Posted by admin on 29 November 2011
Spending our days in residential neighbourhoods real estate agents hear a lot about the ‘goings on’ in Brisbane’s inner city streets. And lately the number of gripes between neighbours seems to be on the rise. Arguments over tree roots blocking drains and cracking concrete, bins left in front of fences, leaves blocking gutters, noisy tradespeople and yapping dogs. The state government’s even brought in new legislation from November 1st to help resolve disputes. The new rules around trees and fences might not stop the arguments but they do clear up some of the doubts about responsibility.
We prefer to stay out of these over-the-fence blues but there’s one issue when we do offer an opinion. Surely whatever goes on in someone’s home is their business unless it has a negative impact on their neighbours? So the continued push by some bodies corporate to exclude pets from their buildings seems hard to justify. Noise, smells, mess – definitely a valid concern for other owners. But for example how can a cat in an apartment, that never goes outside or near common property, be of any concern to any neighbour? How does a body corp justify intruding into that resident’s life by preventing the pet living there?
Personally, I hate cats. Selfish, flea-bitten and obstinate things. But the Australian Companion Animal Council says research shows pets are good for an individual’s physical health and mental health. ACAC also found that in the past decade Australia’s dog population has decreased by at least 14% and its cat population has dropped by about 10%. Apartment living has been a big part of this change.
We’ve written before about the options pet-owning apartment dwellers have to challenge their body corp. Surely body corps can put sensible guidelines in place to allow pets but protect other residents from noise and smells?
And those of us who aren’t too keen on the moggies can at least be happy that appealing to a broader number of potential buyers and tenants may just bring a financial reward to all apartment owners.
Please share your thoughts by posting a comment below.
Tags: body corp committee Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, Neighbourhood Disputes Resolution Act, pets in apartments Brisbane
Posted in trends in Brisbane property | 7 Comments »
Posted by admin on 25 July 2011
Are the body corp fees really the single most important feature when you’re choosing a home? The location, the size or the age of the apartment maybe? The views or even the condition of the kitchen perhaps? These are the big ‘value’ items and naturally our ads focus on them. So would it surprise you some buyers are selecting which home to inspect based on the amount of the annual body corp fees?
We wrote recently about that mythical place called Buyer’s School and the trend for many home buyers to consistently ask similar questions. Surely they’re all attending some briefing session before hitting the open homes! And the latest must-ask question is focused on body corp fees.
Now we’d be the first to acknowledge that these do vary a lot between buildings, but we’re now being asked for the fees before a buyer will even inspect an apartment. Before they want to know about any other features. And it seems to us the focus has drifted to the wrong concerns.
The first comment is this: no-one makes a profit in a body corp. The fees are set with a budget so if they’re higher it’s costing more to run the building. Lifts, onsite management and insurances are big ticket items. So if you’re happy with stairs or waiting a little longer for your lift, you will save money. One CBD tower has 5 lifts for nearly 500 apartments while a South Brisbane mid-rise has 2 lifts for just 40 lots. Of course one is cheaper. Some bodies corp do put a lot away for rainy days; others run tight. You get what you pay for.
Buyers are naturally drawn to low fees but they need to ask if it’s not just a clue that the building is being run on a shoestring. Is the sinking fund forecast being followed? Will they cop a special levy of thousands, payable immediately, for all sorts of unbudgeted expenses? We’re not defending misuse of your funds and we agree that some bodies corp don’t keep a close enough eye on things. But if you’ve ever volunteered your time for a committee you’ll know it’s a thankless job and many owners don’t even bother to vote at the AGM, let along give their input into budgeting. So cut them some slack – or better still, get involved!
Right now we’re witnessing buyers who are spending half a million dollars or more, weighing their choice heavily based on annual fees. If the fees seem $1000/year too much why not offer $5000 less when you buy it and that’ll cover the next few years. And you’ll have time to join the committee and get the place in shape!
Please give us your comments? Why are body corp fees so important to buyers?
Tags: body corp committee Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane home buyers, selling an apartment Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 15 November 2010
Dog and cat lovers of Queensland have started a silent revolution, and it’s coming to an apartment building near you! Last year we reported on a resident who disputed her body corp’s right to turf out her moggy. Their by-laws said a pet could be kept with consent of the committee, so the Adjudicator found they couldn’t impose a complete ban on pets. Unless there was good reason to keep the animal out, approval must be given.
This “only with committee approval” by-law is the most common dealing with pets – the vast majority of buildings have similar wording. So despite this and similar precedents been set, the anti-pets brigade have been relaxing where their building has clear by-laws that simply say “no pets whatsoever”, full stop.
But a September Tribunal judgement has opened the doggy-door even wider. In this matter the Adjudicator declared that any blanket ban was invalid because each animal should be considered on its merits. A body corp, they said, has no power to take away the freedom of a person to own an animal.
And an order handed down last week for the “212 on Margaret” tower in Brisbane’s CBD has confirmed this view, quoting the precedent above in ruling the building’s no pets by-law to be invalid. In this case the pet owner proposed a new by-law that provided guidelines for the keeping of animals, items that would ensure pets wouldn’t impact on neighbours’ quiet enjoyment. The Tribunal gave it the nod.
There’s only been a handful of precedents set and we’re not lawyers – seek sound advice before you act. But the message to bodies corporate seems clear. You can regulate the keeping of pets to ensure their impacts on your building and its residents are minimised. But you can’t ban them.
This might send the fur flying at some upcoming AGM’s.
Tags: body corp, Body Corporate and Community Management Act Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, pets in apartments Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing, trends in Brisbane property | 3 Comments »
Posted by admin on 30 September 2010
Guess which TV show is part of the Saturday open home chatter right now? Brisbane’s inner city has a lot of great value apartments that can be transformed with a bit of clever renovating, and a handy decorating budget at [insert Channel 9 sponsor here]. Many of these “not-new” apartments are in smaller buildings with minimal amenities so their body corp fees can be low. Rooms are often good sizes and locations can be terrific.
Those contestants on “The Block” have one huge advantage though, and it’s not the design experience of that Victorian real estate agent (by the way she’s not doing much for our profession’s reputation is she?!) They have all the apartments in the building going through the transformation at once, the full building receiving a make-over. The exterior is being done for them with no committee meetings, no budget discussions/all-out brawls, and no need for encouraging or nudging of reluctant co-owners. It’s not reality TV. We’ve written before about the challenge of getting agreement to renovate common property and right now we’d suggest a number of inner Brisbane apartments sell below where they really should, simply because their building is holding them back.
When you think about it the TV producers should really film a real-life body corp meeting. Australia’s nicest tradie Scott Cam could referee. Just wind up one or two youngsters with some fresh ideas and pit them against a couple of long-term residents who won’t pay a cent more in body corp fees. It’d make The Block look like Play School.
Out of interest the latest Queensland government re-write of the body corp laws will likely bring in new disclosure rules for when you’re selling your apartment. It’s likely you’ll have to provide a buyer with a full copy of the CMS including by-laws and lots more info – before they sign a contract. This will no doubt encourage more questions from apartment buyers, and hopefully a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges bodies corporate can bring.
Do you have a body corp story to share? Please post a comment below.
Tags: Body Corporate and Community Management Act Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane Body Corporate By Laws, selling an apartment Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, architecture and renovation, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 19 August 2010
We often feel we’re at the pointy end of body corp issues, the time when apartments are put up for sale and the market makes a judgement. There’s no better way of finding out if your body corp fees are too high, your building’s not maintained well enough, the sinking fund’s too low or the AGM and owner relationships are just plain dysfunctional. Buyers can be brutal in their assessment and they’re entitled to be when they’re spending their money. And one issue has been making apartment buyers nervous across Queensland.
We’re delighted to see Fair Trading Minister Peter Lawlor’s move to amend the Act and bring back some predictability to body corp fees. The current Act says lot entitlements must be equal unless you have a good reason and despite knowing the fees when buying in, there’s been a run of apartment owners over recent years going to the Tribunal to ask for a reshuffling of lot entitlements (the numbers used to set your fees). Their own fees have gone down at the expense of their neighbours and in some cases resulted in penthouse owners getting a whopping discount, 1 bedder owners a skyrocketing bill. It made headlines early last year when shots were fired in one Gold Coast building.
The proposed amendments are open for public consultation until September 23rd, and when adopted will lock-in your lot entitlements. Developers will again set interest entitlements according to value of the apartment (as they used to) and we’d expect levies will pretty much follow suit. And importantly the Minister is stopping the ability to move the goalposts later.
Mr Lawlor says, “In the future, the ability to adjust contribution schedule lot entitlements will be limited to all lot owners in a scheme unanimously agreeing to make an adjustment through a resolution without dissent or by unanimous agreement between two or more lot owners to redistribute the lot entitlements for their lots amongst themselves.”
Nice to see some common sense prevailing.
Has your building had its lot entitlements changed? We’d love to hear your experiences.
Tags: Body Corporate and Community Management Act Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane apartments
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, property taxes and rates etc | 3 Comments »
Posted by admin on 19 March 2010
Now this report comes as no surprise to us (probably most Brisbane property managers know all about it), but today we read a report about the Oaks Group, onsite managers for several of Brisbane’s inner city towers, letting out residential car spaces to inner city workers.
What’s surprising is the report mentioned nothing of the possible loss of income to landlords!
This practice is not only a breach of Brisbane City Council’s laws, but the Body Corporate Committee’s By Laws which state even tenants cannot privately rent their car space to a friend who works down the street.
Different buildings have different rules; some allow you to rent your space to another building resident, as this would mean the same amount of traffic to the building and no security breaches with non-residents entering the building’s secure environment.
We have spoken to some landlords who have their apartments managed by onsite managers and don’t even know that their apartment has been leased with no car spaces attached.
If there is a need for more parking in inner city Brisbane, it’s not the responsibility of the resident managers to fix the issue. Is their priority looking after their clients, or filling the needs of inner city workers? Buy a Wilson Parking business if that’s your passion.
Do you know of an incident like this?
Tags: body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane Body Corporate By Laws, Brisbane inner city residential building, Brisbane onsite manager, Brisbane parking, Brisbane property manager, Brisbane resident manager
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 2 January 2010
We’ve written before about the time required to sit on a body corp committee and our admiration for those who do. It’s thankless work and apartment buildings don’t run efficiently without them.
The big challenge is for committees to consider the needs of all owners and residents of the building. Volunteering to be involved doesn’t give you a right to run the place for your own interests alone.
A recent and worrying trend is for a body corp to issue a “no extra keys” ruling. Security is one of the main attractions to living in many apartment buildings and we understand the need to keep security swipes and keys to a minimum.
But in recent weeks a couple of inner Brisbane apartment towers have issued a new ruling that the body corp will only issue a maximum of 2 security swipes. No more.
The trouble is those owners who rent their apartments may have just been asked to breach the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act.
Section 210 requires the lessor (landlord) to give entry keys (including all swipes/fobs/cards to get in any door) to EACH and EVERY tenant.
So body corps are going to have to learn to live with the needs of their investor owners.
Unless you’d like to tell your owners of 3 bedroom apartments they can only have 2 residents. Or those in 2 bedroom apartments they can’t share a bedroom with anyone…
Tags: body corp committee Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane apartments, Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act
Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 4 November 2009
When your house is getting tired and needs a facelift the decision to renovate is entirely yours, and you can often borrow against your home’s equity to fund improvements.
Apartments and other bodies corp can be a little trickier. We’ve written before about the challenges of convincing fellow owners it’s time to refurb your building. No-one wants to, or can, dig into their pockets. Regardless of how flash your internal spruce-up might be, the ancient lift or faded tiles in the lobby will hold back the re-sale and rental appeal of your property.
Many lot owners don’t realise a body corp can borrow money – improvements don’t have to mean whopping special levies.
Sure you still need widespread agreement and lots of meetings but the work can be done sooner rather than later. Interest rates aren’t much more than your housing loan and the funding’s effectively unsecured – you’re not offering any property to mortgage.
One Brisbane CBD building recently upgraded a complete air conditioning system at a cost of some $850,000. Mark Goedecke of Direct Deal Finance organised the body corp’s loan. He tells us that rather than raise a special levy or drain the sinking fund it was resolved to borrow the full cost of works.
Mark says this sort of loan means apartment owners have the benefit of having the work done immediately, improving the value of the building, but also the flexibility to pass on the remaining repayments if they choose to sell during the term.
One thing’s for certain – there’s a lot of apartment buildings around inner Brisbane that really need to look at refurbs and upgrades of their common property. Buyers and tenants are turning away before they even get to your front door.
Tags: body corp committee Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, renovation
Posted in architecture and renovation, trends in Brisbane property | 1 Comment »
Posted by admin on 12 October 2009
There’s a big gap in our state’s property industry – body corporate information. Real estate agents get no training so few can explain anything to buyers. Solicitors compete heavily for very price sensitive conveyancing so don’t have time.
So most apartment owners receive their first wad of paperwork and voting papers with little idea of how it all works.
We recently held the first in a series of free seminars to help change this. If you’d like to read the notes download it here, or email us at rsvp@beesnees.com.au if you’d like info on upcoming sessions.
Tags: body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane real estate agents
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 14 August 2009
Buyers often ask us if they’ll be able to bring their cat or small dog to their new apartment or townhouse. Pets in apartments can be a touchy subject with plenty of emotion, and lately we’re seeing more buyers that are simply not happy to accept a body corp’s rejection of their moggy or mutt.
So can a body corp of current owners reject a pet? In many cases, no.
Each building has its own by-laws that apply and if they state “no pets” then that’s pretty clear. (Other than for guide dogs.) The majority of by-laws have wording to the effect that the committee must approve any pet application – and in some buildings the owners enforce a no pets policy by rejecting all applications out of hand.
This is the area that’s creating waves right now.
In one landmark decision an adjudicator with the Queensland Body Corporate and Community Management Commissioner’s office forced a committee to approve a cat. The Southport apartment owner suffered depression and had a doctor’s letter supporting the animal as a companion and “part of her therapy”.
The adjudicator noted that the by-laws said a pet could be kept with approval. “This means that the committee cannot simply adopt a “no pets ” policy but must exercise the discretion to approve a particular animal after consideration of the individual circumstances.”
Committee members should take care with this tricky topic.
Our main concern with body corporate law in Queensland is the lack of info and knowledge. Property owners don’t have easy access to it, most real estate agents know little so they’re not educating buyers, and most conveyancing lawyers give only a brief outline unless asked.
If you own a property in a body corp and have minimal to zip knowledge of the legalities don’t be embarrassed. You’re in good (and plentiful) company!
Commencing in September Bees Nees City Realty, in conjunction with Brisbane’s Stansure Strata Management, will be running a series of small seminars on some broad body corp topics. Insurances, getting involved in your committee, understanding your AGM agenda and budgets. The evening seminars will be held at our South Brisbane office and will be free of charge.
If you’d like more info email rsvp@beesnees.com.au
Tags: application for pets Brisbane, body corp committee Queensland, Body Corporate and Community Management Act Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, by-laws Queensland, pets, QBCCM Commissioner
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, Inner Brisbane events, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Spending our days in residential neighbourhoods real estate agents hear a lot about the ‘goings on’ in Brisbane’s inner city streets. And lately the number of gripes between neighbours seems to be on the rise. Arguments over tree roots blocking drains and cracking concrete, bins left in front of fences, leaves blocking gutters, noisy tradespeople and yapping dogs. The state government’s even brought in new legislation from November 1st to help resolve disputes. The new rules around trees and fences might not stop the arguments but they do clear up some of the doubts about responsibility.
