Documents and records

Body corporate records, kept in one place

Estate Manager gives every scheme a document library with folders, versions and the right readers for each, and produces the records that meetings and decisions leave behind: minutes drafts, results certificates, proxy forms, appointment letters and rules documents. When a member asks to inspect the records, they are in one place.

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PMR 27(2) The records to keepPMR 27(5) Inspection within 10 days, 5 for the rulesPMR 26(3) Financial records kept for 6 yearsPMR 9(e) Minutes out within 7 days

The document library of a fictional scheme in the dark theme, with folders for rules, minutes and resolutions, residents' guides, insurance, compliance, financial statements, budgets and plans, quotes and contracts, contractor compliance and the trustees' working papers, and the General folder open. — The library's folders, each for everyone, the owners or the managers.

The library

Folders for the records a body corporate keeps

Every scheme starts with nine folders: general, rules, minutes and resolutions, insurance, compliance, financial statements, budgets and plans, quotes and contracts, and contractor compliance. The managers add their own, such as lifts, and set who reads each folder: everyone in the estate, the owners, or the managers alone.

Owners never see the managers' folders, and tenants see only what is meant for everyone, such as the rules. Quotes and contractors' papers always stay with the managers, and the audit trail records each download of a managers' document.

PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, PNG and JPEG files up to 25 MB
Files checked by their content, not their name
Search by title or file name, in one folder or all of them

The library as an owner sees it: the folders for owners and everyone, with the General folder open on documents such as the carport drawings, the generator drawings, the parking bay allocation and a quotation for waterproofing the roofs. — What an owner sees, without the managers' folders.

Versions

Every version kept, so last year's certificate stays at hand

Replacing a document uploads a new version and keeps the earlier ones downloadable, each with its file, size, uploader and date, so the scheme can show what it held at the time. Deleting a document hides every version, and the files are kept for five years, or longer for financial and company records, which leaves time to ask for one back.

Quotes, signed appointment letters, the trustees' signed resolutions, budgets and certified rules file themselves into their folders and stay with the records they belong to.

The versions of the emergency contact numbers: the current file as version 3 and two earlier ones, each with its uploader, date and download button. — Three versions of one document, all still at hand.

Produced from the record

Minutes, certificates and letters written from the record

Once a general meeting ends, Estate Manager drafts its minutes as a Word document from the record: the notice and the days it gave, the attendance with how each proxy was lodged, the quorum, and each resolution with its text and result in value and in number. The secretary edits the draft, and the next meeting adopts it. It never says how a member voted.

Issuing a meeting's notice emails the pack to every owner and the managing agent: the notice, the agenda with each resolution's wording and the prescribed proxy form, Form C, prefilled for each owner. A delivery report records each email, and each notice handed over or sent by registered post.

Results certificates on A4, with a line for the chair's signature
Appointment letters in Word, from the approved quote
The rules in force as a Word copy and a print view
Budgets and the ten-year plan in Excel or CSV

PMR 27(2)(a) What minutes record

The first page of a minutes draft for a fictional scheme's special general meeting: the opening, the notice and the days it gave, the attendance and proxies, and the table of members with how each attended. — A minutes draft built from the meeting's record, ready for the secretary.

What the law says

What records a body corporate must keep, and who may see them

Rule 27 of the prescribed management rules lists the governance records, rule 26 adds the books of account, and rule 9 sets the deadline for minutes.

General information, not legal advice.

PMR 27(2)(a)

Minutes

Minutes of general and trustee meetings, with the date, time and place, the names and roles of those present, how proxies were authorised, the text of all resolutions and the results of the voting on all motions.

PMR 27(2)(b) to (d)

Registers

Lists of trustees, members and tenants with their full names, identity or passport numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses, and lists of the sections with their participation quotas and owners, exclusive use areas, registered bondholders and future development rights.

PMR 27(1)(b) and (c)

The rules

A complete set of the management and conduct rules with an index, and a consolidated set prepared whenever they are amended.

PMR 27(3)

Records it may keep

Copies of the sectional plans, the Act and regulations, resolutions changing the common property, consents and waivers, contracts, decisions and legal opinions, budgets and financial statements, tax returns, insurance policies and claims, and correspondence.

PMR 27(4) to 27(6)

Inspection and copies

On a written request from a member, a registered bondholder or someone either authorises in writing, the records must be made available within 10 days, or 5 for the rules. A fee for copies, other than of the rules, may not exceed the reasonable cost of making them, and the body corporate may refuse to supply a copy until the fee is paid.

PMR 26(2) and 26(3)

Books of account

A member, a registered bondholder or the managing agent may inspect and copy the books of account and records, which are kept for 6 years after the transactions they relate to.

PMR 9(e), 27(7) and 27(8)

Deadlines and form

Minutes go to everyone entitled to notice of the meeting as soon as reasonably possible, and within 7 days. A managing agent or an employee whose contract the body corporate ends hands over all the records within 10 days. Records are in writing or in a form easily converted to writing.

Papers for the CSOS annual return

The practice directive of the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) lists the supporting documents of a sectional title scheme's annual return, filed within 4 months of the financial year end. They include these (Annexure F).

Form CS2, with a signed declaration
Audited financial statements
Minutes of the most recent annual general meeting, signed (Annexure F) or in draft (paragraph 14.3)
An up-to-date levy schedule
Details of the executive committee
The rules, resolutions and other governance documents
The maintenance, repair and replacement plan
A valuation schedule of the common property
Judgments for or against the scheme

Free template

Minutes template for a general meeting

A minutes draft as Estate Manager writes it from a meeting's record, in Word, laid out with what rule 27(2)(a) asks minutes to record.

Download the minutes template

DOCX

minutes-of-a-general-meeting-template.docxWord · free download

The scheme, the meeting, the chair, and when it opened and ended
The notice: when it was issued, the days it gave and the rule that applied
The attendance, with how each proxy was authorised
The quorum in force, and whether it was present
Each resolution with its text and the votes for, against and abstaining, in value and in number
A line for the chair's signature

Questions

Questions about body corporate records

Anything else: ask us when you book a demo, or write to info@nanotech-computers.com.

How long must a body corporate keep its records?

Rule 26(3) keeps the books of account and financial records for 6 years after the transactions they relate to, and the CSOS practice directive says members may ask for records as far back as 6 years (paragraph 16.30). Rule 27 sets no period for minutes and registers. In Estate Manager, the financial statements and the budgets and plans in the library are kept for 6 years after their upload, and other library documents stay until a manager deletes them.

Who may inspect body corporate records?

A member, a registered bondholder, or a person either of them authorises in writing (rule 27(4)). The body corporate has 10 days to comply, or 5 for the rules. For records that hold other people's personal information, the CSOS practice directive asks for the request form prescribed under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (paragraph 16.29).

Can a buyer or an estate agent see the records?

Rule 27(4) gives the right to members, registered bondholders and the people they authorise in writing, so under the rule a buyer or an agent needs that written authority. A seller can authorise a buyer, and the body corporate then has the same 10 days to comply.

When must the minutes be sent out?

Rule 9(e) asks the trustees to compile the minutes of each trustee and general meeting and send them to everyone entitled to notice of that meeting as soon as reasonably possible, and no later than 7 days after it. Estate Manager drafts a general meeting's minutes from the record as soon as the meeting ends.

What happens to the records when the managing agent changes?

Rule 27(7) gives a managing agent whose contract the body corporate ends 10 days to hand over all the records. In Estate Manager the library, the minutes, the budgets and the decisions belong to the estate, so they stay when one agent's access ends and the next agent is invited.

Can owners see every document?

No. Each folder is for everyone, for owners or for the managers, and a document can narrow that further. A budget stays with the managers until it is shared, and quotes and contractors' papers never reach owners in the app, who see a decided request's outcome instead. A member may still ask in writing to inspect the contracts, which the managers then provide (rule 27(4)).

See the records a meeting leaves behind

A demo runs a general meeting on a fictional scheme, then opens the minutes draft, a results certificate and the document library.