QLD body corporate committee: roles, election, powers, and limits

The committee is the engine room of a Queensland community titles scheme: it makes the day-to-day decisions between general meetings so that owners aren't voting on every invoice. Its make-up, powers, and limits come from the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (BCCM Act) and the scheme's regulation module — most commonly the Standard Module. Most committee disputes trace back to one of two misunderstandings: what an executive title actually authorises, and where committee power stops and a general meeting begins.

Who is on the committee

A Standard Module committee has:

• Executive members — a chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer. One person may hold more than one executive position.
• Ordinary members — the remaining voting members.
• Non-voting members — a body corporate manager, and in some cases a service contractor or letting agent representative, may attend in a non-voting capacity.

The committee must have at least 3 and no more than 7 voting members (schemes with only one or two lot owners work differently). In very small schemes the same few people simply fill all the positions.

Election at the AGM

The committee is elected each year at the AGM and holds office until the next one:

1. Nominations are called for before the meeting. Eligible nominees are owners, or individuals nominated by an owner (including a company owner nominating a representative).
2. Unfinancial owners are excluded — an owner who owes a body corporate debt when nominations close cannot nominate, be nominated, or vote in the ballot.
3. If more nominees than positions, a ballot is held at the AGM. Under the Standard Module, proxies cannot be used to vote in committee election ballots — owners vote personally, by voting paper, or electronically where adopted.
4. Casual vacancies during the year can generally be filled by the committee itself until the next AGM.

What each executive role does

The titles describe administrative functions, not personal authority. No executive member can bind the body corporate alone — decisions belong to the committee as a whole, by majority vote.

Chairperson

Chairs general meetings and committee meetings and rules on procedural matters (whether a motion is out of order, whether a quorum exists). Two things the chairperson does not have: a casting vote, and any power to decide substantive matters personally. A tied committee vote fails — the chairperson cannot break it.

Secretary

The scheme's administrator: prepares and issues meeting notices and agendas, records and distributes minutes, receives nominations and correspondence, and maintains the body corporate's records and rolls.

Treasurer

The scheme's finance function: prepares the administrative and sinking fund budgets for the AGM, issues contribution (levy) notices, keeps the accounts, and prepares the financial statements presented to owners.

In schemes with a body corporate manager, most secretary and treasurer functions are delegated to the manager — but the accountability stays with the committee.

What the committee can decide — and what it can't

The committee can decide anything that is not a restricted issue, within its spending limit. Key boundaries:

• Restricted issues must go to a general meeting — setting or changing levies, making or changing by-laws, starting most legal proceedings, fixing committee remuneration, and anything the Act or module reserves for an ordinary or special resolution of owners.
• Spending limit: under the Standard Module the committee's default limit for a single spend is $200 multiplied by the number of lots in the scheme, unless owners have changed it by ordinary resolution. Above the limit, the spend needs general-meeting approval (or two quotes and specific authorisation, depending on the module's provision).
• Owner review: owners can, by ordinary resolution at a general meeting, direct the committee or reverse a committee decision on most (non-restricted) matters.

Committee decisions are made at committee meetings by a majority of voting members present (a quorum being a majority of voting members), or between meetings by a vote outside committee meeting — a written or electronic flying minute, which passes only with the support of a majority of all voting members and fails if the module's objection process is triggered.

The code of conduct

Every voting committee member is bound by the code of conduct in Schedule 1A of the BCCM Act. In short, a member must:

• act honestly, fairly, and in the best interests of the body corporate as a whole,
• have (or acquire) a working knowledge of the Act and the scheme's by-laws,
• disclose conflicts of interest and not vote where they have a direct or indirect personal or commercial interest in the outcome,
• keep information confidential where the committee resolves it should be, and
• not act unreasonably, oppressively, or for private advantage.

Breach of the code is a ground for a general meeting to remove the member by ordinary resolution, following the module's show-cause process. Owners can also remove the whole committee and elect a new one.

Payment and protection

• Committee members are volunteers by default. Any payment or benefit to a member for carrying out the role must be approved by ordinary resolution at a general meeting — the committee cannot pay itself.
• Members acting honestly and without negligence are generally not personally liable for committee decisions — liability sits with the body corporate.

Common mistakes

1. Treating the chairperson as a CEO — signing contracts, instructing contractors, or "approving" spending alone. No executive member has unilateral power.
2. Expecting a casting vote — a tied committee motion fails; there is no tie-breaker.
3. Deciding restricted issues in committee — a committee "resolution" to change levies or by-laws is void.
4. Ignoring the spending limit — splitting one project into several invoices to stay under it is a classic adjudication finding.
5. Voting through a conflict — a member quoting their own business for scheme work must disclose and abstain.
6. Letting an unfinancial owner nominate or vote in the committee ballot.

How StrataPilot handles this

StrataPilot models the committee the way the Act does: each member carries a role label — chairperson, secretary, treasurer, or ordinary — and permissions follow the label, so executive functions like issuing invites and managing scheme settings sit with the executives while committee motions and votes stay one-member-one-vote. Committee decisions are recorded as polls with exact tallies, and action items land in task tracking with assignees and due dates — a running minute book the next committee inherits automatically.

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This guide is general information about Queensland legislation, current as at the "last updated" date above — it is not legal advice. For decisions that matter, check the current BCCM Act and your scheme's regulation module, or ask the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.