Owners work hard for their money, so when they pay their body corporate levies, they expect that it will be spent in a responsible reasonable way to maintain and improve their building.
But we have all the heard the stories of financial mismanagement, wastage, significant duplicate payment errors and in some cases misappropriation of Body Corporate funds.
At The (Nuu) Co, we take proactive steps to ensure that owners' collective funds held by their Body Corporate are only spent according to transparent processes that are customised to the needs of our clients' buildings and communities.
Here's an example of the approval process for spending Body Corporate funds in one of our client's buildings with 122 apartments:
Process:
The caretaker has a spending limit / discretion of up to $1,000 (set by the committee and able to be adjusted by the committee);
Any proposed spending above $1,000 is referred to the committee for decision;
Committee’s decisions on spending above $1,000 are recorded by way of vote outside of committee meeting, passed by majority vote and then notified to all owners in writing;
The successful contractor is then notified by the building management team or body corporate manager of the committee’s decision to approve the spending;
If the work requires a building contract to be in place - one is put in place and a committee decision to enter into it is made and notified to all owners;
The contractor then carries out the work;
The contractor sends their invoice for the completed work;
The building manager confirms that the work has been completed;
The building manager prints off all invoices and holds a weekly meeting with the Secretary to explain all invoices. If satisfied, the Secretary signs and approves the invoice to be submitted to the body corporate manager;
The signed invoices are emailed to the body corporate manager to process through the Invoice Hub approval process;
The uploaded invoices are reviewed by The (Nuu) Co to verify not duplicated and have been signed by the Secretary;
The invoices are then submitted for approval online by the building manager (so they can monitor stage of processing in case contractors follow up) then the Secretary and Treasurer;
Once fully approved, the invoices are paid by release of funds from the Body Corporate’s bank account upon approval of two directors of The (Nuu) Co Pty Ltd.
The above process is completed so that contractors receive payment within 14 days or less from submitting their invoice for completed work. Also we circulate copies of the Body Corporate's bank statements and financial transparency reports to the committee regularly. Any owner is entitled to obtain a copy of the general ledger transaction list of all body corporate financial transactions at any time - because there is nothing to hide when it comes to how owners' money is spent.
Paying good contractors on time ensures they are more willing to return to the client's building to carry out further work in the future at reasonable costs. This is in the best interests of the Body Corporate and is what we strive daily to achieve for clients of The (Nuu) Co.
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