Has There Been A Contribution Lot Entitlement Change?

When a body corporate is registered the schedule of interest and contribution lot entitlements are set out in the CMS. But who sets those lot entitlements? The first lot entitlements for any body corporate are set by the developer. Now days contribution lot entitlements are required to be equal, unless being equal would then result in inequity. But […]

My Body Corporate Doesn’t Have A Name

When you’re dealing with body corporates in Queensland one of the first thing that most people in the industry will ask is “What’s the name of your building or complex?”. That’s because, in Queensland, body corporate names are how schemes are indexed. But wait you say, my body corporate doesn’t have a name. Actually in Queensland all […]

Body Corporate Levies & Expired Current Levy Year Issued

Body corporate levies are set on a year to year basis, three months after the start of the new financial year. For reporting this creates issues. Sometimes a disclosure statement or records search will quote levies for a period that has expired. For instance, say the levies are quoted to 31/7/2012 and yet the date of […]

The Importance of “Levies Paid To” Date

When I bought my first house I found the whole process very stressful; exciting but stressful. So stressful in fact that when all was finally organised and executed and we moved in I realised I’d forgotten to get the power turned on. Luckily there was still power at the house so, score! The next day […]

Body Corporate Levies

One of the most common misconceptions about body corporates is that they are overcharging for levies or somehow making money off the lot owners. I’m never really sure what nefarious purpose people think is going on, but it’s not at all what’s happening. Body corporates are heavily regulated in almost every aspect and levies more […]

Community Management Statement

The Community Management Statement (CMS) is a document that sets out the rules for living in a body corporate, the development of the body corporate, any common property allocated to individual lots and of course the all important who pays what towards upkeep. The CMS sets out the name of the body corporate, the regulation […]

Certificate of Classification

Section 103 of the Building Act 1975 requires that buildings be issued with a Certificate of Classification. All buildings built after 1st April, 1976 are required to be issued with a certificate. The Certificate of Classification sets out the use of the building and any restrictions on that use, as well as ongoing maintenance and fire […]

Is My Lot Part of A Body Corporate Layered Scheme?

A body corporate layered scheme is, well, exactly what it says; there are layers of body corporates, one contained within the other. They’re precincts of several different body corporates all with joint infrastructure. The over riding principal of all body corporate legislations is fairness; fairness with cost allocations and fairness with use of common property. Layered […]

Common Property

The body corporate is responsible for managing the common property. In fact that’s a nice simple definition of what a body corporate really is. Common property is the area that is not contained within the lot. That’s not really clear so lets look at some examples. Two Types Of Body Corporates There are two types of body corporates; […]

Schedule of Lot Entitlements

Who pays for what when ownership is shared? For all their complexity body corporates are simply mechanisms for managing common property. That common property is owned by the collective lot owners who are responsible for paying for the upkeep of said property by way of levies. How to actually calculate who pays and owns what is defined […]