Hi All,
I have an urgent question regarding body corporate in Vic. My sister purchased a property about 6 1/2 yrs ago, fee simple, it was a house on a recently subdivided area, her block being subdivision one.
She bought the property from the original land owners (via a real estate agent). Soon after this, the remaining property subdivisions of land were sold to a developer who proceeded to sell the blocks and build houses on them. A concrete road was laid and so on. There are approx. 16 subdivisions in all.
Approximately one month ago my sister was approached by a very very rude and abrupt person who stated they were the president of the body corporate and she was required to pay about $480 in body corporate fees. Bearing in mind this is over 5 years after she bought this property. It is registered on the property title that the owner of subdivision one will be liable for body corporate.
However, nothing to remotely do with body corporate fees was in either the sale contract or the vendors statement.
It was never mentioned on either of these documents that body corporate fees would ever be an issue, otherwise this may have had an effect on her decision.
Basically I am wondering what people thoughts, opinions and qualified opinions are??? Anyone with experience in the legal field or conveyancing etc – your help would be greatly appreciated, also anyone who has gone through this.
She also has never been invited to any meetings at all and has received no prior correspondence to this matter.Sounds very unsatisfactory in the least. Are you sure that it is a Body Corp or is it an easement driveway taht she is responsible for? $480 for 5 years seems to me to point to this.
I note that you say that it was noted on the title that she was responsible for BC fees. As I don't know Vic Law, you will need to speak to someone who does, but in Qld it is illegal to sell a property in a community title without providing a written Disclosure Statement. Why hasn't she been receiving annual Body Corporate Meeting notices or for that matter why hasn't she been receiving accounts for fees for the last 5 years. You really need to talk to a property lawyer on this issue asap.
Jon
Her conveyancer should have alerted her to any issues surrounding the body corporate considering it is mentioned on the title. Also, it seems odd that she has never been included in any previous decisions, as if she is part of the body corporate, then she would have been a voting member and have rights on decisions made.
A good place to call would be BCS – body corporate services, there is one in every state – website http://www.bcssm.com.au
they should help.I had a feeling that in NSW at least (I don't know anything about Victorian property law), there were laws in regards to the regularity of body corp meetings, voting rights in the body corp etc. If none of this infastructure is in place then i would be doubful of their rights to ask for payment. Also agents are supposed to follow a due dilligence process at the time of sale that discloses any information that could reasonably affect the buyers motivation to purchase the property. If this process was not followed correctly I believe there are laws in place (again in NSW at least) that enforce these practices. At the very least I would have thought that this shoud have been disclosed in some sort of statement from the vendor as part of the due dilligence.
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