Question: A building manager wants to quote on body corporate work outside their caretaking agreement. Is that a conflict of interest?
Our building manager wants to quote on body corporate work in our complex that falls outside their caretaking agreement.
What are the rules around this? I’m sure there would be guidelines around conflict of interest and licensing.
Answer: Engaging a building manager for work outside their agreement is not a conflict of interest, unless they use inside knowledge to give an undisclosed third party an advantage on pricing.
There are no formal rules on this and it is quite common for a building manager to do work that isn’t inside the scope of their engagement for a body corporate given their proximity and on the ground understanding.
Firstly, there is no obligation on a committee to engage the building manager. They can choose outside contractors to provide services as they see fit.
If they choose to engage the building manager to do the work, there is no conflict of interest on my end. There is a job required to be done and they have offered to do it and been engaged for that purpose. End of story. A conflict would be something like putting up a third party that the committee did not know the manager was involved with and then giving the inside word on pricing to that third party to undercut any other quotes.
If some form of licensing or trade qualification was required for that work, the body corporate should not engage someone without what is required.
This post appears in the November 2026 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Frank Higginson
Redchip Strata Law
E: FrankH@redchip.com.au
P: 07 3193 0500
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