Question: Who is responsible for maintaining or removing plants the body corporate planted inside lot boundaries?
Our body corporate planted shrubs and trees within the boundaries of some townhouses. Investors own most of the lots.
The owners have asked the body corporate to trim the plants back from the gutters or remove them entirely. The body corporate refuses, stating that the plants are within the lot boundaries and therefore the owner’s responsibility, even though the body corporate planted them. Who is responsible for trimming or removing the plants?
Answer: Owners are within their rights to insist that the committee either remove or trim back the plants that were installed without lot owner consent.
The body corporate does not have any ability to improve a lot.
The adjudicator in The Reserve [2015] QBCCMCmr 504 relevantly provided:
Usually a body corporate has no authority to make an improvement to a lot…
Given my finding that water meters installed as proposed (or as already installed) are wholly located within the respective lot and are not common property, I must conclude that the committee had no authority to pass a resolution authorising the installations. The Body Corporate and its committee have no authority to unilaterally decide to make an improvement to a lot, and has no authority to spend Body Corporate funds on such an installation. Water meters installed within a lot could only be installed with the agreement of the lot owner.
Accordingly, owners are within their rights to insist that the committee either remove or trim back the plants that were installed without lot owner consent. In the interim, the committee may wish to obtain the consent of the lot owners where the plants were installed and reach an agreement as to future maintenance obligations to avoid the issue escalating.
This post appears in the April 2026 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753
