5 days ago
Legal reform needed to deal with body corporate problems
The huge growth in apartments, and now adjoined terraced housing, has come with increasing in problems with governing body corporate committees.
All owners within a one unit title development belong to the legal entity - the body corporate - but they then elect a committee and chair to be responsible for decisions over the care and maintenance.
But a myriad of issues over who should pay for what and how owners are allowed to use their properties frequently appear in media reports.
Nicola Willis, introducing an amendment bill to strengthen body corporate governance in 2021, spoke about people's worries they would be burned by undisclosed future repair bills and about being ripped off by excessive fees from body corporates for things that people dwelling in those buildings don't want.
But problems appear to persist.
Kathryn speaks to Associate Professor of AUT's Law School, Rod Thomas, who specialises in property rights and Tim Jones the Chair of Body Corporate Chairs' Group
