QLD

How to change or leave your strata manager in Queensland

Engagements expire by law at the end of their term, and proxies cannot vote on the manager. Section numbers below are the Standard Module.

Your scheme is: Body corporate
The law: Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 plus your regulation module (Standard, Accommodation, Commercial, Small Schemes or Two-lot). Your community management statement names the module.
Who regulates: Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management, 1800 060 119. Queensland has no licence for managers.

1Get a motion on the agenda

Any owner may submit a motion in writing to the secretary at any time, and it goes on the next practicable agenda. For the AGM it must arrive before the end of the previous financial year (s 86). The committee must put it on the voting paper unaltered, and can only rule it out of order for a narrow set of reasons.

2Force a meeting

Owners of at least 25 per cent of the lots can require an extraordinary general meeting by signed written notice setting out the motions. It must be called within 14 days and held within 6 weeks, with 21 days' notice (ss 84 and 85).

3The vote you need

Engaging or terminating a manager is an ordinary resolution at a general meeting, and proxies cannot vote on it (ss 135 and 150 to 152), so owners must attend or vote in writing. The committee cannot decide it. Quorum is 25 per cent of voters with at least two present in person.

4Contract limits and how termination works

Engagements are capped at 3 years including any extension option (1 year for Small Schemes and two-lot schemes). Termination routes: by agreement or under the contract's own clause (s 150), for a serious conviction (s 151), or after a remedial action notice giving at least 14 days to fix misconduct, neglect of duties, a code of conduct breach or a disclosure breach (s 152).

5What happens at expiry

The engagement expires by force of law and the manager cannot act again without a new engagement (s 139(3)). Nothing needs to be resolved to let it lapse; put the budget and levy motions for a self-managed year on the same agenda.

6Handover

A notice of a committee resolution requires all records and body corporate assets to be delivered to a named committee member within 14 days, with no lien over records (s 235). A manager who administered the funds must hand over the financial records within 30 days (s 168).

7Running it yourselves

A committee is the default. Chairperson, secretary and treasurer are mandatory and one person may hold all three (s 9); Small Schemes need only a secretary and treasurer; two-lot schemes decide everything by lot owner agreement. There is no annual return to the Commissioner. Issue body corporate certificates on sales.

8Protections you already have

The code of conduct is part of every engagement: honesty, fairness, skill and care, no unconscionable conduct and, since 1 May 2024, no unfair influence over any motion. Before any decision the manager must disclose in writing any associate supplying services and any commission or benefit, with the dollar amount (ss 154 to 156).

Wording for QLD

Fill in the brackets, put each decision as its own motion, and keep the minutes.

Motion: do not renew and self-manage

That the body corporate notes that the engagement of [manager] as body corporate manager expires on [date] under section 139(3) of the Standard Module, resolves not to enter into a new engagement, and that from that date the committee will administer the body corporate's affairs. The committee is authorised to give notice under section 235 requiring delivery of all body corporate records and assets within 14 days and to require the financial records under section 168.

Motion: terminate

That the body corporate, by ordinary resolution under section 150 [or section 152] of the Standard Module, terminates the engagement of [manager] effective [date] [on the ground that the remedial action notice given on [date] was not complied with], and authorises the committee to give the prescribed notice under section 235.