A body corporate isn't stuck with its manager. The owners engaged it, and the owners can replace it: a resolution that ends one engagement and starts another, the notice the current agreement asks for, and a handover of the records and the money, which belong to the body corporate and never to its manager.
Nothing ties a body corporate to its manager beyond the agreement it signed. Every agreement engaging a body corporate manager has to set out how it can be ended, the records, funds and other things the manager must return, and the latest date for returning them (Unit Titles Regulations 2011, reg 28C). The owners pass a resolution, the notice runs, the records and the money come back, and the new manager starts. You don't need to wait for the AGM to do it.
Governed by the Unit Titles Act 2010, administered by Unit Titles Services.
Find the clause on ending it. The agreement must set out the grounds for termination and the process (reg 28C(d)), and what the manager must return and by when (reg 28C(f), (g)). The notice it asks for sets the earliest date a new manager can start, so plan the vote back from there.
In Quarter: Put the agreement in your documents and ask Quarter what leaving takes: the notice, who gives it, anything payable on leaving and what has to come back, with the clause each comes from.
Owners should vote on the terms, so have the incoming manager's agreement before the notice goes out. It must cover the same prescribed terms: reporting, the code of conduct in Schedule 1B of the Regulations, reviews of its performance, how it ends and what comes back (s 114H, reg 28C). If the incoming manager owns a unit in the development, they can't vote on their own engagement (s 114H(4)).
In Quarter: Quarter's management agreement is attached to the proposal and goes to every owner with the notice, so they read the terms they're voting on.
One motion can do it all: engage the new manager from a date, end the current engagement in accordance with its terms from the same date, and name what the outgoing manager hands over by then. The Chair can issue it as a resolution without a meeting, with the notice regulation 16 sets out: how to vote, where to return the vote, the closing date and the percentage needed (s 104, reg 16). Or it can go to a general meeting.
In Quarter: The Chair issues the notice from Quarter, owners vote online or on a paper form sent by post, and the resolution passes the moment the count reaches the majority it needs.
Once it passes, give the outgoing manager notice the way its agreement requires, with the resolution, the switchover date and the list of what is due back by then. Tell the owners the result as soon as the votes are counted (reg 16(3)).
The register of owners, the financial records, the long-term maintenance plan, the insurance policies, the minutes and any money held for the body corporate all belong to it. A manager working for more than one body corporate must keep each one's funds and records apart (s 114I(2)(c)), so there should be nothing to untangle.
In Quarter: We work with the outgoing manager to get each item across before the switchover date, file it as it arrives, and tell the committee what is still outstanding.
Whoever can operate the body corporate's account after the switchover date is the handover's last loose end. A special resolution can nominate who may operate it and how (s 115(3)), so put that in the same motion rather than leave the old manager on the mandate.
In Quarter: The money moves to a trust account Quarter holds for your body corporate alone, never pooled with another's, and owners get levy notices with the new payment details.
A resolution can't shorten the notice the outgoing manager's agreement asks for. Work back from the end of it, or the body corporate pays two managers for the overlap.
Without a meeting, the majority is of every eligible voter, not of those who answer, so an owner who never replies counts against it (s 104(3)). And an owner behind on their levies can't vote until they are paid (s 96(3)).
A list without a deadline drifts. Name the records, the money and the date in the resolution, and again in the notice to the manager.
Most switches aren't about one bad month. They're about a fee that keeps rising, questions that wait a week for an answer, and a committee doing the work it pays somebody else to do.
Quarter is a body corporate manager. Change to Quarter and most of the steps above are ours to run: the committee's part is the decision.
The motion, the switchover date and the cost are drafted for you, and Quarter's management agreement goes to every owner with the notice, so they vote on the terms.
The notice goes out from Quarter, owners vote online or on a paper form by post, and the count keeps itself.
We work with your outgoing manager to get the records, the registers and the money across in time for the switchover date.
From the switchover date Quarter raises the levies, pays the bills the committee approves and keeps the records. The owners and the committee still make the decisions.
General information about New Zealand, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close, check the current position with Unit Titles Services or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in New Zealand and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
