This article discusses lot owner access to strata records and how owners can request to inspect invoices and other documents.
Question: How can we improve lot owner access to strata records, including invoices. These may give insight into maintenance and history of the building?
Strata Titles Act 1988 is very specific regarding the keeping of financial records. However, it appears to be relatively silent regarding storage and lot owner access to records and/or invoices that may tend to give insight into the maintenance and history of the building. How can this situation be remedied?
Answer: The Strata Titles Act details that the Corporation must keep records and how it can be accessed by owners and the Strata Titles Regulations state how long these records need to be kept.
The Strata Titles Act details that the Corporation must keep records and how it can be accessed by owners and the Strata Titles Regulations state how long these records need to be kept. A Corporation must keep correspondence received or sent by the corporation for a period of 7 years. (Strata Titles Act, Section 40(1)(d)(iv) and Strata Titles Regulations (30)(e))
If your Corporation has delegated any of its functions and powers to a member or employee of the corporation can you can send a request to them to access and view the documents. This would either be a member of your Corporation if you are self-managed or a Body Corporate Manager if you are professionally managed. The delegate of the Strata Corporation who holds records of the corporation must, at the request of any unit holder make those records available for the unit holder to inspect within 10 business days. (Strata Titles Act, Section 27D (7)(a))
The Strata Titles Regulations, Section 20 refers to keeping records by electronic measures as well. As electronic storage has not been widely used by professional strata managers for 7 years, you may find that only a few years are stored electronically while the remaining records may be in hard copy form. The Act does not state that all documents must be stored in the same form.
This post appears in Strata News #448.
Carrie McInerney
Horner Management
E: carrie@hornermanagement.com.au
P: 08 8234 5777
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