Frequently Asked Questions

The body corporate for a community titles scheme is composed of all the owners in the scheme. Every new owner automatically becomes a member of the body corporate.

The body corporate must comply with the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (the BCCM Act) and regulations.

The body corporate (owners or their representatives) makes decisions on matters with shared responsibility. These include:

• Maintenance and management of common property, including equipment and services
• Determining levies (financial contributions) which owners must pay to fund its operation
• Public risk insurance
• Any compulsory building insurance
• Establishing and enforcing by-laws (rules) relating to the management and control of lots and the common property

When considering purchasing a unit in a community titles scheme, you should find out if there are any fees and charges still owing – as the new owner, you will be obligated to honour the payments.

A community titles scheme may include any duplex, residential unit block, high rise accommodation complex, shopping complex or business park. Such schemes are comprised of individually owned lots or units and common property.

Community titles schemes allow for flexible living arrangements where a person can privately own an area of land or part of a building as well as share common property areas with other owners.

If you are considering purchasing a unit or townhouse, you need to be aware you will be buying into a community titles scheme.

You will not only have certain rights and responsibilities for your own property, but also the common property shared with other owners within your complex.

Therefore, it is important for potential owners to understand what the common property is and what the costs will be for maintenance and general upkeep.

Examples of common property range from a shared driveway or letterbox area to communal lifts and stairways, swimming pools, tennis courts, roadways and golf courses.

The by-laws are a set of rules for a community titles scheme that regulate various matters including the keeping of animals, noise and parking on common property. The BCCM Act allows a body corporate to adopt standard by-laws set out in the BCCM Act, or to make by-laws that best suit its individual circumstances.

Owners are encouraged to obtain copies of the by-laws to ensure they are familiar with their rights and responsibilities. By-laws are contained in the CMS for a community titles scheme.

The statement is a document held by Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Lands Registry Office. If you are unclear which by-laws apply to your scheme, contact the body corporate secretary or the Lands Registry Office on 1300 255 750.

There are a number of meeting types available to a body corporate. The different types of meetings include:

• Annual General Meeting
• Extraordinary General Meeting
• Committee Meeting
• Vote Outside of Committee Meeting (VOC or Flying Minute)

Each meeting has it's own requirements.

An Annual General Meeting (AGM) is required to be held every year. Your AGM must be held within three (3) months of your body corporate financial year end and include matters such as approving financial statements, confirming insurance, setting budgets and levies for the new financial year and appointing a Committee. At least 21 days notice is required to be given for an AGM.

An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) is run similar to an AGM, however, there is no requirement to have an EGM every year. An EGM is typically held where there is a motion (whether a Committee motion or Owners motion) that is outside of what the Committee can approve. This may be due to expenditure approval limits, or restricted issues. At least 21 days notice is required to be given for an EGM.

A Committee Meeting, as the name suggests is a meeting of the Committee. All Owners must be given the opportunity to attend as an observer and these meetings can be held as required, by the Committee. At least 7 days notice is required to be given for Committee Meetings.

A Vote Outside of Committee Meeting (VOC) or otherwise known as a flying minute, is an electronic version of a physical committee meeting - a voting paper. A VOC is a popular choice for smaller bodies corporate where their Committee meets infrequently or has less items to include on an agenda. VOC's are common where there are items such as pet approvals, lot improvements or insurance renewals. It may take up to 21 days for an outcome on a VOC.

All Owners must have the opportunity to attend all meetings of the Body Corporate. If a general meeting is held, at least 21 days notice is required to be given to all Owners.

For a physical Committee Meeting, at least 7 days notice is required to be given.

All Owners are required to be given a copy of a VOC / Flying Minute that is being considered by the Committee. Non-Committee Members do not vote on matters decided by VOC and are provided the notice for their information only.

This depends on the type of plan your body corporate is registered under.

The body corporate is responsible for insuring the areas the body corporate is responsible for. I.e. the common property.

In all cases, owners are responsible for at least their own contents insurance (or landlords insurance if you are a landlord).

Depending on the type of scheme you own in, you may be responsible for your own building policy as well.

We recommend contacting your insurer to confirm what coverage is required. We are able to provide our clients with a copy of the body corporate Certificate of Currency and/or policy to confirm what is covered by the body corporate.

Typically owner improvements are covered under your contents insurance (such as air-conditioning units).

Where the body corporate covers the building and common area contents, these typically only include the building structure (including fixtures and fittings) and contents that belong to the body corporate.

We recommend contacting your insurer or broker to confirm what you are covered for, based on your individual circumstances.

Your Body Corporate Manager can assist in obtaining quotes for your annual insurance renewal, however, the decision on who to renew with is up to the body corporate.

Where there is a broker engaged, your Body Corporate Manager will liaise with the broker to ensure the information on the proposed renewal quotations are correct and where there is a change in insurer, request an updated invoice from the broker to arrange payment.

A certificate of currency is provided upon renewal, which can be accessed by our clients through our online owners portal.

The short answer - yes. As long as it's reasonable to do so.

A body corporate cannot unreasonably deny an owner or a tenant to keep a pet within a lot in a body corporate. A body corporate is also unable to set conditions based on the animals size, type and weight, despite if such conditions exist in the by-laws for the complex.

However, pets must be approved by the body corporate and if you're a tenant, you must ensure that owner approval has been sought before making an application to the body corporate. It can take up to 21 days for a response to be received by the committee. Matters as such are usually decided by VOC or flying minute, but may be held over until the next committee meeting.

If you're a current Ocean Body Corporate Advisors client and wish to obtain approval for a pet, head over to our pet application form to lodge your application.

Lot improvements such as patio roofs or sheds usually require a couple of different approvals.

These requests need body corporate approval. Sometimes, these types of requests can be approved by the committee, however, depending on the actual cost of the improvement, you may require a general meeting resolution. Although the improvement is at your expense, the Committee may only approve improvements up to $3,000. Anything above this limit requires a motion to be proposed at a general meeting.

You may also require Local Council approval. We are unable to advise whether or not it is necessary, however, body corporate approval is usually conditional on Local Council approval so we recommend checking with your Council to confirm whether approval is required prior to lodging an application with the body corporate.

Conditions may be imposed on approval by the body corporate such as maintenance being at the owner's expense, damages caused to common property as a result of the installation be rectified at the owner expense or the improvement maintains the overall look of the complex.

If you're a current Ocean Body Corporate Advisors client and are seeking approval for a lot owner improvement and are satisfied you have the required information to proceed, head over to our Lot Improvement application form to lodge your application.

Of course you can! But be mindful that body corporate approval may still be required and if you're changing from carpets to hard flooring, there'll likely be rules around acoustic soundproofing so that the change doesn't impact your neighbours (for those living in apartment blocks).

We touched on unit renovations in our July & August newsletter. You can access our newsletters here.

We recommend contacting your Body Corporate Manager to confirm whether approval is required, but also recommend letting the Committee know of your plans and when any work is being carried out so they're aware of tradespeople on site.

Your levies or otherwise known as owner contributions are determined by the annual budget set each year at the AGM.

All schemes have an Administrative fund contribution and a Sinking fund contribution. These levy amounts are based on the number of contribution entitlements for your lot.

Some schemes also have an Insurance levy which is based off the interest entitlements for your lot. This levy exists when the interest entitlement for each unit is difference, which means each owner pays a different amount.

In schemes that have equal interest entitlements, your insurance contributions are covered under your regular Administrative fund contributions.

The frequency of which your levies are issued are approved at the AGM.

Levies often increase because items in your budget have increased. Big expenses like insurance where we regularly see 15% - 20% increases often have a part to play in levy increases.

Depending on the actual spending throughout the year, your body corporate may close the financial yesr in surplus which means part of this can be used to offset levy increases in following years.

We don't recommend using all of your surplus in one go, but it can help in keeping levies steady. A surplus occurs when you haven't spent all of the money raised in the year e.g. your insurance may be cheaper than budgeted or your water bills were less than expected. This results in a positive opening balance for the next year - sort of like a head-start.

In some cases, a body corporate may close in deficit which means you've spent more than what has been raised through levies. This also results in levy increases because the body corporate needs to recover the deficit, as well as plan for the expenses to come in the next financial year.

Budgeting can be a tricky subject, particularly when general living expenses are already high. We consult with our Committee's prior to proposing a budget at the AGM to ensure what's being proposed is suitable and is in the best interests of the body corporate.

We understand that the cost of living situation is making it difficult for home owners and we want to try and make your Strata living experience as easy as possible.

If you're experiencing financial difficulty, there are options to assist you in repaying your levies. For example, you may wish to pay your levies regularly via BPAY or Direct Debit, or alternatively, if you're currently in arrears, you may have the option of entering into a payment plan.

If you wish to pay your levies in advance each week, fortnight or month, you can do so on your own terms. We recommend contacting your Body Corporate Manager to confirm what you will need to pay to make sure you're paid up to date to prevent any penalty interest or loss of discount (where applicable).

If you require a payment plan for current arrears, please visit our Payment Plan Request form to lodge an application. Once your request has been received, it will be forwarded to your Committee for consideration.

We recommend letting your Body Corporate Manager know if there's been a change in your circumstances so that any support needed to help you keep on-top of your owner obligations is made available to you when you need it.

Changing Body Corporate Managers to Ocean Body Corporate Advisors is a simple process.

The first step is to obtain a proposal, you can request one here.

Once we receive your request, we will contact you to get some additional details before putting together a tailored proposal for your consideration.

If you're happy with our proposal, you will need to propose a motion to change managers at a general meeting, which we can provide to you If you have an AGM coming up, you may be able to include the motion on the agenda. Otherwise, a change can be approved at an EGM.

Timeframes for including a motion in the AGM apply. If you're a Committee member, you have up until the notice of the meeting is issued. If you're a non-Committee member, you have until the end of your body corporate financial year to submit your motion.

Once the motion has been approved, your current managers (outgoing manager) or the Committee will contact our office to advise us of a successful appointment. We will then liaise with your current managers to arrange a handover.

The handover process usually takes around 4 weeks, but this depends on when your agreement with your current manager ends.

Once handover occurs, our team will commence loading the body corporate information onto our system and contact all Owners to introduce ourselves!

A body corporate is made up of all owners in your complex. As owners, you are the decision makers for your scheme.

Where you have appointed a Body Corporate Manager, you have appointed them to carry out the administrative duties of secretary and treasurer which typically involves sending out meeting notices, drafting minutes, providing legislative guidance, working with Committee's to attend to maintenance and compliance matters, drafting budgets, operating bank accounts and liaising with other industry professionals.

Your Body Corporate Manager is not the body corporate. If you have an issue that involves your body corporate, your manager can only provide guidance and refer the matter to the Committee for further instruction.

If there is no Committee, a Body Corporate Manager may then be appointed to act as the Committee under a Chapter 5 arrangement.

Ocean Body Corporate Advisors puts customer-service and customer-experience at the top of the list. We pride ourselves on education, providing the right support at the right time and making your Strata living experience as easy as possible.

When looking for a new Body Corporate Management firm, you should first understand the pain points you're experiencing with your current managers.

You might be seeking a change because of price, communication, lack of support or you're seeking a local manager. Once you understand why you're seeking a change, you'll understand the qualities you're looking for in your new managers.

Once you start contacting potential managers, ask questions around how they're different, what their standards are around communication and how they are going to fit in with you (rather than you fitting in with them!)

From there, you can make an informed decision on who might be best suited based on your schemes circumstances.

If you're currently looking to change, we'd love to connect to see how we can assist you!