Question: Our committee has a “committee email address” for all owners to contact the committee. Are these emails Body Corporate records and should owners be able to access them?
Our committee has set up a “committee email address” separate from our Strata manager’s and advised all owners that this is the address for owners to contact the committee. Our Strata management cannot or do not supply access for viewing any of this correspondence. Are these emails BC records and should owners be able to access them?
Answer: The committee may have legitimate reasons for channelling correspondence in this way.
A body corporate must keep the roll, registers and records and documents given to or created by the body corporate. Emails sent to an email address listed as being for body corporate matters would seem to meet those conditions.
Records must be kept by the secretary – they do not have to be kept by the body corporate manager although most agreements delegate these duties to the manager. More pertinently you may want to ask why the inbox has been created and what the goal of it is. The committee may have legitimate reasons for channelling correspondence in this way and would hopefully be able to explain that to owners.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
funny how committees set up these separate email addresses and then act surprised when owners want to see what’s in them. i’ve seen this exact scenario play out — suddenly the “committee” inbox becomes this black hole where correspondence goes to die. if it’s listed as the official contact for body corporate matters, it’s pretty clearly a body corporate record under the act. the real question is what they’re trying to hide by keeping it away from the strata manager.