QLD: Does a committee have to respond to an owner’s general communications?

Question: Does a Committee have to respond to an owner’s general communications?

Answer: The body corporate does not have to: read, respond, table, or action any general communications.

There seem to be many ‘energised’ owners who write too many emails and who test the resolve of volunteer committee members to remain on committees.

Nothing in the legislation requires the body corporate to take any action in response to an owner’s general communications. The body corporate does not have to: read, respond, table, or action any general communications.

No by-law or general meeting resolution is required to entitle the committee to disregard communications.

However, while that is the legal position, a committee:

1. should always review the correspondence to make sure that the correspondence does not:
   • warn of a dangerous situation or
   • contain the exercise of a statutory right, such as seeking to inspect documents or requesting a motion be placed on an agenda, etc; and
2. is unlikely to be too popular if it ignores all correspondence.

This is a different approach to responding to abusive and/or onerous correspondence, which seeks to limit the correspondence being sent.

Peter Hunt
Mathews Hunt Legal
E: peter.hunt@mathewshuntlegal.com.au