[strataact]

I’d suggest the accounting costs are the potential killer.  Our small ACT plan (19 units) has our sinking fund of in the order of 10 of thousands in a couple of term deposits.

Tax rate will be max 30% company rate .  I have wanted our plan to self prepare our tax return using the ATO short form strata return here

https://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Strata-title-body-corporate-tax-return-and-instructions-2019/

I estimate it would take about 15 minutes to fill in the details and send it in.  Unfortunately I cannot convince our committee to do this so we are left to pay the SM/accountant several hundred dollars to prepare a standard company tax return.  So as said above, paying this, plus tax only leaves us a very small gain.

I would have thought that a large strata scheme with large sinking fund would definetly want to have it invested.  And if the scheme was of a size to have other income (rental of common property spaces to commercial entities etc)  or be of a size to be required to be GST registered and so needing to do periodic Business Activity Statements to ATO the accountant fees for annual returns may already be needed.

[strataact]

Yes  tax returns for our Unit plan in the ACT often seem to wipe out any small gain we get from interest.  A Strata plan is a Company for tax purposes, so most accountants prepare a comany tax return, and charge accordingly.  

I have tried to get our strata manager and Comitte to lodge the ATO provided short strata return form (Search for Strata Tax return on the ATO website) which is usabe if your strata plan has simpe tax affairs – such as only income from interest. To my thinking it would be maybe 15 minutes work for the treasurer to complete and post it in.  But I have not managed to convince the rest of the committee to take this approach. 

So we have a tax return eery year where the accountant cost deduction almost exactly matches the amount of interest earned.   

[strataact]

Not sure about police not acting on Common Property.  In our ACT Complex we reported a car that had been parked for a few weeks, an the police came with flatbed truck and towed it away. 

They were interested as the plates on the 4WD showed as being for a Holden Astra when checked on the rego online system – so either the plates or the car were probably stolen.

[strataact]

@tharra said:
We went down the NBN Technology Choice Area Switch route:

https://www.nbnco.com.au/learn-about-the-nbn/network-technology/technology-choice-program/area-switch.html

No more copper hassles as we now have fibre to each premise (FTTP) along with the other benefits FTTP brings.  

How many units in your complex, and what was the approx cost?  As mentioned we have 19 units and looking at the NBN site it says

“(we recommend you have between 150 and 350 premises before you proceed with an application).”

[strataact]

Hi you said

“Currently the strata fees are split 25-25-25-25”

But whats the actual Unit Entitlements as registered in the strataplan – is it the 30-30-20-20 as indicated by your solicitor?. 

I have seen where small self managed schemes say lets split all the costs evenly as that is simple without the required (at least in ACT) unopposed resolution at an AGM.  I am not sure if this can even be done in NSW.   

[strataact]

Thanks Peter. Does your posting your rules here provide permission/approval for them to be taken and used with minimal changes (eg to UP number and name) for our unit plan.

thanks

[strataact]

Here in the ACT our manager charges several fees on a per lot basis, in addition to the management fee.  All are listed in the managing agreement.

They include

Photocopying and Printing

Postage and stationary

Accounting services

Document Storage

Computer license fees

You could argue they are all part of the costs of being a strata managing agent , and so should be in the management fee, especially as there is no option to opt out.  My opinion is they break them out so the “management fee” looks smaller.  When you add them all up about 20% of our total budget is paid to the managing agent.  We are a 19 unit townhouse complex in the ACT.

[strataact]

@Merrick N Sniper said:
The line I got recently from our Strata Manager was: “Under the privacy Act you are not permitted to have a listing of the owner contacts and addresses”.

I have been told this is not true and is a notion peddled by Strata Managers, who think they know which side their bread is buttered on, to help protect their OWN turf; it’s not entirely for the benefit of the Executive Committee.

One may need to… hmmm… ‘discover’ the names and addresses though, when inspecting the records at the Strata Manager’s office and those records must contain the strata role under the NSW Act.

Ask the Strata Manager what section or provision of the Privacy restricts them from doing that.  Its all about what purpose the data was collected for, and on the strata roll its to allow for owners to contact other owners.

[strataact]

I do not think that is correct

Have a look here

https://www.artslaw.com.au/info-sheets/info-sheet/street-photographers-rights/

or here

https://4020.net/words/photorights.php

To quote from this second site

In Australia most forms of “unauthorised” photography have in fact been authorised since the 1937 High Court decision in Victoria Park Racing v. Taylor (1937) 58 CLR 479 (at p.496). This was reaffirmed recently in ABC v Lenah (2001) HCA 63, where the Court ruled that despite the passage of decades since Victoria Park, any concept of a Tort of invasion of privacy still does not exist in Australia.

As Justice Dowd put it with ruthless clarity in R v Sotheren (2001) NSWSC 204: A person, in our society, does not have a right not to be photographed.

[Author]

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