Question: How can a lot owner assess whether their body corporate levies are reasonable and not too high?
Answer: All owners should be able to access transparent information about the finances of their plan through their body corporate manager.
All owners should be able to access transparent information about the finances of their plan through their body corporate manager. If you can’t that’s a warning sign that there may be an issue. For example, at Tower Body Corporate, financial records are available to owners via an online portal. If you need more detailed reporting, this can be provided by the manager. That would give you an idea of where things stand and you can move discussions forward from there.
Get a copy of the budget for your scheme and expenses for the past couple of years. Then, review item by item to understand the ongoing expenditure. Look at the sinking fund report and account to get an idea if your scheme is investing enough in regular maintenance of the building (most aren’t). Ask questions about expenses to the treasurer and body corporate manager and see what responses come back. If there are clear, logical answers then that’s probably a positive sign.
In any budget there are likely to be some areas where it is possible to get a lower price for services provided. As a manager, I frequently look at items such as whether standing contracts have risen above the market price, compare the costs of contractors for routine work and consider whether a scheme can be more efficient to help reduce big ticket costs such as utility usage. These considerations need to be weighed up against the value returned on expenditure.
Some contractors may charge more than others, but if you know they are reliable and do quality work that may be a price worth paying. The old business maxim, “you can have it fast, cheap or good – just pick any two out of the three” tends to ring particularly true when it comes to body corporate expenses.
This post appears in the April 2021 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
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