Buying a unit in Queensland: read the body corporate records first

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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When you buy a unit, a townhouse or an apartment in Queensland, you buy two things. One is the lot: the space inside your walls. The other is a share in a small organisation that owns the roof, the lifts, the driveway and the pool, sets the rules of the building, and can send you a bill. That organisation is the body corporate, and the Queensland Government's guidance for buyers is blunt about it: you cannot opt out of being part of the body corporate once you own a lot.

A building inspection tells a buyer about the condition of the unit. It says almost nothing about the condition of the organisation. That is found in documents: a certificate the seller must hand over, a community management statement, and the body corporate's own records, which any prospective buyer has a legal right to inspect. This guide explains what each one contains, how to get it, and what to look for. It draws on the guidance published by the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.

Queensland Government body corporate guidance. Fees are those applying from 1 July 2026.

What you are joining

A body corporate is made up of every person who owns a lot in the scheme. It may be a duplex, a block of six, a tower of several hundred apartments, or a mixed development with shops below. Membership is automatic on settlement.

The Queensland Government lists what an owner takes on. An owner must keep their lot in good condition, may have to maintain areas of common property they have exclusive use of, must follow the by-laws, and must not cause a nuisance or interfere with others' enjoyment of their lots or the common property. An owner must also pay the contributions the body corporate levies.

Most schemes in Queensland are community titles schemes under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997. Each has a community management statement, usually shortened to CMS, and each is governed by one of five regulation modules: Standard, Accommodation, Commercial, Small Schemes or Specified Two-lot Schemes. The module sets the detailed rules for committees, meetings and spending, and the CMS says which one applies.

A smaller number of older or special developments sit under other legislation, including the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 and Acts for particular places such as Sanctuary Cove and South Bank. Those have no CMS. The guidance suggests asking Titles Queensland which legislation covers a particular property. The rest of this guide describes the common case, a community titles scheme.

The documents the seller must give you

Since 1 August 2025, Queensland's seller disclosure scheme has required a seller to give a buyer certain documents before the contract is signed. For a lot in a community titles scheme, the prescribed documents include the community management statement and a body corporate certificate. For a property under the Building Units and Group Titles Act, a body corporate certificate is required.

The certificate comes in three versions. BCCM Form 33 is used for most community titles schemes, BCCM Form 34 for specified two-lot schemes, and BUGTA Form 18 for schemes under the older Act. The body corporate issues the certificate on request and for a set fee.

The timing is the point. These documents are meant to be in the buyer's hands before signing, not handed over in the weeks before settlement. The Office of Fair Trading says a buyer may terminate at any time before settlement if the disclosure documents were not provided before signing, or if the information in them is inaccurate or incomplete. For an inaccuracy the buyer must show the matter was material, that they did not know of it, and that they would not have signed had they known.

A buyer making an offer on a unit should therefore expect to receive the certificate and the CMS with the draft contract, and can ask for them at any time before that.

What the body corporate certificate tells you

The certificate is a snapshot of the scheme as it affects one lot. The Queensland Government's guidance for buyers sets out what to look for in it.

The contributions section deserves the closest reading. It lists the levies set for the lot and, according to the guidance, any amounts the current owner has not paid. The guidance warns that a new owner may be liable for those outstanding levies. In a normal sale the conveyancers adjust for this at settlement, so that the seller's arrears are paid from the sale proceeds, but that only works if the figure is known.

The certificate is limited by design. It records balances and amounts. It does not explain why the sinking fund is low, what the committee argued about last year, or whether an engineer has been asked to look at the basement. For that, a buyer has to go to the records themselves.

Levies and lot entitlements: how your share is set

Every owner pays, but not always equally. How much each lot pays is fixed by its lot entitlements, which are recorded in the community management statement.

There are two schedules. The contribution schedule lot entitlement decides a lot's share of most body corporate costs. The interest schedule lot entitlement is used for a narrower set of purposes, and the Queensland Government's guidance on contributions notes that building insurance is shared on the interest schedule, not the contribution schedule.

The amounts are decided once a year. At the annual general meeting, owners vote by ordinary resolution on two budgets, one for the administrative fund and one for the sinking fund, and from those the body corporate works out what each lot must pay, in how many instalments and on what dates. Owners must be given written notice at least 30 days before a contribution is due.

A worked example shows the arithmetic. The figures are illustrative and do not describe any real scheme.

Two optional rules can change what an owner actually pays. A body corporate may, by ordinary resolution, offer a discount for paying on time of no more than 20 per cent of the instalment. In the example, the largest possible discount would reduce a $2,500 instalment to $2,000. It may also charge a penalty on late payments of simple interest at no more than 2.5 per cent for each month overdue. The buyer guidance expresses the same ceiling as up to 30 per cent a year. On the example instalment, three months late at the maximum rate would add $187.50.

Beyond the budget, a body corporate can raise a special contribution by ordinary resolution for a cost that was not budgeted, or not budgeted enough. The government's example is painting that costs more than the sinking fund holds. For a buyer, a special contribution that has been resolved but not yet paid, or one being discussed in the minutes, is as much a part of the price as the figure on the contract.

Unpaid levies are pursued. If a contribution has been outstanding for two years, the body corporate must begin recovery action within two months of that date, and it can act sooner. It may also claim its reasonable costs of recovery.

The sinking fund and what it must cover

The administrative fund pays for the year's running costs. The sinking fund is the scheme's savings for large, occasional expenses. The Queensland Government describes it as paying for big or one-off items, such as painting or structural repairs to common property, and replacing major items like fences and carpets.

The law requires the body corporate to look ahead. The sinking fund budget must provide for necessary and reasonable spending in the current financial year and also reserve an amount towards expected spending over the following nine years. Many schemes commission a professional sinking fund forecast to do this, though the guidance notes that a professional forecast is optional and a committee may prepare its own estimate.

For a buyer, the sinking fund balance means little alone. A balance of $300,000 is ample for a ten-year-old block of twelve and thin for a forty-year-old tower with original lifts. What matters is the balance set against what the forecast says is coming, and against what the minutes say is already needed.

Sinking fund money stays in the sinking fund. It is there for capital spending and is not available to top up the administrative budget.

Insurance: what the body corporate covers and what you cover

Who insures the building depends on the type of survey plan the scheme is registered under, which the CMS and the title search will show.

In a scheme registered under a building format plan, which covers most apartment buildings, the body corporate must insure each building that contains an owner's lot for its full replacement value. In a scheme under a standard format plan, common for townhouse and villa developments, the body corporate must insure each building that shares a wall with another. An owner of a free-standing building in such a scheme is responsible for insuring it, unless the body corporate has set up a voluntary insurance scheme and the owner has joined.

The policy has to cover damage and the costs of reinstating or replacing the building, including professional fees and removing debris, so that the property is restored to as-new condition. To keep the insured sum realistic, the body corporate must obtain an independent valuation of the full replacement cost at least every five years.

The building policy does not cover everything inside a unit. The government's guidance excludes carpets and temporary wall and floor coverings, fixtures that a tenant can remove, air conditioners serving only one lot, window coverings and portable appliances. Those, and an owner's or tenant's belongings, are for the occupant's own contents or landlord policy.

When reading the certificate and the records, three things are worth checking: that the insured sum matches a valuation done within the last five years, how much the premium has moved from year to year, and the size of the excess.

By-laws, exclusive use and improvements

By-laws are the scheme's house rules. They are recorded in the community management statement, and the buyer guidance describes them as covering matters such as noise, pets and parking. A buyer with a dog, a trailer, a work vehicle or plans to renovate should read them before signing, not after.

The CMS also records exclusive use allocations: parts of the common property, such as a car space, a courtyard or a storage cage, that one lot has the sole right to use. These are easy to assume and important to verify. A car space shown to a buyer at an inspection may be part of the lot's title, or an exclusive use area, or simply a space the current owner has been using. Only the first two pass to the buyer, and exclusive use often brings a duty to maintain the area.

Improvements are changes an owner has made with the body corporate's approval, such as an enclosed balcony, an added air conditioner on common property or a pergola. The guidance says the seller must give the buyer a copy of the record of improvements before the contract is signed, and that the buyer inherits the obligation to maintain them. An improvement that appears in the unit but not in the records is a question to raise before signing.

The body corporate keeps registers that sit behind all of this.

Going further: the right to search the records

The certificate is where a buyer starts. The records are where the detail is. Queensland law gives the right to see them to any "interested person", and the government's list of who qualifies includes a prospective buyer of a lot, as well as owners, mortgagees and agents acting for any of them. A buyer does not need a signed contract to search.

The process is set out in the guidance on accessing records. The request must be made in writing to the body corporate, usually through its manager or secretary, and the fee paid. The person can then either inspect the records at a time and place the body corporate nominates, or ask for copies of particular documents they identify. Within seven days of receiving the written request and the fee, the body corporate must allow the inspection or supply the copies.

The fees are fixed by regulation, and the body corporate cannot add other charges.

A prospective buyer inspecting in person therefore pays $39.75, plus 75 cents for each page copied. Many buyers instead engage a search agent or ask their solicitor to arrange a records search and a written report. That is a private service with its own charge on top of the statutory fees.

A body corporate can withhold a document only on narrow grounds: where it reasonably believes the document contains defamatory material, or where legal professional privilege applies, for example advice from the body corporate's lawyers about a dispute. Otherwise, refusing access is an offence, with fines starting at $3,454 from 1 July 2026.

What to look for in the minutes and contracts

The guidance suggests being specific about what you ask for, and names three kinds of record beyond the certificate: management and service contracts, financial documents, and the minutes of committee and general meetings. The list below orders a search by what tends to matter most to a buyer.

Minutes are the richest source because they record what the owners and the committee were worried about, in their own words, before anything became a line in the budget. The same leak mentioned at three meetings in a row tells a buyer more than a clean set of accounts. Bodies corporate must keep minutes indefinitely, along with their rolls and registers, so the history should be there. Records about major repairs and defect assessments must be kept for at least six years.

Contracts matter because they bind the owners for years. Many Queensland complexes have a caretaking or letting agreement, and its length and annual cost are fixed costs inside the administrative budget that a new owner cannot change.

Disputes can be checked from outside as well. Orders made by adjudicators in body corporate disputes are published and can be searched. A scheme that appears often is one where owners and the committee have struggled to agree.

None of these findings is automatically a reason not to buy. Buildings age, and a scheme that is discussing a repair, has a report on it and is levying for it is doing what a body corporate should. The combination to be careful of is a known problem, no plan, and a sinking fund that could not pay for one.

Timing the search with the contract

The records search works only if its results arrive while the buyer can still act on them.

The strongest position is to search before signing. The right belongs to prospective buyers, the body corporate has seven days to respond, and the certificate and CMS should already have been provided by the seller. In a slow sale there is time.

Where a sale is moving quickly, buyers often sign first and search afterwards. Then the question is what in the contract allows the buyer to respond to what they find. A standard private treaty contract carries a five-business-day cooling-off period, during which a buyer can withdraw for any reason at a cost of up to 0.25 per cent of the price. Seven days for the body corporate to respond is longer than five business days can be, so a buyer relying on cooling-off alone needs the request lodged immediately and the priority options used. A specific condition written into the contract, making it subject to a satisfactory records search by a stated date, is the more dependable route, and is a matter to settle with a solicitor or conveyancer before signing.

At auction there is no cooling-off period and no conditions. A bidder on a unit has to complete the search during the campaign.

After settlement, the buyer is an owner like any other, with a vote at general meetings, the right to nominate for the committee, and the lower inspection fee. The records a buyer read before purchase become the records they help to write.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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