Should You Be Involved in Your Building’s Owners Corporation?

Owners corporations are set up whenever a piece of land is subdivided to make flats, units, or apartments. If you’ve recently acquired one of those pieces of property, you may have noticed that you’ve automatically became a part of one of these organisations. Owners corporations are primarily responsible for controlling the upkeep of the many common areas associated within a property.

Common areas may refer to anything from a garden to the gym, pool area, lifts, and pathways. But here’s the big question – should you be involved in your building’s owners corporation? What are the pros and cons that come with adopting an active approach in your building, and how would it fit in with your goals?

Owners corporation structure

The rules around owners corporations vary from state to state and the terminology is even different in each state.?

Before we go into the pros and cons, it may be an idea to look at the structure of an owners corporation to give you a sense of what you may be dealing with. In a broad sense, an owners corporation consists of all the lot owners. The owners corporation may also elect a chairperson / presiding officer, secretary and treasurer.

Sometimes the owners corporation elect a committee that consists of elected lot owners or the proxies of these owners, to run things on a day to day basis.

So how active a role should you take in this community?

Repairs

Repairs to common areas are the responsibility of the owners corporation, and they are generally required to make these repairs as quickly as possible if impeding on the use and enjoyment of the property. If you’re not a member of the owners corporation (for example if you’re just renting the property), then you really shouldn’t have to deal with the owners corporation at all; instead, your landlord or real estate agent will take care of these issues. But if you want to speed up the repairs process, you can generally interact with the owners corporation to help get things moving.

If an owners corporation refuses to act and make the necessary repairs, then that could be considered a breach and you may be entitled to take the matter to a higher tribunal. But as with many things of this nature, it varies greatly on a case-by-case basis and is definitely a situation where it’s important to choose your battles. With some properties, the owners corporation has to cater for a variety of different issues at any given moment, and the structure of the corporation means that sometimes the results won’t be instantaneous. For that reason, exhibiting some patience is important.

Pets

Pets are another area where the owners corporation has a little bit of sway, so if you have aspirations of moving your pup or kitty into your new place, it’s important to know exactly where your owners corporation stands when it comes to pets. Similarly, if you’re a member of the owners corporation it’s important for you to discern and figure out what is and isn’t a reasonable stance on having pets on your parcel of land. This is especially difficult for more urban areas where people may really want to find a place for their animal, but spacial constraints make it impossible.

If the owners corporation intends to not give consent to a particular tenant keeping an animal, good reason must be given and these issues must be dealt with individually to ensure that no prejudice exists in the individual rulings made.

Other areas

One of the main benefits of being a member of an owners corporation is that you get a say in the running of the building, and it’s important to take advantage of this fact. Decisions made by this organisation could ultimately have an effect on the value of your property.

The owners corporation is also a great forum for you to make suggestions on how the property is run, and give you a heightened awareness of what the other owners have planned for the property.

Overall, there are a range of advantages that come with being an active member of your building’s owners corporation. If you’ve decided to make an investment in property, make sure you’re an active one to make the most of your investment and attain the many benefits available.