First 48 hours: claim, document, make safe
The body corporate must generally hold building insurance and public risk insurance for the common property and its assets. So the first moves are practical:
- locate the scheme's policy (via the committee, body corporate manager or on-site manager) and check what it covers — policies differ
- contact the insurer or broker and start the claim process
- document everything — photos and video of all damage, before any clean-up
- clean up and make safe where it's safe to do so, to limit further damage.
One distinction worth burning in: building insurance covers damage, not maintenance. Storm, fire and similar insurable events are covered; wear, deterioration and deferred upkeep are not. A roof that failed in the storm because it was never maintained can turn into an argument with the insurer — another reason the maintenance record matters long before the weather does.
Who pays for what insurance doesn't cover?
Uninsured restoration costs fall where maintenance responsibility falls — and that depends on the scheme's survey plan:
- Standard format plan (boundaries marked on the ground — most townhouse schemes): owners are responsible for the building within their lot boundaries, including roof and exterior walls. Uninsured damage to your townhouse is largely your cost. Common walls between lots are shared between the adjoining owners.
- Building format plan (boundaries through the centre of walls, floors and ceilings — most apartment buildings): the body corporate carries the building envelope — the roof structure, foundations, load-bearing walls, and doors and windows in boundary walls — even where these aren't common property.
Owners also fund the body corporate's share collectively, through contributions set by lot entitlement. If you're unsure which plan applies, the survey plans from Titles Queensland settle it — and our maintenance responsibility guide covers the split in detail.
The repair clock is running — for everyone
The body corporate must act reasonably and must carry out its maintenance duties within a reasonable time of becoming aware of a problem. Sitting on storm damage isn't neutral: a body corporate that delays can be exposed to damages claims from people who suffer loss because of the delay — the classic example being water entry that a prompt repair would have stopped.
The same logic applies to individual owners: fix your own lot promptly, and consider whether your delay is causing someone else's loss. After a major weather event, trades are scarce and timelines stretch — that's understood and relevant to what's "reasonable" — but the scheme that can show it acted (quotes sought, work scheduled, decisions made) is in a very different position from the scheme that can show nothing.
If you're suffering loss because others aren't meeting their maintenance duties, raise it directly first — and put it in writing. That written request is both the practical first step and the evidence of self-resolution you'll need if the matter escalates to the Commissioner's office.
Urgent repairs above the committee spending limit
Here's the mechanism that matters most in a crisis. Committee spending is capped (by default, $200 per lot unless the scheme has varied it), and big storm repairs can blow past that limit with no time to convene a general meeting.
The legislation provides a pressure valve: the body corporate can apply to the Commissioner's office for adjudication authorising emergency expenditure. These applications are dealt with urgently, and Practice Direction 6 sets out the process. Two things strengthen the application:
- a resolution showing a majority of the committee supports the action
- at least two written quotes attached — the Commissioner's office prefers them even in an emergency, acknowledging it won't always be practicable.
Read that second point again: even in a declared emergency, with the office moving urgently, the expectation is still comparable quotes on the table. The scheme that can produce two structured quotes within days of a storm gets its authorisation cleanly; the scheme that turns up with one verbal estimate is asking the adjudicator to take more on faith.
(Separately, remember the committee can exceed its limit without any application where spending is required to comply with a statutory order, an adjudicator's order or a court judgment.)
When owners vote against necessary work
Occasionally the blockage runs the other way: repairs go to a general meeting and owners vote the work down. If work you believe is genuinely necessary has been rejected, a dispute application to the Commissioner's office can seek an order that the body corporate carry it out. Attach the minutes showing the vote, a clear description of the attempts made to resolve it, and why the matter is urgent.
The pattern underneath all of it
Every branch of storm recovery runs on the same fuel: documentation and comparable quotes, produced fast. The insurance claim wants evidence of damage and maintenance history. The emergency expenditure application wants two written quotes. The "reasonable time" duty is judged on what the scheme can show it did. Owners' contribution arguments are settled by the plan type and the record.
That is exactly the machinery StrataTrade keeps warm year-round: jobs scoped properly, dispatched to verified trades, quotes returned in a comparable structure, and every decision recorded permanently against the building. A scheme running its ordinary maintenance that way doesn't have to improvise its process in the week after a storm — it just runs the same cycle, faster, with the paper trail building itself.
This article is general information about Queensland body corporate law, not legal advice. Insurance obligations vary by scheme structure and policies differ in coverage — check your scheme's module, plan type and policy, and seek advice for significant or contested matters.