Body Corporate Regulation Module: What Is It & Why You Should Be Wary Of Change
Body corporate regulation modules were created under the BCCM Act 1997 to define how a building is managed. There are five body corporate regulation modules at present: standard, accommodation, commercial, small schemes and two lot. This article is about what regulation modules are and why you should be wary if your body corporate wants to […]
5 Signs Of Poor Body Corporate Management
There’s nothing quite like that sinking feeling when you realise things have gone pear shaped when you weren’t looking. It’s particularly pertinent for strata schemes where most lot owners’ only brush with their body corporate management is paying levies and voting at annual meetings. Although there is “help” available when disputes arise there is no oversight to body corporate management […]
Body Corporate Repairs and Maintenance
One of the coolest things about body corporates is their ability to stay neat and tidy without you having to personally clean and tidy. Of course there’s no such thing as a magical self-caring property so someone is obviously taking care of the place. Who is responsible for body corporate repairs and maintenance? More importantly is […]
What Is A Body Corporate Sinking Fund Forecast?
Whenever I prepare a strata report one of the few documents I always include is a copy of the Sinking Fund Forecast. I do that for a very specific reason; they’ve a valuable source of a lot of information about the strata scheme, the Sinking Fund and management. What Is A Sinking Fund Forecast? A […]
Case Study: An Ineffective Response To A Body Corporate Dispute
I did a search the other day that contained this item regarding a body corporate dispute: Tabled correspondence from the Caretaker complaining of by-law breaches by unit x (The Secretary)… There have been altercations between The Secretary and the Caretaker including physical and verbal violence. The committee discussed the matter (The Secretary was absent) and […]
What is Proxy Farming?
Proxy farming is a charming phrase to describe a practice that polarises body corporates. It’s all about the balance of power, who has it, who wants it and what they want to do with it. Sadly that can quite often be “get up to no good” or the ever popular “arrange things to suit ME”. […]
What is a Body Corporate?
Ask most people “what is a body corporate?” and, well, you’ll probably get a lot of different answers, the most common being a general wave toward the nearest visible highrise. But that’s an assumption, and also a clear indication that the person you’re speaking with doesn’t really have much of an idea of what a […]
Why Buy A House In A Body Corporate Layered Scheme?
When we think of body corporates we tend to think of the towers that dominate our city skylines. In reality body corporates come in all shapes and sizes including an increasing number of single house blocks contained within a large body corporate layered schemes. These type of master planned communities work exactly the same as […]
The Most Common Body Corporate Problems (in no particular order)
Although every building is uniquely individual there are a number of body corporate problems that come up over and over. This article is about some of those recurring issues. Be aware these are in no particular order and they have different levels of severity. Some of them are annoying, some are just painful and others […]
Beware Strata Levies That Are Too Low!
The other day I was asked: I am interested in buying a unit but strata levies are $900 per annum on old medium size block of 12 units. When I enquired with unit next door they pay $400 strata levies per annum. Is this possible to have two strata neighbours so different? This is 50 […]