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Question: Is there a dollar amount limit to the payment of an invoice that can be made by our Strata Manager on behalf of the owners corporation?
We understand that one of the duties of a Strata Manager is to process and pay invoices for work carried out on behalf of the Owners Corporation. However, is there any $ limit to the payment of an invoice that can be made by our Strata Manager on behalf of the owners corporation?
I recently noticed a paid invoice for $11,000 that was made by our Strata Management Company. As a member of the Strata/Exec Committee, I would like to have seen the invoice before it is paid.
I noticed on our portal that there is a tab for Invoice Approval, but I have never seen anything under that tab.
Answer: The duties of a strata manager come from their authority in their agency agreement with the owners corporation.
- The duties of a strata manager come from their authority in their agency agreement with the owners corporation. See schedule 14of the PSBA
- The limits on authority will be contained in the agency agreement;
- Generally, a strata manager will be authorised to pay all invoices on behalf of an owners corporation, however there may be limits to that authority (until some other approval from the owners corporation is required);
- The owners corporation will in most cases be able to set up an invoice approval process with the strata manager in which some or all of the invoices of the owners corporation are issued to certain people for approval prior to payment (generally one or more committee members – in most cases, just the treasurer) – there is generally a cost to the system given the additional work involved that comes from maintaining the system and dealing with invoice queries; and
- The owner should simply query whether an invoice approval system can be established/what is the cost and otherwise what is the strata managers system for paying invoices (e.g. does the strata manager check each invoice or do they just go to accounts for payment).