Sydney strata manager Whitney Wang has been banned from practising for 10 years and his company has been stripped of its licence.

Mr Wang was the strata manager at the centre of an explosive meeting at the embattled Vicinity apartment complex in Canterbury in 2021 that became so hostile the police were called.

He has also been ousted as strata manager twice in the past two years after owners at separate apartment buildings initiated legal action in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).

However, until now the 60-year-old Carlton man has not faced disciplinary action by the regulator.

On Tuesday NSW Fair Trading reprimanded, cancelled and disqualified Mr Wang for 10 years and banned him from being involved in the direction, management or conduct of his company Professional Strata Management Group (PSMG).

The watchdog also cancelled PSMG's licence for a decade.

Karen Stiles, the executive director of the Owners Corporation Network, said it was the first time she had heard of such significant action being taken against a strata manager.

"It's about time," Ms Stiles said.

Ms Stiles, who has represented apartment owners since 2012, said she had been raising Mr Wang's alleged conduct with the NSW Strata Commissioner every month for the past two-and-a-half years.

"I'm aware of five different apartment buildings that have taken Mr Wang to NCAT for [alleged] serious performance issues," she told the ABC.

In a statement, Mr Wang told the ABC "we don't think the disciplinary action is reasonable and we are appealing".

Last month the NSW government pledged to bolster oversight of the state's strata management industry amid an ongoing ABC investigation into the exploitation of apartment owners.

Police called to strata meeting

In November 2021, the ABC obtained footage of a fiery strata meeting held in an underground car park of the Vicinity building in Canterbury.

The following month the strata committee chair Leith Dawes and about a dozen other owners sought orders through NCAT to remove Mr Wang as strata manager and the video was admitted into evidence.

The footage shows Vicinity owners deeply divided over who should be managing the building.

Police can later be heard warning residents they would shut the meeting down if it "gets out of hand".

The heightened tensions followed revelations the 10-storey building had significant cracking in the basement.

The apartment towers had been constructed by colourful Sydney developer Jean Nassif's Toplace in 2017.

Ahead of the strata meeting, government inspectors had been called in to check if the building would need to be evacuated.

The officials later determined residents could stay as "any potential collapse associated with the observed cracking would further manifest over time".

Owner-investors, including foreign investors, were agitating for Mr Wang to be the strata manager as special levies were escalating and he promoted himself as keeping costs low.

But owner-occupiers who lived at the complex told the ABC they were worried the defects were not being addressed. 

During NCAT proceedings in December 2021, the tribunal heard allegations from owner-occupiers that Mr Wang had inserted himself into the role of strata manager by signing a strata managing agency agreement on behalf of both his company and the strata plan, which was an alleged conflict of interest.

Mr Wang told the tribunal this was an "innocent oversight", but the tribunal found the October 2021 agreement had been "improperly signed by Mr Wang" and appointed Bright and Duggan as compulsory strata managers to replace him from January 2022.

Property not maintained at North Ryde tower

In January this year, Mr Wang was removed as strata manager from a second Sydney apartment block.

Thirty-five owners from the Gondon Macquarie building in North Ryde sought an order to appoint a compulsory strata manager.

The tribunal heard the owners' corporation, through its strata manager Mr Wang, had failed to prepare estimates for capital works funds over multiple financial years and "made payments... where no budget existed".

Owners claimed more than $140,000 in unbudgeted funds was spent in a single year, despite a limitation on spending being imposed on the scheme.

NCAT also found the owners' corporation, through its strata management, failed to maintain the common property, following complaints of black mould and rubbish in the fire stairs, emergency lighting that did not properly work and scaffolding blocking the fire exit.

Owners' corporations are required by law to properly keep and maintain common property within their strata scheme.

Chair of the Gondon Macquarie strata committee and applicant Stuart McLean told the ABC he felt "ecstatic" at NSW Fair Trading's decision this week to disqualify Mr Wang as a strata manager for 10 years.

"Cowboys like that should not be allowed to operate," he said.

"My wife and I have pretty much thought about, talked about strata nonstop for three years."

He is calling for the government to create a complaints register for strata managers, similar to the "system you have with tradies to see how many complaints have been levelled about a person."

Mr McLean said he and the other owners were asked in June to pay an extra $15,000 each in special levies, in part to address a maintenance backlog and have a defect report prepared.

Former PSMG employee speaks out

A former senior strata manager at PSMG, Raymond Rez, provided a statement to a separate NCAT proceeding in 2023, which was admitted into evidence.

Mr Rez said he quit PSMG in 2020 because he could "no longer, in good conscience, continue to work for a company that spent more time manipulating their clients than working in their best interests", according to his statement.

The former employee told the tribunal Mr Wang would "routinely tell clients at meetings they did not need to obtain or observe Capital Works Fund Forecasts, did not need to carry out repairs or that the repairs were lot owner responsibility".

Mr Rez said he informed Mr Wang he was "not following the requirements of the SSMA [Strata Schemes Management Act] and causing significant financial harm to his clients".

He said Mr Wang replied "words to the effect; yes, but I like to keep my clients' levies low to improve their property sales values and maximise the returns for investors".

Mr Rez also alleged Mr Wang would "block owners and committees who sought to remove PSMG as managing agent" and "routinely select owners to support who would in turn support his continued re-appointment as managing agent".

In a statement, Mr Wang told the ABC that he had objected to his former employee's statements at the tribunal and that "Mr Rez's suggestions are untrue".

A spokesperson for NSW Fair Trading said in a statement: "The disciplinary actions were taken due to PSMG's numerous breaches of statutory duties in its role as strata manager for the affected schemes".

"Whitney Hong Wang is the sole director and licensee-in-charge of PSMG and was found to be involved in, or responsible for, the breaches of PSMG."