Straight answers to the questions owners and committees in Queensland ask us most, with the law they come from. If your question is not here, call us and ask a person.
Running the scheme
Which regulation module applies to our body corporate?
Queensland has five regulation modules: Standard, Accommodation, Commercial, Small Schemes and Specified Two-lot Schemes. The one recorded for your scheme sets your committee rules, spending limits, meeting notice periods and voting thresholds, so the same question can have two different answers in two neighbouring buildings.
As a general guide, the Standard Module suits schemes where most owners live in their own lots, the Accommodation Module suits schemes where most owners let theirs, the Commercial Module covers commercial premises, the Small Schemes Module applies to schemes of six lots or fewer, and the Specified Two-lot Schemes Module covers two residential lots.
Your module is recorded with your community management statement. We confirm it before we advise a committee on anything, rather than quoting a figure that governs somebody else’s scheme.
How many people can be on a body corporate committee in Queensland?
A committee needs at least three voting members. For a scheme of seven or more lots the maximum is seven; for a smaller scheme it is the number of lots. Three of those positions are executive: chairperson, secretary and treasurer. Under the Small Schemes Module only a secretary and a treasurer are required.
A body corporate manager and a caretaking service contractor are automatically non-voting members of the committee, which is worth remembering when a committee counts heads for a decision.
A principal body corporate in a layered scheme with more than seven lots can increase its committee to twelve voting members by ordinary resolution.
When does our body corporate have to hold its AGM?
The annual general meeting must be held within three months of the end of the body corporate financial year, and at least 21 days after the notice of meeting is given to lot owners. The AGM sets the annual budgets and contributions, deals with insurance and elects the committee.
The secretary also has to write to owners three to six weeks before the meeting inviting motions and nominations, so the real work of an AGM starts well before the notice goes out.
How much can the committee spend without a general meeting?
Unless the body corporate has set a different figure by ordinary resolution, the committee spending limit is $200 multiplied by the number of lots, GST included. A six-lot scheme therefore has a limit of $1,200. Anything above the limit has to go to a general meeting.
There is a second, separate threshold. The major spending limit is the lesser of $1,100 multiplied by the number of lots or $10,000, unless the body corporate sets its own by ordinary resolution. It does not cap what can be spent; it decides when two quotes must be obtained before the motion is considered.
These limits apply to schemes under the Standard, Accommodation and Small Schemes Modules. The Commercial and Specified Two-lot Schemes Modules do not have spending limits.
How far ahead does the sinking fund have to be planned?
A body corporate must budget for major capital spending for the current financial year and the next nine years. A professional sinking fund forecast is not compulsory under the BCCM Act, and a committee or an owner may estimate the requirement instead.
Not compulsory is not the same as not worth having. A forecast prepared by a quantity surveyor is the only reliable way to set contributions that survive contact with a real roof replacement, and it gives the committee something defensible to show owners who query a rise.
Schemes registered under the Specified Two-lot Schemes Module do not need formal budgets, though many still agree the same expenses to keep their planning honest.
What does the body corporate insure, and what do I insure?
It depends on your survey plan. Under a building format plan the body corporate must insure every building containing a lot for its full replacement value. Under a standard format plan it insures only buildings that share a common wall, so a free-standing house on its own lot is the owner's to insure.
Either way the body corporate also insures the common property, body corporate assets and public risk. Your own contents, and in many cases your fixtures and improvements, remain yours.
A body corporate can set up a voluntary scheme to insure free-standing buildings, but an owner of one does not have to join it.
Do I need body corporate approval to make an improvement?
For an improvement by a lot owner to common property, the committee can approve it if the total cost is under $3,000, it does not detract from the appearance of the scheme, and the body corporate is satisfied the use and enjoyment of the improvement will not cause a nuisance. Above that, an ordinary resolution is needed.
Improvements made by the body corporate itself work to different thresholds. Without an authorising resolution the basic limit is $300 multiplied by the number of lots, and the committee is still bound by its own spending limit. An ordinary resolution can authorise spending up to $2,000 multiplied by the number of lots, and only one such approval can be made in a year. Anything above that needs a special resolution.
The body corporate passes a motion at a general meeting to record a new community management statement containing the change. That motion usually needs a special resolution, or a resolution without dissent where a new or amended exclusive use by-law is involved. The new statement must be registered with Titles Queensland within three months.
The by-law starts on the day the registrar records the new community management statement, not the day the motion passes. A scheme that votes and then never lodges the statement is still operating under its old by-laws.
Can a body corporate stop short-term letting or Airbnb?
No. Under the BCCM Act a by-law cannot restrict the type of residential use of a residential lot, and cannot stop or restrict a sale, lease, transfer, mortgage or other dealing with a lot. A by-law that tries to ban short-term letting outright is likely to be invalid.
What a body corporate can do is enforce by-laws that apply to everyone: noise, nuisance and hazard, parking, use of common property and behaviour of invitees. Those are the tools that actually work on the problems short-term letting creates.
By-laws also cannot discriminate between types of occupier, be unreasonable when the interests of all owners are considered, or impose a monetary liability on an owner outside an exclusive use by-law.
How are body corporate disputes resolved in Queensland?
Self resolution comes first: the parties are expected to try to sort it out between themselves. If that fails, an application can be made to the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management for conciliation, and then for adjudication. An adjudicator can make an enforceable order.
Adjudication takes time. The coordinators review the application, the other party is invited to comment, and past decisions are published, which means an adjudicator will have seen an argument like yours before.
Most disputes we see never get that far. They get to conciliation because nobody documented the breach properly at the start.
What should a buyer check before buying into a scheme?
Before you sign, the seller must give you a body corporate certificate, completed on BCCM Form 33 or Form 34 for a specified two-lot scheme, together with a seller disclosure statement. Between them they cover the secretary or manager, insurance, maintenance, improvements, levies, by-laws and the community management statement.
You can ask for more. In writing, and for a fee, a buyer can search the body corporate records for the contracts the body corporate is party to, such as caretaking, letting, management or lift maintenance, along with financial information and the minutes of committee and general meetings.
Those contracts are worth reading. You will be contributing to every one of them through your levies.
General information only, current at the date shown on this page. It is not legal advice, and the module, plan and by-laws that govern your own scheme change the answer. Ask us about your scheme and we will tell you what applies to it.
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