Get the Best Body Corporate Services

Complexes with multiple units often have unit titles for each owner.  The units can be townhouses, commercial offices, apartments, industrial units, or car parks.  Unit owners within a complex are then members of the same body corporate.  These body corporates are usually put together as the development is coming up.  They are legal entities bound by law.

What do body corporates do?

Basically, a body corporate will carry out administrative, financial, and management tasks.  These are a broad spectrum of tasks with the most important ones being:

• Ensuring that an annual general meeting is held
• Ensuring that common areas are repaired and properly maintained
• Planning for building insurance
• Creating and implementing a long term plan of maintenance
• Electing a chairperson
• Enforcing the rules set out by the body corporate
• Providing key documentation to various unit owners
• Collecting levies from owners that are used to fund the body corporate’s operations

Every body corporate has a manager whose main role is to run the administrative functions that are the responsibility of the body corporate.  This means that they have to source for the best body corporate services around in order to handle these activities.  The advantage of hiring a professional manager include:

• Expertise – A professional will have expertise in asset management, compliance, insurance, financial management and health and safety as well.
• Independent, unbiased support –  When disputes arise between members, the manager is able to quickly resolve them and help them come to an agreement.
• Networks – A professional body corporate manager will have the necessary support networks and access to various specialized services.
• Stress relief – The manager will take on the various complicated tasks that can be a source of stress for members.  Members don’t have to worry about doing tasks that they have no experience in, or are not conversant with.

Signs of excellent body corporate management

When sourcing for a great body corporate service, you need to look at the telltale signs of excellence.  They include the following:

• Proper collection of levies – Even though there will probably be some arrears in levy collection, the management service should keep these as low as possible.  When levy arrears are upwards of 20%, then the services offered will be impacted.
• Annual general meetings held on time – This is a requirement because there are things that the AGMs need to accomplish on time so that there is consistent flow of cash and smooth property management.
• Prompt response to maintenance and repair calls – Swift resolution of reported problems will result in happy unit owners, and will keep the value of the units up.  One small problem that gets ignored can end up causing a law suit and increased repair costs.
• Budgets for all costs –  If your budget is supposed to be $100,000 p.a. and the AGM puts the budget amount at $85,000, there will be a budget shortfall which will impact greatly on how the services are managed.  A good service will not budget in arrears, but will actively collect levies to ensure that the budget can be met. Of course the manager should be able to show cause for the said amount and explain to the AGM why the $15,000 shortfall will negatively impact the running of the scheme.