This article discusses whether a committee is required to put a caretaker’s top-up request to owners and how caretaking agreement extension approval works under the Accommodation Module.
Question: Our caretaker, who does not own a lot, has requested an extension. Are we compelled to put forward a general meeting motion for the top-up?
Our scheme operates under the Accommodation Module. Our caretaker has asked for a 5-year extension or top up to his existing contract. The caretaker doesn’t own a lot.
Can a motion to grant a top-up only be submitted for voting at a general meeting by either a lot owner or the body corporate committee? Further, is a committee compelled to put forward a general meeting motion for the management rights top-up simply because the caretaker requested it?
Given caretakers will often sell the management rights soon after being granted a top-up, is there any scope for a body corporate to contractually compel the caretaker to remain as caretaker for a specified time? Some owners don’t understand that the caretaker’s asking to have the contract term extended, not necessarily his relationship with our scheme.
Answer: There is no right of a caretaker or obligation of a committee to have an extension motion considered.
Only the committee or a lot owner has a right to a motion being included in the general meeting agenda. There is no right of a caretaker or obligation of a committee to have an extension motion considered.
If the caretaker does want a top up, and the committee is happy to support the top up on the basis that the caretaker remains the caretaker for a period of time, this can be achieved by structuring the deed of variation in a particular way. A lawyer should be engaged to ensure the wording adopted is appropriate for this to be achieved.
This post appears in the November 2023 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753
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