Question: If the body corporate is required to keep correspondence, and most of that correspondence is in email form, what arrangements must a body corporate manager make for such ‘correspondence’ to be inspected?
BCCM Accommodation Module Section 220 (1)(h) requires the body corporate to keep records of ‘correspondence received by the body corporate, and correspondence sent by the body corporate’.
In the past, body corporate managers have made body corporate hard copy files available for inspection. Still, more often than not, records, such as emails, are not downloaded and available in hardcopy.
What arrangements must a body corporate manager make for such ‘correspondence’ to be inspected?
Answer: Anyone searching the books and records should be able to look through saved files to review all correspondence, with some exceptions for privileged records.
A body corporate has to keep records of correspondence to and from the body corporate.
There is no requirement for those records to be stored as hard copies, and these days, most correspondence arrives in and is stored as emails or documents saved as PDFs.
Different companies will use different storage systems, but they are all essentially a digital vault of records categorised under the various relevant headings.
Anyone doing a search of the books and records should be able to look through the saved files to review all correspondence, with some exceptions for privileged records.
The files are usually accessed by owners or designated searchers appointed by interested parties attending the body corporate offices to conduct a search. Most companies will have a specific area set aside in their offices for this. It is also increasingly possible to access records via an online link, although this isn’t a standard as yet.
If owners want hard copies of the records, they can usually print them out at the body corporate office. There is a fee per page for this service. Otherwise, you may be able to copy records and print them elsewhere.
Many management agencies still hold some hard copies of body corporates document, although these are being phased out. I don’t suppose many agencies are still creating new hard copies, but you never know.
The legislation regulates access to the books and records.
As per the BCCM website, you can see and/or get copies of a body corporate’s records if you are:
- an owner of a lot in the scheme
- a mortgagee of a lot
- the buyer of a lot
- someone who satisfies the body corporate of a proper interest in the records (e.g. a tenant who wants information about living in or using a lot)
- the agent of someone on this list.
If you are entitled to see the records, you must:
- give a written request to the body corporate
- pay a prescribed fee.
The body corporate must let you see and/or give you copies of the records within seven days of getting your written request and fee.
Most of the time, accessing the records is a smooth process, and the change from hard to soft records is making it easier all the time. Although perhaps one downside of keeping digital records is that as body corporates generate huge amounts of correspondence and records the files are vast. Finding that one email you want isn’t always as easy as you hope it will be.
See the BCCM website for full details on the requirements around record keeping: Body corporate records
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
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