Question: Can the committee spend body corporate funds on the maintenance of individual lots which are clearly the lot owners’ responsibility?
Our committee has recently approved a motion to use body corporate funds to pay a contractor to mow the private lawns of about half a dozen lot owners. As our townhouse complex (48 units) is a Standard Format Plan I assumed that lot owners were responsible for the maintenance of their lot and not the responsibility of the body corporate.
The minutes of the relevant meeting stated that the body corporate made the decision to pay out of body corporate funds because it would “benefit the whole community”.
The body corporate management company state the motion was approved “…to ensure that the complex looks reasonably uniform”. I was also told that they “… had not received any other complaints.”
I was under the impression that the committee could only spend body corporate funds on the maintenance or improvements to the common property, not on individual lots which are clearly the lot owners’ responsibility.
Answer: The legislation only permits the body corporate expending funds towards a lot in very limited circumstances.
The body corporate is responsible for maintaining common property and the lot owner is responsible for maintaining their lot. This includes lawns.
The legislation only permits the body corporate expending funds towards a lot in very limited circumstances. This does not include circumstances where “it benefits the whole community”.
However, it is contemplated in circumstances where the lot owner agrees to engage the body corporate to provide a service and the committee recovers the associated costs from the lot owner. This is the most common and appropriate way of regularising the arrangements.
This post appears in Strata News #527.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753