QLD: Can a strata committee approve a bonus for a retiring building manager?

This article discusses whether a strata committee can approve a retiring building manager bonus, explaining when such a payment may be allowed without owner approval.

Question: Can an owners corporation committee grant a bonus payment to a retiring building manager without approval from lot owners?

Answer: Unless restricted from doing so, I believe the strata committee are within their right to grant such a payment.

Under SSMA 2015 section 73, the Act gives what monies can be paid from the admin fund.

I believe that such a payment is in accordance with section 73 4 (a) or (d).

Unless restricted from doing so, I believe the strata committee are within their right to grant such a payment (depending on reasonableness of the amount, of course).

73 Administrative fund

4. Amounts payable from fund An owners corporation may pay money from its administrative fund only for the following purposes—
   
   1. payments of the kind for which estimates have been made under section 79 (1),
   2. payments made in accordance with this Division on a distribution of a surplus in the fund,
   3. payments to a member of the strata committee of the owners corporation in accordance with this Act,
   4. other payments in connection with exercising its functions under this Act or the by-laws, or the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015, except payments that are permitted to be made from the capital works fund,
   5. any monetary penalty payable by the owners corporation under this Act,
   6. the transfer of money to the capital works fund or to pay expenditure that should have been paid from the capital works fund.

This post appears in Strata News #632.

Andrew Terrell
Bright & Duggan
E: Andrew.Terrell@bright-duggan.com.au
P: 02 9902 7100