Back in May 19, an EGM for one of our schemes was held that resolved to move airconditioning condensers to a new location on common property. The six condensers, which are utility infrastructure that forms part of common property (but are maintained by lot owners) were causing nuisance to some lot owners and this is […]
Unpaid levies can be a financial headache for a body corporate, particularly a small body corporate. When the committee has taken all the inital actions of confirming that levies are getting through to the lot owner and sending reminders, what can they do? The BCCM regulations require that they must take action if the debt […]
Lot owners have the right to propose a general motion to appoint a body corporate manager of their preference. Their choice of body corporate manager may not match the committee’s preference. In such cases, a motion with alternatives will appear on the AGM Notice of meeting. Lot owners will then get an opportunity to vote […]
A very important concept is to realise that the BCCM legislation complicates whether the body corporate or lot owner should be attributed the ownership, maintenance or insurance responsibility for specific infrastructure. Let’s go through a couple of examples that are relevant for schemes surveyed as building format plan. Take airconditioning. In the case of an […]
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 […]