Australia: Queensland amendments to the Body Corporate and Community Management Act Regarding Body Corporate Entitlements

The amendments to the Queensland Body Corporate and Community Management Act that undo changes made in April 2011 by the previous Government took effect at the start of the month. Body Corporates and their committees should be ready to deal with requests from owners to undo changes made under the April 2011 amendments.

This may affect your building if:

• An owner obtained an adjustment order from the adjudicator to change the contribution entitlements; and
• After April 2011 another owner made an application to change them back to the original contribution entitlements.

It is now open for an owner to write to the body corporate requesting the entitlements revert back to the adjustment order entitlements.

The body corporate must then follow the procedure in the Act which principally consists of identifying the correct adjustment order entitlements, providing a copy to all owners informing them of the proposal to return the scheme to those entitlements and allowing owners at least 28 days to make submissions. The committee must consider those submissions and then amend the CMS to reflect the adjustment order entitlements.

Whilst owner's submissions need to be considered, the only basis the Act allows for departure from the adjustment order is where in the intervening period lots has been subdivided or amalgamated. In those cases, the necessary adjustments need to be made; otherwise the adjudicator's orders should be reinstated. The amended CMS should then be registered and with the changes taking effect from the date of registration.

Finally the State Government has indicated that the Body Corporate and Community Management Act is up for review and submissions from interested parties will be sort for in due course. If your committee believes that there are issues with the regime that need to be changed then it should begin articulating those issues and preparing to make a submission at a relevant time.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.