WE DON’T NEED NO (MANDATED) EDUCATION!

The requirement in NSW for body corporate committee volunteers to undergo compulsory education in strata law is a fresh take on the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

While there is no plan for Queensland to follow NSW in forcing committee members into the strata schoolroom, that won’t stop some from looking south and pondering whether we should follow suit.

For many years, bodies corporate have been seen as the fourth tier of government, after federal, state and local.

A strata committee has considerable power in the running of a community, with the ability to enact and enforce by-laws that have a large impact on the lives of people in those communities.

So, given the complexity of the law, surely this is an argument that all committee members should have a base-level understanding of strata, and compulsory education would be a good thing.

Management rights holders are required to have certification to let apartments as well as hold various other qualifications – wouldn’t life be easier if committee members underwent some training as well?

This is where good intentions can come a cropper.

A body corporate depends entirely on volunteers – and volunteerism is on the wane.

People’s lives are busy and complex. Getting them to volunteer their time to serve on a body corporate committee is difficult enough without the added requirement that they undergo compulsory training as well.

This additional burden could have the perverse outcome of reducing the effectiveness of committees by making them even less attractive to serve on than they already are.

It may be better to accept the lesser of two evils: to have some under-educated people on a committee than to have no people at all.

The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management is unique to Queensland – no other jurisdiction has a similar body to oversee strata law.

The Commissioner’s website contains an Aladdin’s Cave of free resources for strata committees and resident managers on the smooth and efficient running of a body corporate.

In the interests of both encouraging people to volunteer (don’t add barriers) and in better educating those who do volunteer (here’s an array of resources to help you), surely the best way forward for Queensland is to keep the current system in place.

There is a principle known as Chesterton’s fence: never remove a structure before understanding why it was there in the first place.

This applies nicely in the case of mandated education for committee volunteers.

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out in NSW. Already some interesting debate is occurring, led by Francesco Andreone in his online commentary.

Enthusiastic volunteers with access to a wealth of resources to inform their decisions seems a more logical path than introducing yet another barrier to people joining a committee.

To misquote Pink Floyd from their legendary The Wall album: We don’t need no (mandated and disincentivising) education…

Article Contributed by Rob Lalor, Director at Hynes Legal.

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