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When reading this website, or when talking with people about body corporate matters it may be helpful to know some of the technical terms that are associated with running a good body corporate.
Body Corporate Asset
Property owned by the body corporate, other than the common property.
Body Corporate Manager
A body corporate manager is a contractor to the body corporate engaged to provide administrative services. The administrative services may include the functions of the committee, and the executive members of the committee. Stewart Silver King and Burns is a body corporate manager. Please see Section 14 of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act.
Building
This is a term used for the purposes of defining the replacement and reinstatement insurance obligations of the body corporate
Building Format Plan
A building format plan is a type of subdivision plan where the boundaries of the lot are defined by the building structure (e.g. floors, walls and ceilings) and by projections of the building structure (Land Titles Act Section 48C). Except to the extent permitted by the directions of the Registrar of Titles, the boundary of a lot created under a building format plan and separated from another lot or common property by a floor, wall or ceiling, must be located at the centre of that floor, wall or ceiling.
Community Titles Scheme
A community titles scheme is the lots and common property that make up your body corporate.
Contributions
Contributions are the body corporate levies paid by the owners to give the body corporate the funds to operate.
Contribution Lot Entitlement
The contribution lot entitlement for a lot is the number assigned to the lot in the community management statement. It is properly calculated as an estimate of the relative amount of expenses either caused or benefiting that particular lot. The contribution lot entitlement schedule is used for determining each owner’s body corporate contributions. It is also the weighted value of a lot owner’s vote on a motion to be decided by ordinary resolution.
Common Property
Common property is the land within a community titles scheme that is not within one of the lots owned by an owner.
Community Management Statement
The community management statement for a community titles scheme is a document that is registered with the government and contains all of the basic information about the body corporate and the community titles scheme. Among other things it identifies the exact land on which the community titles scheme is built, it sets out the by-laws, it sets out each owners lot entitlements, and it sets out all the exclusive uses of common property given to owners (Body Corporate and Community Management Act Section 66). Under Section 6 of the standard module and Section 7 of the Accommodation Module additional permitted inclusions include –
- Arrangements for future connections to utility infrastructure necessary to accommodate progressive development
- Provisions adopting and regulating the operation of an architectural and landscape code (including the establishment and operation of an architectural review committee)
- Arrangements with subsidiary schemes for the use by the subsidiary scheme of the principal scheme common property or body corporate assets.
Financial Year End
Bodies corporate do not operate on the same financial year as the taxation system. The financial year of your body corporate is the period ending on the last day of the month before the month in which the scheme was originally established, e.g. If a body corporate were created by registration of its first community management statement in the month of May, then its financial year would end on 30 April each year, except in schemes registered prior to 13 July 1997, where the financial year ends on the last day of the month in which the first annual general meeting occurred.
Interest Lot Entitlement
The interest lot entitlement for a lot is the number assigned to that lot in the community management statement. It is properly calculated as the relative market value of the lot compared to all other lots in the community title scheme.
Lot Entitlement
There are two types of lot entitlement – contribution lot entitlement and interest lot entitlement. In the community management statement each lot is assigned a number that is its own interest lot entitlement and contribution lot entitlement.
Occupier
An occupier means anyone who is resident or lives in the scheme, or a person who occupies the lot for business purposes, or carries on business from the lot.
Original Owner
The Original Owner is the owner of all of the Scheme Land before it became a community titles scheme. The Original Owner is commonly the developer of the scheme.
Resident Manager
The on-site caretaker and / or letting agent for your Scheme.
Standard Format Plan
A Standard Format Plan is a type of subdivision plan where points on the earth (e.g. posts in the ground) in a horizontal plane define the boundaries of the land (Land Titles Act Section 48B).
Utility Infrastructure
Utility Infrastructure for a community titles scheme is the cables, wires, pipes, drains, ducts, plant and equipment, and meters by which the lots and the common property within the scheme are supplied with a utility service.
Utility Service
A Utility Service for a community titles scheme includes water, gas, electricity, air conditioning, telephone, data, television, sewer, drainage, a waste removal system
Volumetric Plan
A Volumetric Plan is a type of subdivision plan where the lot is defined with a height, breadth and length (i.e. 3 dimensionally located points) (Land Titles Act Section 48D). It need not create any common property. The volumetric format plan may be used to divide a lot on either a building format plan, a standard format plan, or another volumetric format plan (Land Titles Act Section 49D).
