Question: Are lot owners entitled to receive a copy of our body corporate insurance for free? Our Strata manager wants to charge us a $30.50.
Are lot owners entitled to receive a copy of our body corporate insurance for free? We feel that since this is something we all paid for, we should be able to access it.
Our Strata manager wants to charge us a $30.50 fee for a copy, even though our insurance company stated that we are entitled to access?
Answer: Ultimately the obligation to provide the information upon receipt of a valid request is on the body corporate, via the committee – but the body corporate usually contracts the performance of this obligation to the body corporate manager for a fee.
William Marquand, Tower Body Corporate:
Fees for the provision of information held by body corporate managers and their customers are determined by your agency agreement with the body corporate managers.
Depending on how the reimbursement part of that agreement is structured, a fee may be charged. If you are unhappy with these fees, or don’t find them reasonable, then you would have to look at appoint a new managing agency offering a different fee structure.
Otherwise, all owners are entitled to do a search of the books and records. If you are a committee member there is no cost for this. For regular owners there is a prescribed cost of $18.25 plus $0.65 per page for copies. The insurance documents should be part of the records.
For insurance records, if you want to avoid a fee, you can contact the insurer direct and they may provide this. However, the insurer doesn’t control the relationship between the body corporate manager and customer so they can’t say that the body corporate manager should provide the documentation without cost – only provide it free themselves if asked.
It’s worth considering why a body corporate might apply a fee in this matter. Each agency operates separately and there are a number of different models of body corporate management so there is no fixed position for how the industry operates. Generally, most contracts are structured on the basis of providing a set range of agreed services for a set base fee. If the body corporate manager is asked to do work outside of those agreed services, a cost is usually applied to compensate for the time taken to complete the task requested.
In the case of my company, Tower Body Corporate, we include the provision of standard documents, including insurance ones, within our agreed services. So, if a customer asked for an insurance document it would be mailed back at no cost. The document is also available to owners via our online portal for access any time. We think that is a valuable service to provide our customers but, in order to be able to provide that service, Tower’s base fees have to be set at a level that allows us to have a staff and infrastructure to carry out the work.
A different body corporate company could take a different approach. They could have lower base fees, but less inclusions. Your upfront cost could be low, but you would receive less service and less access in return for this. If you want more service, costs are applied. You may have to pay for access to your information.
Is one system better than the other? That’s a question of individual preference. Some people may be happy to pay extra for quality service and some people may want the very basics and nothing more. What’s important is that owners know and understand the agreement they have with their body corporate agency so that they know what to expect when signing an agreement. Ideally, the contract you sign should clearly lay out to you all costs and inclusions. If you are not sure, then you should ask.
If the body corporate manager can’t explain their costs in a way that seems justified to you, that may be a red flag. In particular, owners need to be conscious of the idea that if a contract has a lot of inclusions, the body corporate agency has to make its money somewhere so what can seem a good deal on the surface isn’t always in practice. This doesn’t mean that you can expect body corporate managers to work for free – none of them are not for profits – but you are entitled to shop around to find one that has a cost to service ratio that fits your scheme.
Todd Garsden, Mahoneys:
All owners are entitled to access and be provided with body corporate records.
There are prescribed fees that the body corporate can (but does not need to) impose depending on whether the owner wants to inspect the records ($17.95) of be given copies of a specific record ($0.65). The body corporate is not entitled to charge the owner more than this amount (but the body corporate manager may be able to charge the body corporate a separate fee through their administration agreement that cannot be passed on to the owner).
Ultimately the obligation to provide the information upon receipt of a valid request is on the body corporate, via the committee – but the body corporate usually contracts the performance of this obligation to the body corporate manager for a fee.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753