Host of legislative reforms to be implemented in Qld

At the moment, community title schemes can only be terminated if no owner opposes the termination, or if the District Court is satisfied it is just and equitable to terminate it. 

Under the new laws, terminations of a scheme can be undertaken with the support of 75 per cent of lot owners, where the body corporate has agreed it is more financially viable for lot owners to terminate rather than maintain or remediate the scheme.

State Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman explained she’s “heard many stories of rundown units, townhouses, or complexes with unsustainable ongoing maintenance costs where owners want to terminate, but a single owner blocks this from occurring.” 

“The government recognises that some owners may not wish to sell their unit or move to a new home, so termination arrangements must balance the rights and interests of all lot owners in a scheme,” she said. 

With this in mind, Ms Fentiman explained the updated process includes “safeguards to protect owners in the minority who do not support termination,” which includes allowing such owners to submit an application to the District Court, which then considers “a set of just and equitable factors in deciding whether the termination should proceed.” 

Moreover, the government moved to strengthen laws to protect residents from second-hand smoke by empowering bodies corporate to make by-laws prohibiting smoking in outdoor and communal areas of a community title scheme and introducing laws to prevent bodies corporate from banning pets in community title schemes, except for specific circumstances.

The Attorney-General cited the importance of pets to many Queenslanders and the need to ensure body corporates are “able to make more substantial decisions about the health and wellbeing of residents” as primary drivers behind the legislation package. 

Ms Fentiman declared the government is “delivering on our commitment to consult on changes to Queensland’s community title legislation,” adding they will “continue working with the Community Titles Legislation Working Group to consider future reforms.”

“This is the first of two planned packages of reform for body corporate legislation in Queensland. I intend to introduce the second package of reforms before the end of the year,” she concluded.