Appointing a New Body Corporate Manager

1. To appoint a Body Corporate Manager, this needs to be done by Ordinary Resolution at a General Meeting of the Body Corporate, either the Annual General Meeting (AGM) or an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). The decision needs to be made by the Owners and not the Chairperson or Committee.

2. No proxies are allowed to be exercised for this particular Motion.

3. An existing Body Corporate Manager or a proposed Body Corporate Manager has no authority to place a Motion on the Agenda of a General Meeting (either AGM or EGM) of the Body Corporate. The motion needs to be submitted by the Committee or an Owner.

4. If an Owner is submitting the Motion and it is for the AGM, the motion needs to be submitted prior to the end of the Body Corporate’s financial year.

5. If the Committee is submitting the Motion, the ‘prior to financial year end’ rule does not apply – the Committee may put Motions on the Agenda of the AGM right up until the time when the documentation needs to be sent out.

6. The Body Corporate may be presented with more than one proposed manager to choose from. This could happen as the Committee and maybe one or more Owners submit multiple quotes. In this instance, where there is more than one manager proposed, the legislation prescribes that all of these motions be combined into just one motion, a ‘Motion with Alternatives.

7. If the Committee is proposing a new manager then the Committee should do at least some ‘due diligence’ on who they are proposing so they can make a sound recommendation to all Owners. A summary of the recommendations should form part of the explanatory note for this motion.

8. The Motion to appoint a Body Corporate Manager should state the cost of the contract, the term of the contract and there must be a copy of the proposed contract and any other Schedules included with the Motion to go to all Owners (with standard AGM paperwork) to ensure that the Owners have the ability to make an informed choice.

9. The proposed Agreement to be included in the AGM paperwork needs to state the term of the Agreement, when the Agreement starts and when it finishes, and the fee involved.

10. The term of the agreement can not exceed 3 years (in accordance with the legislation).

11. Two quotations would be required if the proposed engagement is above the relevant limit for major spending ($1100 multiplied by number of lots in the scheme OR $10,000 whichever is the lesser).