Transparent financial management is going to be key in saving us money and in turning around the long-term culture of the body corporate committee from one of secrecy, arrogance, disregard for the views of owners and, above all, some questionable financial management of owners’ levy monies.
I am Chris Griffith, and I am standing for body corporate committee chair at the coming elections due in around late October. First, let me introduce myself. I have pursued two major careers during my life. The first is technology. I was a computer science graduate in the early 1970s, worked on mainframe systems, taught coding, and wrote technology syllabus for TAFE Victoria before operating a software business in Queensland. Coincidentally, my biggest contract was developing a networked PC-based body corporate management system for Body Corporate Services in the mid-1980s. It supported around 12,000 apartments from Cairns to the Gold Coast.
My second career was journalism. I researched at ABC Brisbane before long stints at The Sunday Mail and The Courier-Mail newspapers as an investigative reporter and, later, as Legal Affairs Writer at The Courier-Mail and as its inaugural online reporter. Later, I was The Australian newspaper’s senior technology journalist for a decade, travelling and reporting on global technology conferences across the world. In retirement, I still develop some business systems and AI chatbots, and write on technological change.
Three years at Southport Central Residential has been a shock. I love the towers, the great recreational area, the magnificent views, the camaraderie of many residents, and the convenience of living here. Everything is close by. However, the experience with the body corporate has been something else. My first encounter centred around exorbitant charges, such as the $1000–$2000 personal fee asked by the previous BC manager for me to obtain a copy of the owners’ roll to start a newsletter. This was outrageous because the computer system I wrote for Body Corporate Services 40 years beforehand could produce the owners’ roll for virtually no cost on a dot-matrix printer. I felt that the administration as I knew it was on a spree of making money and keeping ordinary owners away from decision-making as far as possible. Needless to say, I wrote out the roll by hand. (In contrast, the new manager charges $20.70 for the same roll.)
That, together with denying owners access to the general ledger as a check on spending, and concerns that some maintenance may be neglected with the abolition of the sinking fund forecast detailing maintenance needs in 2018, cemented that initial view. Owners should be seen, pay their levies, but not be heard. Topping this was the scandal of the committee withdrawing $1.4 million of owners’ funds for a dubious investment scheme to buy four apartments in our own complex. The apartments were placed under the ownership of a private company operated by the chairman — a structure that offers no oversight by owners and guarantees we pay full capital gains tax at company rates when we sell. Owners initially had no knowledge of the withdrawal of the $1.4 million, by the way.
I acknowledge there are people doing good work in this complex, but we have to get away from this history of secret, unaccountable, and sometimes appalling financial management which still goes on, as we’ve again seen recently with the chairman’s financial management of the investment company. In the annual returns, his company claimed to spend $126,000 on legal fees and $154,000 on management fees over four years. Yet this company does nothing but hold the titles of the four apartments. Accor does the actual rental management and that expense is listed seperately. Is this for real? That is the main reason I’m standing — to clear out this remaining dark corner of operation for good and let the often great work by others continue.
In short, the community team wants to clean up the act at SCR so that it runs as a well-managed business, stays within the law, and keeps levies as low as possible, and cuts ties with this past. We want to rein in unnecessary spending but ensure we undertake necessary maintenance. That way, we look after the long-term health of our towers and the economic health of owners. We want to make sure residents feel safe in the complex. That isn’t always the case. Security is a major concern for many here.
I hope you can vote for me and the community team so that we can get on with this incredibly important job. Let’s make the best of this opportunity together.
Chris, what is the latest date we can vote
Hi Lynette, thank you for your question. We don’t know the actual date right now, but very soon, owners will be sent a big thick AGM document which contains voting papers, along with accounts and other material. You need to separate out those voting papers. You’ll have until the annual general meeting at the end of October to vote, but we would advise getting the vote in well before the deadline to save any last-minute hassles. Voting is a matter of separating the voting papers out, filling them in, scanning them and then emailing them to the secretary of the Body Corporate, at the address they provide. That last bit is especially important, because if you don’t send it directly to the secretary, it doesn’t get counted. You can’t submit it via a third-party. We will be able to help people with the logistics of this throughout the October period.
Hi Lynette, October 29 would be the latest, the day of the AGM, at the AGM, but I would strongly advise you should do it well ahead of that. You should have the AGM documents, which include the voting paper, within the next few days, and because it’s a complex process, I would get onto it early, Lynette. You need to print, fill-in, scan, and email the completed vote to the secretary. If you live locally, Officeworks can print it, you can fill it in there, and they can scan it back and have it for you on a USB. But you personally have to mail it back to the secretary for the vote to be counted. Officeworks can’t do that. Feel free if you need to reach out further.