Connor’s legal career began in residential and commercial property law, where he developed a keen interest in body corporate law.
Connor now specialises in body corporate law and predominantly acts for bodies corporate, body corporate managers and lot owners on all matters affecting bodies corporate.
Our strata complex, consisting of 85 townhouses and villas built in 1993, is considering introducing a new by-law. Some strata committee members want to grant owners the right to place various items outside the front of their lots, such as air conditioning units, outdoor furniture, and water heat pump outdoor units. However, this proposal raises concerns about altering the overall appearance of our lots. Is it permissible to enact such a by-law?
Risk in a body corporate context is rarely where people expect it to be. That was the central message from Frank Higginson, partner and strata lawyer at Redchip Strata Law, during a recent LookUpStrata Queensland webinar. Frank didn't present theory. He presented war stories — real cases from his desk that show exactly what happens when risk goes unmanaged, unacknowledged, or quietly passes to someone else.
It's not me. It must be you.
Not every heated owners corporation meeting is a sign that something has gone seriously wrong. But knowing the difference between healthy disagreement and genuine dysfunction, and understanding what happens when you get it wrong, could save your building years of pain and significant financial damage. Julia Moroz, Partner at Bugden Allen Group Legal, and Alex McCormick, Managing Director of SOCM, joined LookUpStrata for a Victorian webinar that covered exactly that.
What happens if half of the owners in a 13 unit block can't afford to pay for the repairs suggested in the first year of the 10 year plan. Our 10 year maintenance plan states $92,000 has to be raised.
Our levies have had a 95% rise in 12 months. We have several pensioners and low income earners in the block who struggle to pay the current fees, not to mention any further increases.
At our last AGM, the Strata Company voted for an amount of both ordinary and reserve fund levies to cover costs in the proposed budget and to maintain our reserve fund balance after planned project costs at a figure that was agreed on at a previous AGM.
Our Strata Manager has varied the levy amounts, considerably decreasing the levy for the reserve fund. Can the manager do this without another vote from the strata company?
We have a situation where the Body Corporate committee wants to put water meters into each individual lot but some can't pay for it upfront. To try to convince these owners to approve the installation (which is on each owner's private lot) there have been rumours that they will be "helped" to pay presumably by the Body Corporate.
I am speculating that this will be some sort of loan from the Body Corporate. Is this legal? If so, what are the procedures and limitations? I can't find anything in the laws or searching on the internet about this.
