Question: After reading the recent article about QLD Owner Improvements, would it be possible to follow up on three additional issues regarding improvements/alterations?
While I appreciate the difficulty in writing articles like this: QLD Owner Improvements is knowing where to stop and what to leave out, I think it would be useful to do a follow-up about three additional issues regarding improvements/alterations:
- the need to consider 3rd party regulators eg the local council re DAs and BAs, QFES, electrical etc;
- the problem if the improvement to common property amounts to an exclusion of use by other owners etc; and
- the need to include the improvements by an owner to common property in a special register, as part of the corporate memory.
Answer: Those are good points.
Those are good points.
On each point:
- I always recommend that any approval given by a body corporate is conditional upon obtaining any additional required consents from statutory bodies (such as council and the like).
- This is a regular issue and a source of many disputes as approval to an improvement that affects common property will necessitate seeking some form of use right, usually through exclusive use (it could also be given through a lease or licence). The test that has been adopted in the Commissioner’s Office as to whether a use right is needed is whether the improvement on common property is substantial, permanent or could interfere with another person’s use of the common property.
- This is an often overlooked requirement as the module necessitates this. Some form of assistance is provided as any approval ought to be evidenced by a resolution – which should also stay on the body corporate record.
This post appears in Strata News #469.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753