Can a Committee Prepare Its Own Sinking Fund Forecast?
In Queensland, yes. Whether it holds up is another question.
The short answer
In Queensland, yes. Nothing obliges a body corporate to engage a professional. A committee or an owner can estimate the likely spending requirements themselves.
So the real question is not whether you are allowed to. It is whether the result will hold up.
Where committee prepared forecasts tend to come apart
Three things, consistently.
Replacement costs get underestimated. Someone finds a figure for repainting from a few years ago, or asks a contractor for a ballpark, and that number goes into a ten or fifteen year projection without any allowance for how construction costs have moved.
Condition gets assumed rather than assessed. A forecast built at a kitchen table works from the age of the building and a general sense of how things look. It misses the roof membrane that has five years left rather than fifteen.
And the numbers cannot be defended. When an owner stands up at a general meeting and asks why levies are going up, “the committee worked it out” is a harder position than a report from a quantity surveyor.
When doing it yourselves is reasonable
Small, young, simple schemes with few shared assets and no significant plant. A four unit complex built eight years ago with no lift, no pool and a metal roof does not need the same treatment as a thirty year old tower.
Even then, the first professionally prepared forecast is useful as a baseline the committee can maintain between reviews.
What a professional forecast actually buys you
- An inspection, so condition is observed rather than assumed
- Cost estimates from people who cost buildings for a living
- A document owners can be shown when they question the levy
- A defensible position if the adequacy of the fund is ever challenged
What we do
Seymour Consultants has prepared these since 2001, and our quantity surveyors are members of the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors. We prepare 15 year forecasts, which maintains a validity date of five years, and we recommend updating every three years or after significant maintenance work.
Frequently asked questions
Is a professional forecast legally required in Queensland?
No. A body corporate may ask a professional to prepare one, but is not obliged to.
Does the same apply in New South Wales?
The capital works fund plan requirement under section 80 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 is its own framework, and from 1 April 2026 mandatory standard forms apply. That raises the bar on presentation considerably.
Can you review a forecast we prepared ourselves?
Talk to us about scope. Call 07 5573 4011.
