Eligibility for Committee

You must be a lot owner or a member of the lot owner’s family to be a committee member

A member of the lot owner’s family includes spouse, child over 18, stepchild, adopted child, or a person who is the parent or step-parent of a co-owner.

If the lot is owned by a company, the nominee of that company (normally a director) is also eligible to be elected onto a committee.

A person acting with the power of attorney of a specific lot owner can also be nominated for a committee position. This is particularly useful for an elderly owner who has a person that they can trust to represent the owner’s interests.

If the complex consists of fewer than 7 lots, the size of the committee is limited to the number of lots (ie complexes of 5 lots have a maximum of 5 persons on the committee; if there are 4 units, the committee consists of a maximum of 4 people)

Managers Excluded From Voting on Committees

A building manager (also known as a caretaking service contractor, a resident manager, or a restricted letting agent for the complex), even though they may be a lot owner, cannot be elected as a committee member. The building manager is an automatic non-voting member of the committee. Because of the importance of their role as a “hands-on” live-in caretaker for the building, the committee should listen carefully to the advice of a building manager before the voting members of the committee vote on decisions.

The body corporate manager (bcm) cannot hold any formal executive positions on the committee. The bcm is also an automatic non-voting extra member at committee meeting. The bcm should be a useful source of information on the BCCM Act and Regulations.

The body corporate manager is given the authority to exercise some or all of the powers of the executive and the committee under their contract with the body corporate.

Nomination Procedures

Lot owners may nominate only one person for election to the committee. This is different to community organisations and to previous rules. The simplest procedure is that people who agree to serve on their committee should nominate themselves for whatever positions that they are prepared to fill.

The nomination must be in writing, signed and dated by the lot owner. It should be sent in by the year end date, after nominations have been sought in preparation for the annual general meeting

If the nomination is for another lot owner (or a family member etc), that person (the nominee) should countersign the nomination and the nomination should include details of the lot owner’s lot number (or the capacity in which they are being nominated, eg Susan Smith, c/- Smith, Smith & Smith, 144 Queen St Brisbane, adult child of William Smith owner of Lot 7)

A nomination must include the surname of the candidate and the commonly used first names, the positions on the committee that the candidate is being nominated for, and whether the person is a lot owner (or a person eligible to be elected, including an adult member of a lot owner’s family, a nominee of a corporation owning a lot, or a person holding a power of attorney of a lot owner). A simple nomination form should accompany the Notice for Motions at an Annual General Meeting.

If the candidate is not the lot owner, the nomination must include information on their business address and the relationship that they have to the lot owner. (Example 2 paragraphs above)

If the candidate is seeking expenses to cover the costs of filling the position, the nomination must provide details of the expenses that will be sought.

You cannot nominate for committee or you cannot nominate another person for committee if you owe a body corporate debt when the secretary receives the nominations. (Editor’s Note: Common sense dictates that the secretary will tell you this and, where possible – it is not possible at the deadline for nominations- give you time to pay outstanding levies before accepting or rejecting the nomination)

The regulations for both Standard and Accommodation modules provide that a committee member’s position automatically becomes vacant if a lot owner dies or sells his lot. This applies both to a self-nominated lot owner and to another person who was nominated to represent the lot owner by the lot owner who has sold.

People may resign from committee positions and the rest of the committee (so long as there remains a quorum) may appoint replacement committee members until the next Annual General Meeting. They must do so within one month of the vacancy occurring.

Election procedure

Elections for committee member positions are only necessary if there is more than one nomination for each executive position or if there are more nominations than positions for ordinary committee positions. If there is only one nomination for an executive position, that person is declared elected.

If a ballot is required, it is normally a secret ballot (lot owners can decide at a previous AGM not to hold a secret ballot, although we recommend secret ballots for committee positions) and the secretary (or body corporate manager) sends out ballot papers with the rest of the AGM notices.

The committee for complexes larger than 7 lots can consist of a chairperson, a secretary and a treasurer plus ordinary committee members totaling 7 persons. These are the voting members of the committee plus committees have up to 2 non-voting automatic members of the committee – a body corporate manager and a building manager – where those positions exist in the complex.

Committee Meeting Procedures

All lot owners are to be given notice of committee meetings. Normally notice of the meeting should be delivered to all lot owners at least 7 days before the meeting (although in an emergency a majority of committee members can agree to a reduced notice period).

Lot owners who are not committee members may attend committee meetings as observers.

Visitors to committee meetings may speak if invited to do so and they must leave the room if more than half of the voting members of the committee vote for them to do so.

If a non-committee lot owner intends to attend a committee meeting, they must advise the secretary in writing at least 24 hours before the meeting that they are coming to the meeting.

The Regulations for Standard and Accommodation modules allow voting members of the committee (by majority decision) to ask either body corporate managers or building managers to leave the meeting while the committee considers matters to do with the performance of that manager or any contractual items.