How to find your Queensland Body Corporate by-laws

Queensland Body Corporate By-laws

There are three possible locations of By-laws that may be applicable to your Body Corporate.

Community Management Statement (CMS) Schedule C

CMS statements that have been updated since the introduction of the Body Corporate Community Management Act in 1997 will have a section labelled Schedule C – By-laws.  If there are by-laws listed in this section of the current CMS, then those by-laws listed are the current by-laws of the Body Corporate.
If there are no by-laws listed in Schedule C, then the by-laws listed in Schedule 4 of the enforce ‘Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997’ are your current by-laws.  If those by-laws are modified through an amendment to the Act, then the by-laws of your Body Corporate are similarly impacted.

Community Management Statement (CMS) Section 5

Three years after the 1997 Act was enacted, Bodies Corporate were issued with a standard CMS (unless in the interim they had created a new CMS).  Many Bodies Corporate have a current CMS that dates back to these standard issue CMSs.  The standard CMS states at Section 5 that the by-laws are “taken to be those in effect as at 13 July 2000” which means those by-laws that applied prior to that date.  These by-laws are similar in quantity and content to the by-laws listed in the current Act.  It is not easy to reconstruct the by-laws that were then in force.  The most likely scenario is that your Body Corporate’s by-laws are a concatenation of the Second Schedule by-law (animals) under the BUTA Act 1965-72 and the Third Schedule by-laws under the BUGTA Act 1980.

Respecting your By-laws

By-laws must be respected and followed by all lot owners and occupiers in the Body Corporate.  Any motion at either a Committee or General Meeting must be ruled out of order if it would conflict with a by-law.  A breach of a by-law can lead to the Committee issuing a contravention notice (BCCM Form 10) or possibly a future contravention notice (when there is high expectation that reoffending may occur).  Breaches of by-laws can be reported to the Committee using a BCCM Form 1.

Changing your By-laws

If you want to add, delete, or modify a by-law, you must successfully move a motion at a general meeting in regard to that by-law and also in regard to the Body Corporate giving consent to changing the CMS (where the by-laws are recorded).  The Body Corporate must then update and register the new CMS with the Titles Office within three months.  A by-law only comes into force on the day the registrar records the new community management statement containing the by-law or a later date stated in the by-law.  A special resolution is required to change a non-exclusive use by-law.  A resolution without dissent is required if the by-law is an exclusive use by-law.  

Tracsafe can help

Tracsafe can help with changing your by-laws and preparing and submitting a new CMS.  Email us at our contact address with your requirements.  Looking for Body Corporate administration the way you want it?