Owning in a Queensland body corporate: the basics

What a body corporate is

When a property is subdivided into separately owned lots with shared common property — driveways, gardens, hallways, a roof, a pool — the law creates a body corporate to run the shared parts. Every lot owner is a member; there's no opting in or out. It's a legal entity in its own right: it holds money, takes out insurance, enters contracts, and makes decisions that bind all owners.

Most schemes engage a professional body corporate manager to handle the administration; smaller schemes sometimes run things themselves. Either way, the decisions still belong to the owners and their committee — a manager administers, it doesn't rule.

Which rules apply to your scheme

Not every Queensland body corporate runs by the same rulebook, and it's worth knowing which is yours before you rely on any of the detail below.

Most schemes are community titles schemes governed by the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (the BCCM Act). Within that Act, a scheme runs under one of five regulation modules — most commonly the Standard Module or the Accommodation Module, with the Commercial, Small Schemes and Specified Two-lot modules covering narrower cases. The module sets much of the fine detail, such as committee size and spending rules.

A minority of schemes — usually older ones — aren't under the BCCM Act at all. They sit under separate legislation: principally the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 (you'll hear these called BUGTA schemes, or referred to by their plan type, like a building units plan, or "BUP"), and for some large master-planned or resort communities, "specified Acts" such as the Integrated Resort Development Act 1987, the Sanctuary Cove Resort Act 1985, or the Mixed Use Development Act 1993.

The quick test: if your body corporate has a community titles scheme (CTS) number and a community management statement (CMS), it's under the BCCM Act. If it has neither, it's under one of the other Acts. Titles Queensland can confirm which from your registered survey plan, and your body corporate certificate states it too.

The rest of this guide describes schemes under the BCCM Act, since that covers most of them. If yours is under BUGTA or a specified Act, the ideas are the same — a committee, levies, meetings, owner votes, a dispute process — but the specific rules, and the body you go to for a dispute, differ. Check your own Act.

Who runs it: the committee

Day to day, the body corporate is run by a committee that owners elect at each annual general meeting. Under the BCCM Act's most common modules — Standard and Accommodation — a committee has up to seven voting members: three executive positions (chairperson, secretary and treasurer) plus up to four ordinary members. In a small scheme one person can hold more than one executive role, but they still get only one vote. (Large "principal" schemes can go up to twelve members, and small and two-lot schemes have simpler arrangements.)

The committee decides most everyday matters — routine maintenance, minor spending, the general running of the scheme. Bigger decisions are reserved for the owners as a whole, voted on at a general meeting: adopting the budget and setting levies, changing by-laws, and other "restricted issues" the committee simply isn't allowed to decide on its own.

A committee member who has a personal interest in something being decided — a financial interest, or a close connection to a supplier — has to declare it and step out of that particular vote.

Where your levies go

The body corporate runs on levies (contributions) paid by owners, set by ordinary resolution at the AGM based on the budgets the owners adopt. In Queensland the money sits in two funds. The administrative fund covers recurring costs like insurance, cleaning, gardening and routine repairs. The sinking fund saves toward large and long-term expenses — repainting, roof or lift replacement, major works — guided by a forward forecast so the cost is spread over years rather than landing all at once.

The meetings

Two kinds of meeting run a scheme.

The annual general meeting (AGM) is held once a year, within three months of the end of the body corporate's financial year. It's where owners adopt the budgets, set contributions, elect the committee, deal with insurance, decide whether the accounts are audited, and vote on motions put up by owners and the committee.

Committee meetings happen through the year to handle operational decisions between AGMs. And where something can't wait for the next AGM, an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) can be called to put a decision to all owners.

Your voice as an owner

Owning a lot gives you more than one vote a year. There are three ways to put something formally on the table:

• At the AGM. You can lodge a motion in writing with the secretary any time before the scheme's financial year ends — you don't have to wait to be invited. Your motion goes on the agenda in your own words; the committee can't rewrite it or leave it off (though the chairperson can rule it out of order at the meeting if it's unlawful). You can attach a note explaining why.
• Straight to the committee. You can submit a motion to the committee at any time, and they're on a clock: they must decide it within six weeks — or up to twelve if they notify you in writing that they need longer. If they don't decide in time, it's treated as not passed.
• By calling an EGM. If a decision genuinely can't wait for the next AGM, owners can ask for an extraordinary general meeting.

The limit worth knowing: the committee can only decide what it's allowed to. If your motion touches a restricted issue — levies, by-law changes, anything needing a special resolution — the committee has to refer it to a general meeting rather than decide it itself.

Most decisions pass by ordinary resolution — more votes in favour than against. The weightier ones, like changing the by-laws, need a special resolution, which is a substantially higher bar.

When things go wrong

Disagreements happen — over noise, pets, by-laws, maintenance, or how a decision was made. The starting point is always to try to resolve it directly, in writing, with the other owner or the committee.

If that doesn't work, Queensland has a dedicated government service: the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management (the BCCM office). It runs an information line (1800 060 119) and a formal dispute-resolution path — conciliation first (a facilitated discussion, with a low application fee), then adjudication, where an adjudicator can make a legally binding order. Complex matters and appeals go to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT). The BCCM office is neutral: it won't give you legal advice, but it will walk you through the process. (Schemes under the older Acts have their own dispute channels, though recent reforms have brought some of them closer to this one.)

The thread running through all of it

Whatever the decision — a levy, a by-law, a big repair — what protects owners years later is the record of how it was made: what was decided, on what information, and by whom. That matters most with maintenance spending, where the quotes and the reasoning tend to live in someone's inbox and vanish when a manager or committee changes over. Building that record properly — and keeping it with the building rather than with whoever happens to be managing it this year — is the idea behind StrataTrade.