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Our EC and SM have been negotiating a new agency agreement. At the beginning of the negotiations he said he will not, as is current, charge us for Schedule B services however he has now submitted the completed document to us including charges for Schedule B. Surely they should not be included in the SMAA if he’s not charging for those services?
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ozzietars – if your Strata Manager has agreed to excluded Schedule B fees, which for the unaware are those charged as “disbursements” covering a number of services provided in addition to those involved in the routine management of the Plan, then you’re fortunate as most salary packages for a Strata Manager include at least a portion (if not 100%) of the income received from those fees, and there’s therefore an in-built incentive for those to be optimised.
Back to your point though, the “disbursements” Schedule may have been included with your Draft Agreement as a matter of routine, in fact I think it has to be, so check that the Item where the “agreed services fee” is shown also states whether or not that amount includes Schedule Bs, and if it does then you’re sweet, and if it doesn’t then have those words of clarification included!
While you’re negotiating on the Draft Agreement, maybe also check that the “agreed services fee” includes GST and the Strata Manager hasn’t loaded some Schedule B fees into the one where those such as for handling e-mails, photocopying, postage and preparing S109 (Strata) Certificates all reside; I think that’s Schedule D – but check as it’s been a long time since I’ve seen an Agency Agreement (we’re self-managed).