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 […]
The rental agency of a lot in a Building Format scheme that we manage came to us requesting that we provision a key for the unit that they are managing as the tenant needed an additional key. BCCM adjudications have been clear (http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QBCCMCmr/2000/71.html) that the body corporate is liable for the maintenance of locks and the […]
Recently, a client in a building format plan found her townhouse egged. Missiles had also been directed towards a neighbouring townhouse in the Body Corporate. Her townhouse is surrounded by an exclusive use allocation, apart from an adjoining wall to another townhouse in the Body Corporate. This messy event led the impacted lot owners and the Committee to […]
We uncovered a tangled web this month. A scheme of townhouses had been developed over an extended period of time. The scheme has a private road and for all intensive purposes all the townhouses seemed similar with no lot fencing but with landscaped grounds surrounding each building on the scheme land. The scheme was not a layered scheme. […]
In April, we helped a scheme of townhouses where the lots were defined by Standard format (pegs in the ground) and not Building Format. Four of the seven townhouses required major structural repairs that were all related due to a structural steel frame that extended across all four lots that formed a garage for each lot. The […]
As one Queensland Body Corporate recently experienced, the term of a contract can be highly significant when considering a motion for a contractor engagement. The Queensland BCCM Commissioner passed down a decision which highlights the necessity for owners to be wary and knowledgeable about their rights. Northcliffe’s Body Corporate manager breached the requirements … in relation to […]
We just got a letter from Urban Utilities suggesting that a Body Corporate that we manage has a water leak. We take such a letter very seriously because we know that water leaks can be very expensive. However, in this case, the Body Corporate was a relatively new development. The automatic letter generated by the Urban Utilities computer […]
The developer (and building contractor) is the first person to contact when a defect is found in a new scheme. If they are unresponsive, then recourse to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission may be possible. The time to lodge a non-structural defect issue with the QBCC is quite short. Full details are on their website – www.qbcc.qld.gov.au. Once […]
We heard recently of a case where a Body Corporate on a Standard Format Plan was denied insurance. The buildings in the Body Corporate had common walls and so the insurance needed to cover the buildings as well as the common property. An insurance inspection report had uncovered deficiencies in many of the lots (related to the […]