Tracafe DIY Self managed body corporate software – support for Queensland legislation

DIY-BC support for Queensland body corporate legislation

Our DIY body corporate software service (DIY-BC) has been designed to support –

  • the Body Corporate and Community Management Act (BCCM)
  • the BCCM (small schemes module and standard module) regulations’
  • the ‘BCCM (two lot module) regulation’
  • the ‘BCCM (commercial module and accommodation module) regulations’
Levies

DIY-BC can automatically generate and distribute instalment notices to lot owners.  Discounts for timely payment are supported.  The regulations permit discounts of between 0 and 20% to be set.  DIY-BC automatically determines if a discount is to be given, of course this can be manually over-ridden.  Penalties are also applied automatically.  Simple interest penalty rates of between 0 and 30% per annum may be set.  Manual remission of the penalty interest is supported.  Payments are first applied towards penalties, then outstanding contributions, and finally towards any cost recovery for the debt.  This order of assignment is prescribed by the modules and respected by DIY-BC.

In the case of the two lot module, there is no concept of a discount or a penalty interest payment.  DIY-BC supports this concept.

Lot entitlements and interest entitlements

Queenland legislation specifies that each lot in a body corporate is assigned a ‘contribution schedule lot entitlement’ value and an ‘interest schedule lot entitlement’ value.  In the simplest and most common scenario, all lots have the same ‘contribution schedule lot entitlement’ and the same ‘interest schedule lot entitlement’.  The ratio of an entitlement of an individual lot to the total entitlement of the body corporate impacts contribution levies.  Sinking fund contributions are levied entirely on ‘contribution schedule lot entitlement’.  Administration Fund contributions are levied as a combination of insurance related levies using ‘interest schedule lot entitlement’ and the remaining levies using ‘contribution schedule lot entitlement’.  DIY-BC supports this algorithm.

Information certificates and disclosure statements

DIY-BC generates S206 disclosure statements and BCCM Form 13 and Form 26 information certificates for all modules.  The Form 26 applies to the two lot module scheme.  The Form 13 is applicable to the other regulation modules.

Module differences (small schemes vs standard)

For DIY-BC the impact between the small schemes module and the standard scheme module is largely reflected in the compliance reports that DIY-BC is able to generate.  For example, in the small lot module there must be a secretary and treasurer.  In the standard Module, a secretary, treasurer and chairperson is required.  AGM documentation differs and reflects the module differences in requirements.

Module differences (two lot)

In support of the two lot scheme, DIY-BC permits the electronic creation, review and approval of lot owner agreements.  Uploading written agreements is also supported.  Two styles of instalment generation is supported.  ‘Adhoc’ instalment generation creates a new instalment for each lot owner whenever a new expense is entered into the system.  ‘Periodic’ instalment generation is aligned with the other modules and generates regular (eg. quarterly) instalments based upon agreed lot owner budget and contribution settings.  Compliance reports reflect other differences such as there must be ‘record keepers’ (but no committee) and no need for AGMs etc.

Module differences (commercial vs standard)

For DIY-BC there is no difference between our implementation of the commercial module and the standard Scheme module.  Consequently, Tracsafe does not support the ‘promotion fund’ identified in the commercial module regulation.  This is not usually an issue for our clients.

Financial year end

The end of financial year for a Queensland body corporate (small lot or standard module) is prescribed by the Act to generally be – last day of the month immediately before the month in which the scheme was first registered..  This means that at every AGM it is possible to compare current and past financial statements for a full 12 months.  The DIY-BC software will rollover the end of financial year based on this algorithm.  However, if necessary, a different date can be chosen at the time the rollover is performed.

In the case of the two lot module, there is no concept of a ‘financial year’.  DIY-BC supports this concept but also allows for a rollover of financial records to be completed at any time as this can be very helpful for reporting.

Voluntary insurance scheme

Schemes that are based on standard format or general format survey plan can take advantage of a voluntary insurance scheme.  In this arrangement, individual lot owners can (generally) choose to opt-in to a body corporate building insurance scheme which comprises one or more lots in addition to the common property.  The advantage is that insurance premiums per lot is generally lower when this is done.  The insurance premium component of a levy for a lot owner that opts-in is in proportion to the replacement valuation of their individual lot compared to the summation of all valuations in the scheme.  Tracsafe supports voluntary insurance schemes.

Tracsafe can help

Try the demo software, and/or get convinced and then buy your cloud based body corporate self managed software subscription.  If you want Tracsafe to take more of the administrative tasks then review our alternate services.