Body Corporates are made up of everyone who owns an apartment in a complex, but there can be different levels of involvement within that. For instance, there's the Body Corporate Committee (the BCC), which oversees the mechanics of the BC, an external Body Corporate Secretary, and the Body Corporate Committee Chair.
Here’s a breakdown of the formal roles in a Body Corporate:
All the owners of all the apartments in a building are mandatory members of the body corporate. Basically, if your name is on the unit title, you’re a member – congratulations, you’re in the club!
Once you’ve purchased an apartment, you automatically become a member of the body corporate until you sell; there’s no opting out. This is a legal thing.
At the very first Annual General Meeting once everyone has moved in, the body corporate members elect a smaller group known as the Body Corporate Committee. This group is allocated powers and duties to manage and administer the operational running of the body corporate. Stuff like signing off a maintenance bill, or maintaining the register of unit owners.
The real deal! This is the person who keeps it all together. Their duties include: preparing agendas and chairing meetings, taking minutes, keeping financial records, being a key point of contact, signing documents on behalf of the body corporate… a lot of responsibility, all up.
This is a bit of a of puppet role if we're honest. Under the Unit Titles Act (which oversees Body Corporates), the body corporate must elect a chair at each Annual General Meeting – a role different from the committee chair we feted above. The position exists to meet a requirement and doesn’t see much action.
This role prepares meeting minutes, records resolutions voted on and whether they were passed, issues notices of resolutions to be passed without a general meeting, and signs documents on behalf of the body corporate. It's an awful lot of work, so much so that it’s a proper job which many body corporates contract out professionally to property service companies. The BC Secretary does not need to be an owner of a unit in the complex.
Lastly, there’s the Building Manager, a person who takes care of the day-to-day maintenance and upkeep of the building. Like the secretary they don't need to be the owner of an apartment in the building or formally part of the body corporate. They’re contracted by the body corporate, who pays for their work. All Ockham complexes have a Building Manager from day-one.
To fully dive into the realm of Body Corporates, our A-Z of Body Corps webinar with sales siren Joss Lewis, and the delightful Helen O'Sullivan from Crocker's Property Management is a must-watch.
