Overdrawn Accounts and Inter Fund Transfers: What Every Queensland Body Corporate Manager Needs to Know post Artique
In summary: Under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld), a body corporate must never transfer money between its administrative fund and its sinking fund — no resolution can authorise it. A body corporate bank account that runs into negative territory is not a grey area either: overdrawing is borrowing, and it needs […]
Q&A: Can an appointed administrator break a tied vote at an AGM?
Question: What is the administrator’s role at an AGM? An administrator has been appointed to our body corporate under orders. If owners vote on a motion at an AGM and the vote is tied, for example, two owners vote to appoint a body corporate manager and two vote against, can the administrator use any additional […]
Q&A: What happens if a CMS is registered without the required approval?
Question: What can owners do if a CMS change was registered without the required motion without dissent? Our committee presented a motion at an AGM to change the positions of three exclusive use car parks. The motion required a motion without dissent, and it failed. At the following AGM, the committee presented another motion to […]
All ‘care’, no responsibility… unreviewable body corporate decisions
The overwhelming majority of relationships between committees and their body corporate’s caretaker are professional, functional, and conducted in the best interests of lot owners. Occasionally, issues arise – even to the extent that they can seem irresolvable. Many times, over the last quarter century, I have seen caretakers and committees put ‘their side of the […]
Q&A: During a roof replacement, can owners choose not to reinstall their common property skylight? Is the body corporate liable to replace them later if a future owner complains?
Question Question: During a roof replacement, can owners choose not to reinstall their common property skylight? Is the body corporate liable to replace them later if a future owner complains? We are owners in a 6-unit strata complex in FNQ. We need to replace our metal roof due to rust damage and have just held […]
Meet Queensland’s new planning authority for apartments… your neighbours.
In Macrossan House [2026] QBCCMCmr 73 (10 March 2026) an Adjudicator has upheld a committee decision to refuse to provide an owner’s consent (of the body corporate as owner of the common property) to the making of a development application to change the use (and layout) of an owner’s Lots from commercial to residential. This […]
Q&A: Our caretaker restricts our short term guests’ access to common facilities…
Q&A: Our caretaker restricts our short term guests’ access to common facilities… Question: How can we stop our body corporate’s caretaker/letting agent from wrongly restricting our short term guests’ use of common property? We short-term let our lot through a rental provider who is not our onsite caretaker/letting agent. The caretaker/letting agents have repeatedly confronted […]
The Legend of Atlantis – Management Rights Agreements can only be topped up once…
Content Just as Plato’s Atlantis sank beneath the waves, so too did an anti-management rights (legal) theory sink, albeit a lot more quietly, on 12 January 2026. Those ‘in the know’ had seen a paper in circulation over the last few years containing a theory that, in essence, the ‘right’ way to read the Body […]
Administrator’s Costs – How to Make the Responsible Party Pay
Content Imagine a four-lot community titles scheme having one owner of three lots, and another owner for the remaining lot. A dispute between the two lot owners develops, the Body Corporate falls into dysfunction and an Adjudicator appoints a general administrator to the body corporate to remedy that dysfunction. The majority (‘problem’) owner, hinders and […]
Question: ‘Can the body corporate spend money on gifts or throwing a party?’
Content Last Christmas, the body corporate bought gifts for the strata manager and the caretaker. Recently, our chair held a farewell party for the caretaker. Food and drinks were supplied for approximately 45 guests for three hours. The members decided to reimburse the chair at a subsequent committee meeting. Q1. Can the body corporate (BC) […]
Compliant Isn’t the Same as Ethical: Strata Managers and Commissions
Content An article by Michael Kleinschmidt, a Partner of our Queensland office. — After the bombshell of the 7:30 Report into Netstrata last week, most of the sector has jumped into the trenches, wary of what is coming next. There are however already a few heads poking up above the parapets, including notably a few very […]
Q&A Initiating action quickly when faced with an urgent issue
Question Question: What specific steps can a council legally take to initiate action quickly when faced with an urgent issue, and what are the potential risks of using these expedited procedures instead of the standard process? Answer Answer: Get your fellow lot owners and council members to take action and make decisions. The body of […]