Question: If owners contact the BCM directly and the body corporate is charged, can the fee be charged to the owner?
Our committee assists where possible in reducing fees. However, some owners continually contact the body corporate manager (BCM) directly instead of first contacting the committee. If the committee can assist, this would avoid additional BCM service fees.
If owners contact the BCM directly and the body corporate is charged, can the fee be charged to the owner? It is unfair for owners who do not contact the BCM to pay these fees.
Answer: You can’t transfer these costs without seeking a court order.
Many owners ask this question, and the default response is that you can’t transfer these costs without seeking a court order – from the Commissioner’s office or QCAT. As the time and expense of achieving that is usually higher than any fees applied, most people don’t do this – or if they seek a costs order, they aren’t always successful.
Thinking a bit more proactively, I believe the body corporate is within its rights to send an invoice to the owner requesting they pay unreasonable costs incurred by the body corporate. This would be a request only, though, and if the owner didn’t pay, I don’t think you could follow this up as a debt. However, sending an invoice like this from time to time may be sufficient to make your point.
Some consideration also needs to be given to the circumstances and why people are contacting the body corporate manager.
The appointment of the manager was a decision of the body corporate, and it is not surprising that owners will contact the manager in the first instance – having such a person available is one of the reasons owners will have voted to appoint a manager. Owners may not feel comfortable contacting the committee or want to speak to the manager as they can offer independent advice. In turn, that manager is probably helping those owners navigate the body corporate system by providing them with information and assistance about their scheme. This doesn’t seem bad, and body corporate should be budgeting for expenses like this. The committee could instruct the body corporate manager not to respond and only to forward comments to the committee, but this approach seems counterproductive.
On the other hand, you may have a situation where one or two owners are constantly causing problems or contacting the body corporate manager. If unnecessary fees take up a substantial amount of time, it may be reasonable to look at how to limit this. Strategies to do this should be discussed with the manager and that could include looking to transfer the costs if that was thought to be an effective strategy.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
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