This month, a lot owner’s hot water went cold. A plumber was called who found no issue with the plumbing. Eventually, Energex was called and identified a fault in the electrical infrastructure on the property. They also stated that other lot owners would have been affected in the same way. The plumber charged $200. The lot owner asked the plumber […]
A lot owner had some concerns about a motion that was scheduled to be voted upon at an upcoming AGM. The issue was around the motion wording, the explanatory note, and the attached quotation to the Notice of meeting. Written and verbal clarification had been sought from the committee and specifically the committee member who had organised […]
A property manager of one of our clients queried the format of the levy notice that we issue on behalf of a body corporate that we manage. They suggested that they might have to withold tax because the body corporate did not have an Australian Business Number (ABN). The body corporate is a small scheme that […]
Tracsafe can help you terminate your body corporate manager contract. The sad part is when we encounter an existing body corporate manager behaving poorly both as schemes try to leave and subsequently as schemes switch to a new body corporate manager. In the case this month, the body corporate manager had signed a three year contract with […]
Committees are often concerned about the impact of a lot occupier’s home office in a residential complex. There are relevant BCCM adjudications that have upheld the use of a home office providing all by-laws are being respected (such as not causing a nuisance). Different councils have different rules about whether approval of the office is required. Generally, councils […]
Banks generally do not charge a transaction fee when depositing money into a bank account by cheque or by cash at a branch of the bank. In our case, we use Macquarie bank and the DEFT system for our fully managed and bookkeeper clients. Macquarie bank does not have their own branch network and uses the Australia […]
The BCCM Commissioner recently advised that there are now in excess of 43 thousand community titles schemes in Queensland. Only 1.5% of these schemes are registered under the two-lot module, yet about 50% of the 43 thousand schemes consist of only two lots. Since the two lot regulation has only existed since February 2012, it is likely […]
This month, we helped a body corporate that came unstuck with GST after they took on the responsibility for charging lot owners for water usage. The body corporate was registered for GST. The reason for taking on the responsibility was so that a fairer allocation of the charges could be made to lot owners based on sub […]
Recently, in a body corporate that we manage, a lot owner installed solar panels on the roof above his townhouse without approval. Whilst he was totally unaware that permission was needed to make improvements to common property, it is not always easy to work out what is common property in a town house scheme. You must […]
We recently convened an AGM that highlighted the skill and knowledge needed to ensure the votes in a special resolution were correctly considered. Some decorative lights at the entrance to the property had failed. The repair cost was outrageous and the committee decided to disconnect and not reconnect them. Approval was sought and given by the electrical designers […]