A body corporate budget should be something a committee can plan around with confidence. Clearview charges one fixed fee that covers all of our administrative work. There are no photocopy charges, no per-call charges and no surprise items at the end of the month.
What does the fee include?
Every standard administrative task is included in the one monthly fee.
- Printing and postage
- Phone calls and emails
- Digital document storage
- Standard correspondence
- Meeting preparation
- Owner and tenant enquiries
- Levy notices and arrears
- Contractor coordination
- Monthly financial reports
- One Condition Visit. Every meeting after that is online.
One Condition Visit. During onboarding David visits the scheme in person once, inspects the common property and photographs its condition. The first budget is built from what he sees. The committee can choose to add an engineer's inspection, at the body corporate's cost. Every other meeting, including the AGM, is held online. The visit is included in the fixed fee.
Is anything charged on top of the fee?
Every meeting is included in the fee, and every meeting is held online, including committee meetings and the annual general meeting. The only extra is an extraordinary general meeting, at $350 + GST. Extraordinary general meetings are held online.
What is a disbursement? A disbursement is a charge added on top of a manager's fee for a particular task. Every body corporate manager's engagement (the manager's contract) must be in writing and state how its payment is worked out. The law's own examples include a stated amount for each telephone inquiry and fees for attending extra committee or general meetings (Standard Module s 137(2)(c)).
What committees often find. Charges committees often find added to a manager's fee include printing, postage, photocopying, phone calls, extra meetings and after hours work.
Where to find them. Each year the body corporate must prepare a statement of accounts, the yearly report of its income and spending, and a copy must go out with the notice of the annual general meeting (Standard Module s 175(1)(b) and (6)). Look at the lines for management fees and for items such as postage, printing, disbursements or sundries. The manager's engagement shows how each charge is worked out, and the body corporate must keep it with its records (Standard Module s 231(1)(e)).
These section numbers are for schemes under the Standard Module. See Which Module Governs Your Scheme?
Does Clearview take commissions?
We receive no commission from anyone, ever. Not from insurers, contractors, brokers or agents. The fee your body corporate pays us is the only money we receive, and you can see all of it. When we put a quote or an insurer in front of your committee, there is nothing in it for us either way.
How insurance commissions work is explained in Chapter 16: How do insurance commissions work?
Why a fixed fee works for owners
The fee does not change with how busy the building is, so the committee can budget with confidence.
The management fee is one amount, so the committee and the auditor can see exactly what was paid.
Ring or email as often as you need. It never adds to the cost.
The fee stays the same however many letters, emails or calls your scheme needs, so we never benefit from making more work.
The fee stays the same for the whole contract period. It only changes if the body corporate agrees to change it.