Question: Our body corporate is raising a special levy now for repairs to my roof in mid 2025. Can they demand this payment if the work is not due to commence for another eight months?
Our strata scheme is under the CTS/standard format plan. The body corporate (BC) is raising a one-off special levy of $19,000 for repairs to my roof. The work will not commence until June 2025. The BC requests full payment within 60 days of the notice, which they will send next week. Can they demand this payment if the work is not due to commence for eight months? Most building contract payments are due as the work progresses.
Answer: You are asked to pay the levy a few months before you need to, but at least you know the works will be done if the motion is approved.
From the information provided, it sounds like there is nothing technically wrong with the process.
Yes, you might usually expect the time periods for the raising of the money and the initiation of the works to be closer, but this is not a requirement and perhaps there were other considerations in play when the timelines were set.
Have you raised the issue with the committee? It might be worth asking them about the rationale behind the process. Perhaps, from the committee’s perspective, they might want to send out a communication about this to clarify matters for owners. This might be in the meeting notes.
Maybe the committee is ensuring everything is in place early to prevent delays. There may be concerns that owners will not pay on time if they wait until closer to the work’s start date.
Otherwise, all owners have the option of voting against the motions presented. Perhaps you could advise you would vote yes if the money were to be raised in March rather than November.
Alternatively, if you couldn’t pay straight away, you might be able to negotiate to pay the levy in the new year. Contact the committee and see if they agree.
From your perspective, the levy is for presumably necessary works on your lot. It sounds like the committee is taking action to rectify these and ensure sufficient funds are available. You’ve been asked to pay the levy a few months before you absolutely need to, but at least you know the works will be done if the motion is approved.
This post appears in the November 2024 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
We have a BCC who can be referred to as a “Do nothing” BCC” The building and its fixtures are not subject to any maintenance, albeit they have been advised by a Mechanical Engineer of the obvious defects.
The expended fire extinguishers have now been remounted on the carpark walls with a lapel “Do not Service”
Our insurance premium has significantly increased escalated due to significant claims that could have been prevented.
I have responded to your question here: QLD: Q&A How can owners deal with ‘Do nothing’ committee’s?
We own 2 units in a block of 9 with 21 entitlements for the block.
This coming years levies have doubled, our income and expenditure is around $38,000 but they have increased the levies to a total of $65,000!
Are they allowed to do this for no reason? Surely a 20-30% increase would be fair but this seems ridiculous to leave over $20,000 just sitting in surplus.
Thank you 🙂
Hi Kath
We refer you to the above Q&A: Question: In our small block of townhouses with limited amenities, our levies have doubled over the past three years. How do we bring the levies back to a reasonable amount?
Hi, I live in a block of 8 townhouses in the Sunshine Coast QLD – we have no lifts, no pool etc, only a very small common area. When I purchased the townhouse 3 and a half years ago the body corp was $3,200 it has now risen to $6,400 per year which is outrageous, obviously the people responsible didn’t do a very good job of forecasting for possible events in the 20 year plan. How do I go about bringing the bc fees back to a reasonable level? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you, kind regards, C.
Hi Colette
Thank you for your comment. We have responded to your question in the article above.
Who is organising quotes for repair’s refurbishments etc
The committee should be doing this – not the building manager
Then have a simple registrar of trustworthy trades etc
Insurance- plumbing-electrical and air conditioning- concrete specialist
We the bcorp in our building organise and select quotes
We have saved over $300,000 doing this
Don’t let owners just tell the building managers what needs doing – tell the committee
Have the b/c account audited that will show the actual costs
Who is organising and approving quotes for repairs and refurbishment
This is very important
“Finally, there is a long line of Adjudicators’ decisions which deal with windfall gains and surpluses. Typically excess funds received as contributions have to be paid back.”
If one goes to the Supreme Court Library and searches the QCAT decisions using the term windfall or gains or surplus or even excess funds then cases do not leap off the page that suggests those contributions get paid back.
Briefs who can’t give a citation but claim there are a long line of decisions …… perhaps they need to lift their game. Just one decent citation would be all it takes to give genuine authority to the claim.
The following comment has been provided by Michael Kleinschmidt, Bugden Allen Graham Lawyers:
Hi Ben, this article is general information only. Its not intended as legal advice, which is (one of) the reasons that citations were not provided. I usually find that people asking for citations are those who want to rely on an article, rather than paying for proper legal advice. More power to you for using the Library – they are an underutilised resource these days. I might suggest however that you look at Adjudicators decisions, on Austlii, which is of course what I was referring to in the article…. you might need to ‘lift your (reading) game’ a bit. Best of luck in your endeavours.
Body corporate managers don’t ‘raise levies’. Owners vote on levies at general meetings via the budget and if an owner doesn’t like the budget presented and think they can do better, they are quite at liberty to put a motion to a general meeting with their own budget proposal. Which can then get voted upon like any other motion.
Does a large sinking fund levy increase (265%) have to be approved by a unanimous vote or a simple majority in a complex of 5 townhouses?
Always interesting to read what the next excuse for being late or not paying levies is likely to be. Too many owners know too little about how levies are arrived at and education is the key.
It’s not important to time- or understanding- poor owners that the legislation states their responsibilities and duties. They need to see how it works, be involved, want something from their scheme that isn’t there already (or that is high maintenance).
Dear owner….. you are important because
> you with other owners comprise the strata company
> you contribute to the success of this scheme
> you contribute to the failure of this scheme
> you have the power to influence other owners
We’d like to work with you
Totally agree with you.
Whilst what Todd is saying is likely true for an Administrative Fund budget there is an issue in relation to a Sinking Fund budget because the contributions may not bear any resemblance to the expenditure given contributions are collected to fund expected future expenditure. Just experienced a situation where owners were content with the budgeted contributions but not the expenditure which was for something not included in the 20 year forecast. If the proposed budget is varied by the maximum 10%, the regulations state that the contributions need to be adjusted likewise – to me that is an absolute nonsense!
This looks like yet another case of ‘tail wagging the dog’. The BCM is just a service provider… a very important service provider, but answerable to the committee and the owners who are the ones who make the decisions.