Body Corporate Levy Contributions

Most people know that if they own a lot within a community titles schemes they are required to pay Body Corporate levies. For many, however, how Body Corporate levies are calculated are and what they are used for can be confusing,

Body Corporate levies are typically fixed every financial year at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Body Corporate, and are based on Budgets prepared by the Committee that are approved by the Owners at the AGM.

There are typically two budgets prepared each year, the Administration Fund and the Sinking Fund.

The Administrative Fund Budget contains estimates of expenditure to cover:

• the cost of maintaining common property and Body Corporate assets;
• the cost of insurance;
• other expenditure of a recurrent nature (e.g. electricity, pest control, bank fees etc.).

The Sinking Fund Budget has two objectives and is based on a “Sinking Fund Forecast”:

• it must raise a reasonable amount to cover necessary and reasonable capital expenditure for that year, as per the Sinking Fund Forecast;
• it must reserve an appropriate balance necessary to meet anticipated major expenditure over several years into the future for major expenditure such as repainting the exterior of buildings or replacing the Scheme’s air-conditioning system.

The Minutes of the AGM clearly specify the due dates and dollar amount per lot entitlement and are issued to all Owners.

Levy Notices are issued by the Body Corporate Managers office a minimum of 30 days prior to the due date and in line with BCCM Legislation.

In August 2015 – Body Corporate Levies, what happens when owners do not pay?

For more information visit the Queensland Government website – Body Corporate – Financial Management – http://www.qld.gov.au/law/housing-and-neighbours/body-corporate/financial-management/

CTS Body Corporate Management.

Click here for access

Strata Community Australia – Inside Strata – June 2015

For more information visit the Strata Community Australia website. 

CTS Management claims no ownership or production rights. 

This edition has been posted with the permission of the author/ owner  Strata Community Australia.

CTS Body Corporate Management

In an attempt to educate our Clients and the Body Corporate Community, CTS Management is developing regular website articles based on issues that have been dealt with by our office. If there is a topic that you would like our office to address, please submit your request to info@ctsm.com.au or alternatively, contact 07 3211 4445. We are only too happy to assist you!

Pets and Bodies Corporate

An issue that continues to stream across our desks is the matter of keeping animals in a Body Corporate Community. Many Bodies Corporate that we manage have different Pet Policies. So which policy is the most acceptable? Some complexes implement a ‘No Pets Policy’, denying all requests from Occupiers / Owners. Others have a more sympathetic approach and provide approvals on specific terms. We are often asked what right does a Body Corporate have to deny an Occupier’s request to keep an animal? In our experience this is a bit of a grey area. As the need for change in the Body Corporate Legislation becomes more apparent, what happens in the meantime? To give you an idea of the different Body Corporate ‘ Keeping of Animals’ By – Laws out there, examples can be found below: –

‘An Owner or occupier of a Lot must not keep an animal upon their Lot or the Common Property’.

‘Subject to s143[2] of the Act, no dog or cat of any kind is allowed to be kept within a lot, with the exception of those animals currently registered as approved by the Committee as of 18 January, 2004’.

‘The occupier of a lot must not, without the body corporate’s written approval—
(a) bring or keep an animal on the lot or the common property; or
(b) permit an invitee to bring or keep an animal on the lot or the common property.
(2) The occupier must obtain the body corporate’s written approval before bringing, or permitting an invitee to bring, an animal onto the lot or the common property’.

So let’s start with the basics. The Body Corporate By- Laws dictate the provisions of the Body Corporate. These By – Laws can be found in the Body Corporate’s Community Management Statement (CMS). Body Corporate By – Laws must be adhered to by all Occupiers, Owners and Tenants. That being said, By – Law limitations do exist in the Legislation. Committees need to be aware of these limitations when creating new By – Laws as, if a By – Law contravenes a limitation, the By – Law cannot be enforced and will be ruled invalid. A relevant limitation that could apply relating to the Keeping of Animals By Law is Section 180 (7) of the BCCM Act in that ‘a by-law must not be oppressive or unreasonable, having regard to the interests of all owners and occupiers of lots included in the scheme and the use of the common property for the scheme (BCCM Act 1997 (QLD)’. So what is considered to be unreasonable? In the case of River City Apartments (2011) QBCCMCmr 184 (3 May 2011), the Adjudicator found that the Body Corporate’s By – Law placed a ‘blanket’ ban on all animals within the scheme. The By- Law was ruled invalid and therefore could not be enforced. The grounds given in the determination was that an absolute ban on the keeping of animals was unreasonable. When it comes to individual cases it is important to consider what is considered ‘unreasonable’. This of course, can be left up to interpretation.

Often Body Corporate Committees will argue that Owners purchase into a complex knowing the Body Corporate By- Laws and therefore should accept them. Further, keeping animals in close confines result in undesirable circumstances such as odours and noises, not to mention the small packages being left on the common property footpath. So which point of view is right? Ultimately, with the legislation the way it is, these matters are put forward to Adjudication and the Adjudicator will assess the circumstances and will come to a determination based on case law, current legislation and their interpretation of the case.

So before initiating an application it’s important to review the By – Laws and review your circumstances because you don’t want to go barking up the wrong tree!

Please note that the above information is not formal advice.

Picture in text – http://www.save.ca/community/is-pet-insurance-a-good-idea

For information on the Body Corporate and Community Management Act follow the link below:

Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (QLD), viewed May 2015, Section 180 (7), https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/B/BodyCorpA97.pdf

For information on the Adjudicator’s Order RE River City Apartments follow the link below:

Queensland Body Corporate and Community Management Commissioner – Adjudicators Orders – River City Apartments (2011) QBCCMCmr 184 (3 May 2011) http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/qld/QBCCMCmr/2011/184.html

Body Corporate /Bodies Corporate/ Pets

Source:- SCA – Strata Community Australia, http://www.stratacommunity.org.au/convention-2014

STRATA COMMUNITY AUSTRALIA

NATIONAL CONVENTION

CAIRNS JUNE 1 – 3 2014

CTS MANAGEMENT STAFF AS REGISTERED DELEGATES AT THE STRATA COMMUNITY AUSTRALIA CONVENTION

This year, two Staff Members from CTS Management will be attending the 2014 SCA National Convention in Cairns on 1 – 3 June 2014. CTS Management hopes to obtain relevant industry updates and associate with Industry Affiliates from across the Strata Management Industry. As CTS Management remains dedicated to providing its Clients with Industry news and updates, CTS Management will endeavour to provide its loyal Clients and Members Industry updates discussed in the National Strata Convention.

Watch this space for Convention information….

For more information on the Strata Community Australia National Convention 2014 and for the Convention Program, please visit the SCA National Convention Website.

Access the Autumn 2014 Edition here

Strata Community Australia – Inside Strata – Autumn 2014

For more information visit the Strata Community Australia website. 

CTS Management claims no ownership or production rights. 

This edition has been posted with the permission of the author/ owner  Strata Community Australia.

]]> http://ctsm.com.au/autumn-2014-inside-strata-strata-community-australia/feed/ 0 http://ctsm.com.au/resort-publishing-preferred-supplier-cts-management-body-corporate-services/ http://ctsm.com.au/resort-publishing-preferred-supplier-cts-management-body-corporate-services/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2014 01:18:20 +0000 http://ctsm.com.au/?p=967

Resort Publishing – Preferred Supplier Profile – CTS Management Body Corporate Services

CTS MANAGEMENT BODY CORPORATE SERVICES

QUEENSLAND BODY CORPORATE SERVICES

(EXTRACTED FROM RESORT NEWS – MARCH EDITION) – BODY CORPORATE SERVICES

Corporations need steady guidance to maximise their productivity and communicative synergy. Body corporate management is essential for bodies corporate that want to minimise conflict and ensure that all committee members (including the caretaker and body corporate manager) are completely on board with tasks.

 Industry preferred supplier CTS Management is a company that has managed to balance an expansive clientele with a series of talented staff members, enabling it to remain indelibly relevant within the body corporate management industry. Doing more than just looking after books and records, CTSM specialises in a multitude of essential corporate tasks, including “accurate and timely meeting notices and minutes to both the committee members (for approval prior to circulation) and unit owners; accurate financial reporting, which includes the distribution of building status reports each month to all committee members; systems that promote effective communication between all committee members including the caretaker; a focus on minimising expenses and maximising income for the body corporate; and support for all of the associated pieces of legislation”.

 How does this management business work?

CTSM runs under the leadership of Coralie Mott, a past vice president and educational director of the Community Titles Institute of Queensland (now SCA). She runs the business by example, using her past as an ex-science teacher to inform her work, she “is passionate about processes and procedures and encourages all bodies corporate under management to be fully compliant, not only with the Body Corporate and Community Management Act, 1997 and its associated regulations, but also the WH&S.” Ms Mott established CTSM in 2006 as the second body corporate management business she had started up from scratch, it was able to draw heavily on her wealth of experience. Ms Mott has surrounded herself with an “experienced team that consists of qualified professionals from within the accommodation industry, to incorporate a wide range of perspective and experience into the company. This talented staff includes a licensed real estate agent and an experienced facility manager.”

But that is not all; Ms Mott also has in her employ an “accounts team led by a qualified accountant with many years experience dealing with all financial aspects of body corporate management.”The CTSM accounts team has “been together for numerous years so its functionality is recognised as one of the best. It is led by Lee Hipkins, a past auditor of body corporate records. ”While those are the staff members who will likely deal with clients, there is a lot more than meets the eye in CTSM. They have a secretarial department, that “has established a fully functional system of templates, checklists and schedules that are used on a daily basis to ensure that accurate documents are distributed to committee members and owners in a timely manner.”There is also an administrative team that “works closely with Coralie Mott. Daily meetings and the use of checklists ensure that all meetings are held at the required times and the minutes of same are produced within five working days of each meeting.”This particular team also involves itself in “nomination and motion invitations that are issued with regimental efficiency as are the acknowledgements of these.” Under Ms Mott, the admin team has assurance that “all correspondences are responded to on the same day (even if just an acknowledgement of receipt), and phone calls are returned the same day as well.” This all aims to establish a business that makes its clients the priority. For the ‘specialist areas’, such as electricity and gas meter reading and billing, Ms Mott “prefers to use an outside contractor, namely ‘meters to cash’. “With a series of qualified teams of professionals working together, it’s easy to see why CTSM is a well oiled machine. But what about the individual staff members?

What are their stories and their qualifications?

Coralie Mott is the primary contact for all clients and associates.“Coralie has worked in the body corporate management industry in Queensland since 1992, when she established her first business, Body Corp Management.” Constantly moving forward, “in 2004 she sold this business to Michael Teys and joined the CTIQ (now the SCA) as the acting CEO until she resigned eight months later as she was ready to set up another body corporate management business, CTSM.”

 Accountant, Lee Hipkins also has a long list of qualifications, he “used to work with Ham Brothers Accounting, where his accounting work included body corporate audits.” Applying this knowledge, “he joined CTSM three years ago as the second accountant however was promoted to head accountant in 2011.” CTSM can also boast an effective junior body corporate manager in Nikki Mott, as well as a loyal and hardworking levies and insurance manager in Dionne Harding and real estate agent/junior body corporate manager/administration assistant in Jarrod Stangle.                                                

 Ms Mott considers “performance reviews to be an invaluable exercise, for all parties concerned.”Whilst CTSM “would respectively suggest that the formulation of KPIs should be predominately determined by the body corporate,” Ms Mott says that they “would be more than happy than to work with the committee in setting these.” In order to “highlight both strengths and weaknesses these can be used to effectively ‘finely tune’ the type of service that the client is expecting.”

What our clients say

I have known Coralie Mott in a professional capacity for over 2.5 years while working with her company CTS Management as the Body Corporate Managers of Riverplace Apartments. During this time both Coralie and the staff of CTS Management have always displayed a professional attitude, good communication skills and attention to detail together with a strong work ethic. I am confident that CTS Management and Coralie Mott will prove to be an asset to any company and I am happy to recommend them to anybody seeking Body Corporate Services.

– Nigel & Karen McElroy, Riverplace Apartments

We have had the pleasure of working with Coralie Mott and the team at CTS Management for the past 2 years. We have found Coralie and her staff to be knowledgeable, polite and easy to deal with. They have always provided our Body Corporate with expert advice and assistance in relation to By-Law, insurance, administration and maintenance issues. I have found that CTS Management are able to provide the service required when dealing with such a large complex as ‘The Mews’. Coralie has been working closely with the committee and solicitors to achieve a ‘positive resolution’. I would highly recommend the services available from CTS Management to any Body Corporate looking for a good management with a high level of experience in the industry.

– Belinda Smith & Robert Cowin, Resident Managers

By Henry Clarke,

Industry Reporter – Resort News

This article was extracted from Resort News, March 2014′ – for more information visit their website www.resortpublishing.com.au. CTS Management claims no production rights. This article has been posted with the permission of the author. – CTS Management Body Corporate Services.

WANTING TO KNOW MORE ABOUT BODY CORPORATE LEGISLATION?

Are you interested in attending Body Corporate Information Seminars free of charge?

Are you aware of the current Legislation enforced in the Body Corporate Industry?

The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management is offering five (5) free seminars for anyone who is interesting in learning more about Body Corporate Legislation. The Seminars will provide general information about bodies coporate as well as how to avoid and resolve disputes. The presenters will incorporate case management requirements as well as reviewing the developing trends in By- Laws. If you are wanting to attend any of the below seminars, you must register online at the BCCM’s website by selecting the seminar on the ‘Body Corporate seminars page’ and follow the prompts to register. Why not take advantage of this opportunity to educate yourself in Body Corporate free of charge!!!

Seminars Offered : –

DID YOU KNOW?

CTS BODY CORPORATE MANAGEMENT NOW OFFERS AN ELECTRONIC UPLOAD SERVICE

Want to save postage and paper? Tired of trying to send large attachments through email?

You can now upload documents through our website. Our Website accommodates for large size documents.

The upload service allows you to upload images, scans, forms and other supporting documentation.

A new convenient  way to send Body Corporate correspondence such as Lot Improvement Applications, Keeping of Animal Applications, Roll Updates, Electronic Consent Forms and Correspondence direct to CTS Management.

Click here to view our correspondence upload service.

CTS Management is committed to delivering a cost effective, convenient Body Corporate Management service to our clients.

BODY CORPORATE MOTIONS

Seconding ‘Body Corporate Motions’ – is that really necessary?

No.

This could be the shortest newsletter in history but we will elaborate just a little bit.

In a body corporate context there are two types of meetings at which motions are considered.

General meetings

The agenda includes every motion that is to be considered at the meeting. The motions are on that agenda because they have been proposed in accordance with the Act. The owner put it in before the required submission date, the committee proposed it at any stage, or they are statutory motions that must go on the agenda every time (as example, confirmation of the minutes of the last meeting).

There is no reason for someone to propose it and second it at the meeting itself.  There is nothing under either BCCM Act or any Module that requires a seconder. If that was required, it would mean that the single owner voicing opposition to a particular position without the support of any other owner could not be heard, and that is not what the BCCM Act is about.

Once a motion is on the agenda, it must be considered or otherwise dealt with in accordance with the Act.

There is no legal scope for new motions to be put forward from the floor of the meeting. There is certainly scope to amend a motion or a budget within certain parameters, or to overturn a chairperson’s decision to rule a motion out of order, but neither of these are new matters at the meeting.

All of this is designed to allow all owners to participate equally in the body corporate decision making process.  It prevents owners who cannot be at the meeting from being disenfranchised by not being able to attend.

Committee meetings

From a committee meeting perspective it is the secretary who calls meetings and must snd the agenda. What is on that agenda is a secretarial decision in the absence of a committee directive, but the Module allows the committee to ‘consider other issues raised at the meeting.’

This would include other motions that committee members might want to put up to be voted on – and again – without any need for there to be a seconder.  Otherwise, you would need two committee members for any motion, and again, that is not what the BCCM Act is about.

Each committee member has been elected to represent the owners and therefore each has a voice to be able to put forward motions of their own volition, even if they are not on the agenda sent to owners before the meeting.  All motions considered at the meeting must always be sent to owners afterwards.

Committee members have significant constraints in terms of what they can decide that can bind the body corporate so there is a bit more flexibility in terms of their decision making process. (Body Corporate Motions)

DISCLAIMER

This article was extracted from Hynes Legal Monthly Newsletter – for more information visit their website http://hyneslegal.com.au/. CTS Management has had no involvement in the writing or production of this document and claims no production rights. This article has been posted with the permission of the author- Body Corporate Motions.