Question: Our body corporate wants owners to change the colour scheme of our federation building. Is it lawful for the body corporate to make owners change the colours of the outside of their houses?
Our body corporate, for maintenance purposes, wants owners to repainted the timber trims and roofs of their townhouses in a new colour scheme. No new colours have been decided on yet. The complex was built in brick Federation style and has red, green and cream-coloured paint with some ochre-coloured timber. I object to the changes the body corporate want us to make as I feel it will detract from the original intention of the building style. Is it lawful for the body corporate to make owners change the colours of the outside and roofs of their houses?
Answer: If the lots are in a standard format plan, there is less ability for the body corporate to control the colour scheme.
The answer will largely depend on whether the lots are created in either a:
- building format plan such that the outside of the buildings that are being painted is common property; or
- standard format plan such that the outside of the lots are part of the lot.
Building format plan
A change to the common property colour scheme amounts to an improvement to common property (as an improvement is broadly defined as a change). Given the cost of the painting works, I suspect that it will be beyond the committee’s spending limit such that a general meeting is required. The body corporate as a whole at a general meeting can approve an improvement (or colour scheme change) by:
- Ordinary resolution if the cost is between $300 – $2000 for each lot in the scheme; or
- Special resolution if the cost is more than $2,000 for each lot in the scheme (or the body corporate has already passed one ordinary resolution improvement in the same financial year).
The body corporate’s decision to change colours must be considered reasonable. It may be difficult for the objector to say that changing the colour scheme is unreasonable without some level of architectural or design advice.
Standard format plan
If the lots are in a standard format plan, there is less ability for the body corporate to control the colour scheme. However, it would depend on:
- the condition of the existing paint (and whether the body corporate can compel owners to carry out painting); and
- the by-laws in force for the scheme (and whether the body corporate has a by-law that allows it to regulate the paint colour).
This post appears in the August 2023 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753