QLD: As a lot owner in a layered scheme, am I entitled to request records from the principal body corporate?

Question: As an owner of a unit in one of the residential body corporates in my layered scheme, am I entitled to request and receive information from the principal body corporate?

I am a lot owner in a layered scheme in Queensland.

There are three residential body corporates for the lots and one principal body corporate (PBC) for the common property.

I have requested the following documents from the strata manager of the principal body corporate (PBC) and the chairperson of my residential body corporate, however, there has been no reply.

1. AGM minutes for the current financial year.
2. EGM minutes for the current financial year.
3. Body corp committee minutes for the current financial year.
4. Caretaker’s reports for the current financial year – if these aren’t included in the other minutes.
5. The current contract with the company that provides caretaking services.

Historically, they haven’t provided this information to the lot owners. The financial reports have only been provided after making an email request.

I am after AGM/EGM/Strata committee meeting minutes and the caretaking contract for the purposes of reviewing them to understand where my levies contributions go and what decisions are made regarding how they are used by the PBC.

As an owner of a unit in one of the residential body corporates, am I entitled to receive copies of this information from the principal body corporate, or are they permitted to withhold this information from me?

Answer: Regardless, as an owner in a subsidiary, you would still be classified as an interested person and can apply to access the principal body corporate’s records.

It should be straightforward to obtain standard documents like this and it is frustrating when you can’t.

If you are not getting any help from either your body corporate – which should be your first point of contact and hold most of the records listed – or the principal body corporate, you may need to make a formal access request for records.

To do this, you need to make a written request to the body corporate by way of a BCCM Form 12 and may need to pay a fee.

The body corporate must let you see and/or give you copies of the records within 7 days of getting your written request and fee.

You can also request that copies of documents that exist in the records be given to you. You must identify the documents you want. You may be required to pay a fee for the time it takes someone to search for these records. You could also hire an independent searcher to do a search for you.

The body corporate can restrict access to records if the records contain defamatory material or if they are considered confidential documents between a client and their legal representative. Hynes Legal has a good blog on this: 2 Reasons for a body corporate to deny access to records.

From the information provided, I can’t see anything in the request that would particularly identify the documents as restricted, but you never know.

It’s also worth thinking about why you are not getting the information. We don’t know about the size or set up of the schemes here, but if your individual body corporate doesn’t have a professional manager, it may just be that the records aren’t up to date or that the chair isn’t sure of how to give you the information. Maybe send them a friendly letter or offer to help. Suggest that a professional body corporate manager be appointed if necessary. If you have a professional manager, they should be able to provide you with a clear instructions on how to access the records or, more simply, send them to you.

For the PBC, they generally wouldn’t send information to owners in a subsidiary scheme but would send it to the body corporate. They might take the view that you should be engaging your body corporate to obtain the information needed, but as they haven’t replied, we don’t know. Regardless, as an owner in a subsidiary, you would still be classified as an interested person and can apply to access the principal body corporates records as per the above.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924