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 […]
We helped a Body Corporate this month that had got a bit confused. They were in the habit of holding a Committee and owners meeting. At the meeting, there were lot owners present who were not on the Committee. Their meetings were informal, and at past meetings there had been general consensus from all attending in relation to […]
There has been a lot of chatter about the recent District Court of Queensland decision (BC for Mount Saint John Industrial Park CTS v Superior Stairs & Joinery Pty Ltd [2017] QDC 245). There is a clause (S145) in the Body Corporate standard module regulations that states – If the amount of a contribution or contribution […]
We attended a seminar the other day where there was an in-depth discussion about survey plans and the way Body Corporate schemes come to be created. We came away with an understanding of why we often come across schemes with only two lots where it would been much simpler for the lot owners if the […]
As we were preparing AGM documentation for one of our Bodies Corporate, it became apparent the Body Corporate would not have the minimum of three committee members required under the Standard Module Regulation. As the scheme had only five lots, we were able to recommend that they change regulation to the Small Schemes Module, under which […]