What is the role of a body corporate?
There has been some confusion over the years of exactly what a body corporate does. Basically the role of a body corporate in Queensland is to look after the administration of common property and body corporate assets for the benefit of all of the owners. These functions are required to be undertaken complying with body corporate legislation.
What is a body corporate?
A body corporate is the legal entity created when land is subdivided and registered under the Land Title Act 1994 where a community titles scheme is established. All of the owners in a community titles scheme are automatically members of the body corporate when they buy their lot.
So let's delve a little more. What is a Community Titles Scheme?
Community Titles Scheme
Community titles schemes allow people to privately own an area of land or part of a building, as well as share common property and facilities with other owners and occupiers. A community titles scheme is made up of 2 or more lots. Some examples of community title schemes are:
duplex
residential unit block
townhouse complex
high rise accommodation building
shopping complex
business park.
Queensland has more than 50,000 community titles schemes with over 505,000 individual lots.
What does a body corporate do?
The body corporate is given powers under the legislation to carry out duties on behalf of all lot owners. This includes:
maintaining, managing and controlling the common property on behalf of owners
deciding the amounts to be paid by the owners in the form of levies so the body corporate can operate
making and enforcing rules specific to individual bodies corporate called by-laws, which inform owners and other people who live in the scheme what they can and cannot do
taking out insurance on behalf of owners, such as public risk insurance over the common property and building insurance
managing and controlling the body corporate assets
keeping records for the body corporate, including minutes of meetings, roll of owners details, financial accounts, registers of assets, improvements to common property by owners, engagements and authorisations.
Decisions about the above are made through meetings of the committee and general meetings of all lot owners.
A body corporate may engage a management company, such as Northern Body Corporate Management, to carry out the administration of the body corporate on their behalf. Decisions of the body corporate are still made at general or committee meetings, and the management company then carries out the decisions on behalf of the body corporate.