The body corporate and owners are responsible for maintenance of different things within a development. Sometimes it can be hard to work out who is responsible for what.
Read about maintenance in bodies corporate with a CMS registered at Titles Queensland.
Maintenance of common property and lots
Generally, a body corporate must maintain the common property in good condition. The owner of a lot must maintain their lot in good condition. However, there are exceptions.
Maintaining lots and common property is different to making an improvement. Read about body corporate improvements.
Subsidiary body corporate maintenance
If you are in a subsidiary body corporate and trying to find out who is responsible for maintaining something, you will need to find out which plan of subdivision your body corporate is registered under.
Subdivision type
Your body corporate is registered under a plan of subdivision. This is recorded as a survey plan. The survey plan shows the boundaries of the common property and the lots.
Boundaries will be defined differently depending on the type of plan registered. The 2 common types of survey plans are:
- building units plans
- group title plans.
You can contact Titles Queensland to get a copy of your body corporate’s registered survey plan.
Once you know the lots and common property boundaries and the subdivision type, you can work out what maintenance the body corporate is responsible for and what maintenance each lot owner must do.
For more information on what maintenance the body corporate and the owner are responsible for under each plan of subdivision see:
Higher-level body corporate maintenance
A community or precinct body corporate under the Mixed Use Development Act 1993 must maintain community or precinct:
- property, including its improvements and areas it leases
- facilities.
Principal or primary thoroughfare bodies corporate under the Sanctuary Cove Resort Act 1985 (SCR Act) and Integrated Resort Development Act 1987 (IRD Act) must maintain any:
- thoroughfares, including improvements
- personal property it owns.
Under the SCR Act, principal bodies corporate must also maintain any part of a canal or road that is part of a secondary thoroughfare identified on your plan.
Under the IRD Act, principal or primary thoroughfare bodies corporate must also maintain facilities on their thoroughfares or land leased to it.
Easements
There may be easements that impact maintenance obligations. Easements can impact both subsidiary and higher-level bodies corporate.
Read more about statutory easements under other Acts.