Body corporate and community management disputes

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.

A community titles scheme may include any:

• duplex
• residential unit block
• high rise accommodation complex
• shopping complex
• business park

Common property may include, for example:

• a shared driveway
• letterbox area to communal lifts and stairways
• swimming pools
• tennis courts

You have certain rights and responsibilities for your own property, but also the common property shared with other owners within your scheme or complex.

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) make decisions on cases 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

The body corporate must elect a committee at each annual general meeting. The committee consists of executive members (a chairperson, secretary and treasurer) and any ordinary members.

The body corporate has legislative powers to carry out its necessary duties.

The body corporate:

• maintains, manages and controls the common property on behalf of owners
• decides the amounts to be paid by the owners to make sure the body corporate can operate
• makes and enforces its own rules, called by-laws, which tell owners and other people who live in the scheme what they can and cannot do
• takes out insurance on behalf of owners, such as public risk insurance over the common property and building insurance
• manages and controls body corporate assets
• keeps records for the body corporate, including minutes of meetings, roll of owner’s details, financial accounts, registers of assets, improvements to common property by owners, engagements and authorisations

The body corporate makes decisions about these and other things at general meetings and through the committee.

The body corporate may engage a body corporate manager to supply administrative services to the body corporate, such as (insert example i.e. sending out levy notices to owners).

Lot entitlements in community titles schemes set out each owner’s:

• body corporate costs and voting rights
• share of common property and other assets
• lot value for calculating government rates and other charges.

Lot entitlements are set by the original owner (the developer) when the community titles scheme is established.

Lot entitlement schedules for your community titles scheme are recorded in a document called the community management statement.

If you have a dispute with the body corporate, the committee or another owner or occupier, you must try to resolve the dispute informally with the other party first. There are also other steps you need to consider such as conciliation and adjudication of the dispute.

The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management (the BCCM office) is the primary authority to assist with resolving body corporate disputes in the first instance, and not QCAT. The BCCM office deals with most body corporate and community management scheme disputes. QCAT only considers specific body corporate disputes.

If a dispute does arise with the body corporate, the committee or another owner or occupier you should first consider the information and processes set out on the Queensland Government website in relation to resolving body corporate and community management scheme disputes. The BCCM office sets out clear instructions on how to resolve a body corporate dispute when it arises, including resolving disputes informally or through adjudication before making an application to QCAT. You can find further information about this here.

The BCCM office also has comprehensive information to assist you in understanding body corporate and community management rights and responsibilities. You can find further information here.

If you cannot resolve your dispute you can read further below about disputes and other cases you can bring to QCAT.

The Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 sets out specific guidelines for which disputes QCAT can consider directly. QCAT considers the following disputes related to body corporate and community management issues:

• lot entitlement adjustments; and
• complex disputes, including disputes:
  • arising from a review of the terms of a contract engaging a service contractor
  • about the transfer of the letting agent’s management rights
  • about a claimed or anticipated contractual case about the authorisation of the letting agent
  • about a claimed or anticipated contractual case about the body corporate manager or caretaking service contractor; or
  • about exclusive use by-laws

_{(For further details please see Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997)}

Adjudicators may be involved in resolving body corporate and community management disputes through the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management (the BCCM office) also. If a party is dissatisfied with an order made by the adjudicator, they can apply to the QCAT Appeals Tribunal to appeal body corporate adjudication orders on a question of law only.

An application to QCAT to resolve a complex dispute may only be brought by, or against, certain persons. This includes:

• a body corporate
• a body corporate manager
• a caretaking service contractor
• a letting agent; or
• a service contractor

An application to the QCAT Appeals Tribunal appealing a decision of an adjudicator can be made by:

• the applicant or respondent in the original application
• the body corporate
• persons who made submissions in the original application; or
• affected and other persons

An application to QCAT for orders for an adjustment of a lot entitlement schedule may only be brought by the owner of a lot in the community titles scheme.

_{(For further information view the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997)}

When you file an application in a body corporate dispute, QCAT may:

• issue directions to the parties. Directions are instructions to the parties involved on how the case will proceed. The directions will include time for filing of evidence, other material and joining of further parties if required;
• list the case for a directions hearing or further dispute resolution proceeding to assist the parties to reach agreement, if required;
• ask the parties to gather and file their evidence to support their side of the argument. This may include a requirement for the parties to engage experts to provide expert evidence for consideration by QCAT;
• list the case for a hearing, after the parties have filed their evidence; and
• after the hearing, QCAT will then make a final decision based on the law and the evidence provided by the parties.

Participating in the body corporate dispute process can take a considerable length of time and resources and parties should consider other options to resolve the dispute with the other party before making an application to QCAT.

If you are named as the respondent in a body corporate dispute and you are unsure what is required of you, do not worry. QCAT will guide you through the process.

There are some key steps you need to take as the respondent in a body corporate dispute. You must:

• ensure you have read the above information about body corporate disputes and understand the process for resolving disputes;
• attempt to resolve the dispute informally to avoid unnecessary costs in time and resources; and
• file a response to the dispute using the correct response form.

To learn more about what happens next in the process and how to respond please click here.