Some short and sharp ones with some of our most common questions from clients.
Can the body corporate change my management rights agreement without my consent?
No. The agreement is a contract. It is no different to the contract for buying a property. The purchaser cannot say after signing the contract that they are going to reduce the price by $50,000.
It is the same with management rights agreements. That is the deal unless both parties agree to the change. End of story.
Does section 4.4 of the PAMDA20A need to be ticked and initialled for it to be assignable?
Yes. The government would not have put the tick and initial sections there intending for them to be left blank. If it is not ticked and initialled it is not assignable.
Does a change of Module mean a change in the term of my agreements?
No. Management rights agreements remain governed by the Module which existed when they were entered into. So if you have management rights agreements under the Accommodation Module for, say 20 years, and the body corporate changes to the Standard Module, your management rights agreements can still retain the longer term. They do not automatically get read down to 10 years.
The same applies in reverse. Just because the body corporate goes to the Accommodation Module doesn’t mean that the term of the agreement is automatically topped up to 25 years.
Can a body corporate say no to an assignment of my management rights agreements?
Not unless they have reasonable grounds.
Is this (name duty) included in my agreement?
Life is not black and white at times and this is one of those situations. You need to review the whole of the agreement for context and then drill down to the specific example. Over time you get a feel for these things, and we have certainly litigated a few, so we can usually give you a good idea after a look.
Can the body corporate deduct monies from my remuneration?
No. We litigated (and won) this one in 2007. Click here for the case.
The correct forum for a dispute of this nature is the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal or a specialist adjudicator through the Commissioner’s Office over the nature of the duty itself. It is not appropriate for the body corporate to suggest you should do it, and then in the absence of agreement, simply deduct the costs of them arranging it from your remuneration.
