth, which oversees a national property footprint valued at $72 billion with a 10 per cent market share.

When questioned by The Age, Ace scrubbed Sachdev’s name and professional profile from its website, where he was earlier this week actively listed under the Geelong branch.

In a formal statement, Ace corporate headquarters confirmed it had investigated the recording and had “responded strongly to this serious issue with the offending party”. It confirmed Sachdev was no longer with the business.

The company distanced itself entirely from Sachdev’s actions – it said that secret vendor commissions are “not part of ACE Body Corporate Management’s franchise model and are prohibited by ACE” – and sought to firewall the parent entity citing its corporate structure.

“ACE franchisees are independently owned and operated businesses,” the company statement said. “All franchisees are required to comply with relevant legislation, industry standards and their contractual obligations.”

Ace’s ultimate parent company, PICA Group, did not respond to a series of detailed questions. The Age was unable to directly reach Sachdev for comment.

The peak body representing the sector, the Strata Community Association (SCA) Victoria, confirmed on Friday it had taken immediate action following inquiries from The Age.

General manager Susan Chandler confirmed the SCA’s state board of directors had formally referred the matter to the body’s independent professional standards and membership advisory group for an urgent investigation into the franchise operation of Ace Body Corporate Geelong.

Chandler said the conduct caught in the recording was “inconsistent with the standards expected under the SCA code of ethics framework”, and verified that Sachdev was no longer eligible for membership with the peak industry association following his departure from Ace.

Where’s the reform?

Samantha Reece, the director of consumer advocacy group Australian Apartment Advocacy – which receives commercial sponsorship from “preferred industry suppliers” – said the leaked recording provided proof that corporate strata management had lost its way.

“It is extremely disappointing to see some of the largest strata management firms seeking to monetise relationships with suppliers, which then impact the affordability of apartment living in Victoria,” Reece said. “The body corporate manager works for the owners, but when they are focused on maximising revenue and not customer service, that is when consumer confidence in apartments begins to wane.”

Reece warned that the current self-regulatory framework was failing to protect consumers.

“Victoria needs a strata commissioner to attend to these matters and stamp out corruption or what we call ‘dirty strata’,” Reece said. “If you are buying an apartment, you expect your suppliers to be supporting you in maintaining your apartment building and community, and not taking advantage of that privilege.”

Adam Promnitz, co-founder of grassroots advocacy group Strata Owners Alliance – which takes a hardline stance against taking industry sponsorship – agreed with Reece, and additionally called for a royal commission into the sector. He said the “repulsive conduct” caught in the recording was not an isolated incident.

“Owners have a right to know when someone procuring services on their behalf receives a kickback, commission, free work, hospitality or any other undisclosed benefit,” Promnitz said. “We call on every owner or supplier who comes across unethical conduct in the strata management industry to speak up.”

The SCA, the peak body, also called for the appointment of a strata commissioner but defended the broader sector, and argued that “the overwhelming majority of the many thousands of strata professionals working across Victoria conduct themselves ethically”.

For months, the Allan government has faced accusations of dragging its feet on strata reform despite pushing a high-density agenda for Melbourne. One in four Victorians live in strata systems, and that number is expected to dramatically increase in coming years.

The government previously commissioned independent review into strata laws specifically tasked with examining owners corporation management conduct, including “dishonest business practices, conflicts of interest and inappropriate commissions or kickbacks”. That report was handed to then-consumer affairs minister Nick Staikos in December 2025, but six months on, remains unreleased.

The Age has been denied access to the report under freedom of information laws, with the refusal citing cabinet privilege.

New Consumer Affairs Minister Paul Edbrooke, who replaced Staikos in a cabinet reshuffle last month, was contacted for comment. A spokesman repeated the same response given numerous times to The Age, that the government was “carefully considering” the report and would say more “in due course”.

Opposition consumer affairs spokesman Tim McCurdy has repeatedly called for the report’s release and said the Liberals and Nationals would consider appointing an independent strata commissioner if they won the election in November.

“These allegations are shocking and is more evidence of the depth of misconduct that has been allowed to flourish because of Labor’s weak oversight,” McCurdy said.

* Name has been changed to protect source’s identity.