Bodies Corporate & Litigation

In this video, OMB Solicitors' Partner, Cameron Marshall, talks about bodies corporate and litigation.

Transcript

My name is Cameron Marshall, I'm a partner at OMB Solicitors, and I work in the litigation department. I operate in all spheres of litigation, but particularly recently, we have been doing a lot of work in the body corporate sphere.

A couple of matters that has recently come across my desk is, including a reoccurring theme of what to do with some lots that have become left as part of the body corporate scheme after the developer has sold all the lots and down the track, the body corporate is required to deal with these particular lots that were not part of common property, but formed part of lot property.

But the body corporate has become the one responsible with dealing with those lots. I'll give you an example, one particular lot had a conference room, which had been given to a previous lot owner, as part of the purchase of a restaurant. That lot owner left suddenly from the premises and the scheme, and the body corporate was required to deal with that lot.

It was faced with a situation of, what do we do with it? It didn't know what to do, it was facing all sorts of barriers from the land title's office, because, as you would probably know, that a body corporate can only own lot property in very specific circumstances.

So OMB's solicitors managed to solve that problem, and allowed the body corporate to move on and stop incurring rates, and also body corporate levies that weren't being paid for that lot.

Another example was one where there was an advertising sign on the top of a large building. Again, the body corporate inherited this lot through the leaving of the scheme from the lot owner and, again, it was faced with a dilemma of what to deal with it.

So, I was thinking, if such a thing comes across your desk, and as a body corporate manager or a committee member, you're not sure what to do, give us a ring. We're faced with this quite a bit now, and we have a strategy and plans in place that will be able to resolve the problems that you face.

Thank you.