#28000
Lady Penelope
Strataguru

    As JT says an OC can authorise a committee person to be granted a payment (honorarium) in recognition of the services that they have performed throughout the preceding year. It cannot be authorised in advance.

    This authorisation should come from a Motion on the Agenda of the AGM and that is approved at an AGM. It would be interesting to find out who is proposing the Motions that are placed on the AGM Agenda that ask the OC to authorise this payment? Is it the Chairperson herself? I would have thought that it would, at the very least, be unseemly for the Chairperson to nominate her own reward for service.

    Is there any Explanatory Material being presented with the Motion which seeks to justify the payment? How was the amount determined? Is it reasonable under the circumstances, or is it excessive?

    This type of reward for service payment is generally unusual as people who nominate for a position on the committee usually do so without expectation of fee or reward.

    Any honorariums would be paid from the Admin Fund.

    The relevant section of the Act is below:

    STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 46

    Payment of officers of owners corporation

    46 PAYMENT OF OFFICERS OF OWNERS CORPORATION

    An owners corporation may pay to a person who is an officer of the owners corporation or another member of the strata committee of the owners corporation an amount determined by the owners corporation at an annual general meeting in recognition of services performed by the person for the owners corporation in the period since the last annual general meeting.

    As a further complication to this issue …. what type of work is the Chairperson doing that she is being reimbursed for? Is it merely admin work as part of her role as Chairperson or is she also doing additional voluntary work such as gardening, putting out the bins etc. If she in then this additional work should be first approved by the OC and no payment must be received for it. If payment is given then it may affect your insurance policy if the Chairperson becomes injured whilst undertaking this voluntary work.

    Look Up Strata says this:  ‘You cannot receive any reimbursement for the voluntary work you are performing. This may be in the form of monetary payments, ‘gifts’ or even discounts off your Owners Corporation fees. If any form of payment is received, the work can no longer be defined as voluntary, and you will not be covered under the Personal Accident section of the policy if you become injured.’

    https://www.lookupstrata.com.au/volunteering-strata-property-personal-accident-cover/