I echo most of the comments made by the others here, in particular about the skills and levels of expertise that are needed to keep a building in good stead. Ours is just 3 years old and has 60 units in a 4 story building, so no heavy maintenance needed just yet.
Whilst not spending 40 hrs and up per week as FDH does, I do spend about 4 hrs/week.
We do have a very hands on Building Manager who does a lot of the smaller maintenance jobs like changing light bulbs and the like, but we only employ him for 10 hrs/week.
This does not give him enough time to keep up with everything that we put on his plate and I have been doing that for the past 3 years. My position on the committee is as Technical Advisor/Secretary.
Occasionally the other committee members say that I should be paid, but that brings about the question of how. I am retired and would loose some of my benefits if I were to receive payments and would need an ABN for the Strata to be able to pay me.
I spoke to our Strata Manager about all of this and he told me that in a majority of cases, where payments are made to committee members, is by way of not paying their levies. This avoids the need for Invoicing by the committee member and Strata requiring that to be accompanied with an ABN. It also does then not become an income for the committee member, but the financial benefits remain the same.
In my case this would work out at about $4000, but equates to about $20/hr. Out BM is paid $55/hr, so less than half the rate, but this doesn’t bother me. It’s a token of appreciation which I’m happy with.
We are yet to bring this matter up at our next AGM where we will have to vote on this. I’m sure that this method of payment must be happening elsewhere, so I’m interested to hear from others if there was a change in attitude towards a committee member after he/she received some remuneration.