Misinformation has been circulated relating to the legal case.

Misinformation and the distortion of facts continues and is aimed to distract from the mismanagement of levies; levies spent on the legal case that could have been better spent on our building and services.

The following are totals for legal expenses from The Sands CTS 14967 STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENDITURE STATEMENTS 
 2012 $18,156.09    
 2013 $29,209.67    
 2014 $48,884.54    
 2015 $143,531.92    
 2016 $142,920.03    
 2017 $67,542.38    
 2018 $61,667.33    
 2019 $339,888.00    
 2020 $577,126.02    
 2021 $146,278.92    

The total expenditure by The Sands body corporate is $1,575,204.90. This does not include the legal expenditure by the other party.

Below is a summary of the legal case. Details of the case and decisions are available on the QCAT website.

• The body corporate terminated the Building Manager’s Grounds Maintenance Contract in 2014. The Building Manager lodged an appeal and this was upheld.
• Colin Evans filed a submission on behalf of the body corporate on costs in relation to the original proceedings (prior to the appeal being determined) and agreed that costs ought to be awarded. This was done without body corporate approval. The starting position in QCAT is that each party must bear their own costs for a proceeding, except in special circumstances. Because this submission was made (that costs should be awarded), the Building Manager’s solicitors used this in support of their submission that costs should be awarded.
• The Building Manager made a submission for costs in December 2018. A settlement offer on 28 June 2019 was refused.
• On 4 November 2019, the Building Manager was awarded damages in respect of the original QCAT matter (OCL 026-14) and these damages were paid. This is shown in the 2019 Financial summary.
• On 11 February 2020 the body corporate received an offer to settle in respect of the costs associated with the original QCAT matter (The Sands Gold Coast Pty Ltd v Body Corporate for The Sands CTS 14967 Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Case No OCL 026-14) for $500,000. The Committee had obtained advice from the body corporate solicitors and from a barrister in respect of the Building Manager’s offer. The body corporate solicitors outlined a number of costs scenarios, advised that a court appointed assessor had reviewed the application for costs and recommended that the settlement offer be accepted and put to owners to vote on. The Committee voted on 3 March 2020 that it would recommend that owners support the acceptance of the offer. The Committee elected at March 2020 AGM was bound by this undertaking.
• The body corporate auditors, solicitors and secretary instructed Australian Unit Administration (AUA), the body corporate manager, to include the offer in the March 2020 AGM so that all owners were made aware of the situation and the requirement to pay this settlement sum. AUA were also instructed to include the settlement costs in the 2020 budget so that a provision could be made for the known costs and that all owners would be aware of the impact of the court case on body corporate finances.
  
  
• 28 June 2019 - settlement offered refused
• 11 February 2020 – further settlement offer received and was valid for 15 days
• 26 February 2020 – offer extended to 3 April
• 30 March 2020 – offer extended to 1 May
  
  
• As AUA failed to include the necessary motions, as instructed, in the March 2020 AGM, the newly elected Committee had to request a further extension (the 4th extension) to delay the payment date and allow an EGM to be called with the required lead times for notification to owners and for transfer of records from AUA to Ernst. The Building Manager, via solicitor, agreed to the further extension for an increased amount of $50,000.
• Consequently, an EGM was held to put the decision to all owners to vote on the terms of the settlement.  
• The motions were approved, and the body corporate solicitors executed the required documents to finalise the settlement agreement in favour of settling the costs associated with the original QCAT matter. The legal costs in 2020 reflect this amount.
• The Sands spent close to $600,000 on lawyers as outlined in the yearly financial statements with further amounts spent on damages and settlement costs. The appeal costs were also payable.