Question: Owners believe a caretaker is spending money without committee approval. How can they arrange a forensic accountant to review the records?
Our complex has three separate community titles schemes: apartments, villas and common area. While reviewing invoices on our portal, we noticed the caretaker appears to be spending money we don’t believe the committees have authorised.
We contacted our body corporate, who hasn’t really responded. When we pushed, they said they would try to arrange a meeting between the committees and the caretaker. That was a week ago, and we haven’t heard anything since. We’re concerned the caretaker and the body corporate manager aren’t acting in our community’s best interests.
We’d like to get a forensic accountant to check the records. How do we go about doing that?
Answer: The simplest way is to submit a motion to engage a forensic accountant, with a quote attached, but check the caretaking agreement before assuming anything is wrong.
The simplest thing to do is submit a motion to engage a forensic accountant. As an owner, you have a right to submit motions to either a committee or general meeting. You can get a quote from a forensic accountant, which can then accompany your motion. The harder part is probably convincing other owners that it’s a cost worth incurring. You do need to be careful suggesting that anything is amiss, because as it currently stands, we can’t see where you have concrete evidence of that.
Which leads us to our next point: you’ve raised a concern about spending, and while that’s understandable, you do need to bear in mind that the management rights holder (aka, caretaker) is engaged under an agreement (contract). There’s no set contract of this type, which means arrangements for invoices and payment may be subject to the terms of that agreement. It’s best not to assume, so if you haven’t already done so, try getting a copy of that agreement, which should be available to you as a body corporate record, to clarify this, or any other, aspect of their responsibilities.
This is general information only and not legal advice.
This post appears in the November 2026 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Chris Irons
Strata Solve
E: chris@stratasolve.com.au
P: 0419 805 898
Leave a Reply