What are your management rights documents?

This is determined solely from the contractual arrangements you have with your body corporate. Those arrangements are documented in the management rights agreements.

So what should you look for when we ask you for those?

Management / caretaking agreement

This agreement is the one you have with the body corporate where you are paid a fixed remuneration for a fixed set of duties. This can also be known as a deed of engagement, service contract or contractors agreement. There are a number of other names, but the key element to look for is the agreement where you are paid a salary.

Letting agreement

This is the agreement where the body corporate authorises you to let lots on behalf of owners. Sometimes it is incorporated in the management/caretaking agreement, but usually, it is a separate document. It can also be known as a deed of authorisation. Again – look for the document that has the key element of authorising you to let lots if you are unsure.

Deed(s) of assignment

These are the documents which record the transfer of the title to the business from manager to manager. If the original management rights agreements are not in your name with the body corporate, there should at least one deed of assignment to you. This will be an assignment from the person you purchased off. If the agreements are older, there are probably going to be several deeds of assignment. It is important for us to be able to establish the chain of title. We should be able to follow each owner of the management rights business from the first manager to you through these deeds of assignment.

Deed(s) of variation

These are documents that change the terms of the original agreements. Usually, it is in relation to creating a further option term, but they can also relate to changes in remuneration or duties.

Deed(s) of extension

These are documents that record the exercise of an option that exists in the management rights agreements. That option term will be for a set period. Each agreement is different, but the exercise of the option is normally recorded in a written agreement.

Community Management Statement (CMS)

This is a document where all of your by-laws are recorded along with the Module (usually Standard or Accommodation) and the lot entitlements of each of the lots. If you don’t have this, we can order a copy from the titles office for about $50.

Why these are important

It is vital that you send us every single management rights document. If we do not have them, it might mean that some of the work we are doing for you is not necessary (costing you money for no purpose) or is not right (which is even worse).

It is not common, but we have seen the position where someone has varied a management rights agreement twice to create the same option term – clearly because they did not have the previously agreed variation to hand. So it is very important that we have every single document from you to make sure that we can give you the right advice.

If you aren’t sure about what you need to send us, it is better to err on the side of caution and send us everything. We have seen enough management rights agreements to know that we can filter through it relatively quickly and determine what is important and what is not.

One of the benefits of using Hynes Legal is that we keep all of your documents electronically on our system, so if you ever need them again we can give them all to you on a moment’s notice as well.