4 minute read
Legal Ease
Some essential dos and don’ts
It would take pages to list all the things that managers should or should not do to fulfi l their statutory obligations under the relevant legislation governing them.
I thought I would list a few of the ones that I think are absolutely essential to ensure compliance.
Do not let out any unit without a lett ing appointment, irrespective of how diffi cult it may be to get one. No external agent will, so why should you?
Do not charge any more than the charges set out in your lett ing appointments.
Follow the process prescribed in the appointment, or have any increase accepted by your owners, before imposing any increases.
Before you operate under a leaseback with an owner, or an arrangement where you off er a guaranteed return, advise all the other lett ing pool that changed the entity’s current GST turnover. a business restructure that changed the entity’s current GST turnover. substantial increase in turnover. drought or natural disaster. irregular turnover. partnership with individuals aff ected by sickness, injury or leave. Once it is confi rmed the entity is eligible for JobKeeper 2.0, the next issue is determining the eligible employees and/ or business participant. if they were employed by the
John Mahoney,
Partner, Mahoneys
owners of that. If you do off er a leaseback, make sure the tenancy agreement allows you to sublet and that the rent paid by the tenants/guests goes into your general account.
Don’t put in your trust account any funds that are not from the lett ing or sale of units, such as tour sales (unless part of the one payment that also includes what are clearly trust funds).
If you do receive funds into your trust account that are not truly trust funds, take them out within 14 days of them being deposited in your trust account.
Do not compel a tenant to acquire services from you, whether cleaning, wifi or furniture hire.
If the rental a tenant pays includes the provision of a service you provide (e.g. yard maintenance or furniture hire), make sure your lett ing appointment allows you to deduct the amount due to you from the rent.
Do not take a fee, commission or other payment from contractors or others doing work for the body corporate or owners unless fully disclosed. Inform the body corporate if it is considering entering an arrangement for the supply of services from any person or company associated in any way with you.
Display your licence details and a notice of the existence and availability of the code of conduct.
Have in place a reasonable, simple, and easy to use procedure for handling complaints by clients or customers and information readily available to inform
Where there has been
A business having a
A business aff ected by
Businesses with
Sole traders or small
eligible for JobKeeper payments them of the procedure.
entity on July 1, 2020 and can meet all of the other eligibility requirements (such as being a long-term casual if a casual employee, the age requirements, not being an excluded employee e.g., receiving parenting payments or workers compensation). Employees also need to have provided the employer with a nomination notice. If an employee has already passed all the relevant conditions at March 1, 2020, then they don’t need to be retested using the July 1, 2020 test date.
Eligible business participants need to be actively engaged in the business as at March 1, 2020 (the July 1 test date for employees does not apply), they must hold a specifi c position with the entity in question and must pass a number of other conditions relating to their age, residency status etc.
From September 28, 2020, the JobKeeper payment rate is split into two tiers. The payment rate will generally be based on the hours worked by the individual in the business in the relevant ‘reference periods’.
For the period September 28 to January 3, 2021 the payment rates are:
$1,200 per fortnight per employee or business participant who qualifi es for the higher payment rate (in broad terms, if they worked at least 80 hours in the reference period); or
$750 per fortnight per employee or business participant who didn’t qualify for the higher payment rate. 4, 2021 to March 28, 2021 the payment rates are:
$1,000 per fortnight per employee or business participant qualifi es for the higher payment rate; or
$650 per fortnight per employee or business participant who did not qualify for the higher payment rate.
The ‘reference period’ for employees is the 28-day period fi nishing on the last day of the last pay period that ended before either March 1, 2020 or July 1, 2020. For eligible business participants, it is the full month of February 2020. However, some alternative reference periods apply in some cases and some employees will automatically qualify for the higher rate (some employees on commissions and under certain awards).
