Body corporate fees

[godschild29]

Hi all, my wife and I are trying to buy a house atm and we found a townhouse we like. B.C wasn’t listed in the add so we looked at it, to get told by the REA that it is under B.C and that they cost upwards of 6.3k a year… I’m new to all this and I think it’s ridiculous purely based on the fact that it’s a shared lot of 3 townhouses with small gardens, no shared amenities, no “gated community” style compound it’s just the 3 side by side. I asked if water was included in the B.C but in QLD it’s apparently included in the rates. The place is roughly 10-15 years old so I don’t see age being an issue. For reference I live in Townsville, the townhouse isn’t subject to flooding either. Just trying to wrap my head around this and if my wife and I could potentially re negotiate our B.C fees?

 

[diannna]

@godschild29 I have real estate in Townsville and I’d never buy there again.

Insurance is extremely expensive there.

Get the disclosure documents and find out where the moneys going. It will be shown in the budgets and the statement of accounts.

Everyone talks down on levies like they’re some extra expense. They’re just a consolidated expense. They you’ll pay the levy but you won’t have to pay for insurance and a variety of other expenses you’d have on a house anyway.

Everyone here talks down on stratas. I actually own both houses and strata units and have for a long time. Most people who talk crap about units don’t even own one and never have. There’s nothing wrong with them, you just have to understand them.

 

[miao]

@godschild29 A good chunk of that is prob for Sinking Fund which is for the future major building costs like painting, roof repairs etc. Sorta sucks if you are not there long term but easier to deal with such costs when needed rather than trying to extract 10K out of everyone at the time. 6.3K does seem a bit hefty. We pay 4.5K for an 8 pack with a lift. You can review the fees at any point and just need to get a majority (1 other in your case) to agree to change them, although there is recourse for the others to go to QCAT if they believe the fees to be unreasonably high or low.

 

[joshuadykstra]

@godschild29 Your regular searches should include a body corp search, usually these fees are for is insurance and sinking fund, given it’s three town houses it’s u likely there is management rights so your effectively paying yourself

 

[cdf47]

@godschild29 It depends on the format plan. There's two types. Building format and standard format. In bfp the body corporate is responsible for a lot more maintenance such as roof, foundations and some windows and doors. The levies are much higher in these formats. Sfp draw a line around the survey pegs and what's inside that is yours except for shared utility infrastructure. The fees in these formats are lower because the owner is mostly responsible.

You also need to factor in body corporate insurance in Nth QLD is astronomical. A lot of places aren't even able to get insurance.

You are entitled to search body corporate records and look at the budget which will tell you what the money is being paid towards. Google buying a body corporate property bccm for more info or www.qld.gov.au/bodycorporate. The office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate have an information service. Maybe give them a call for things you should lookout for. It's a callback service so leave your name and number and they get back to you pretty quick.

Good luck with your property search.

 

[sadd]

@cdf47 Yeah, I'm not in north qld but in a similarly crime prone area and we just renewed our complex's insurance. Three out of five insurers declined to quote for us, and one company quoted twice what we pay now. Our current insurer was the only semi-reasonable quote. It's insane.

 

[reviewmayhutmui]

@godschild29 It probably includes building insurance, which you would of course have to pay yourself for a house, which would be several thousand dollars at least in Nth Qld.

Long story short, having done both, and run the numbers in minute detail, the cost of body corporate fees are almost always significantly lower than the amortised costs of the same items that you'd be paying for over the lifetime of owning freehold property.

 

[jorgeh]

@godschild29 One of the issues with strata and body corporate fees is that, depending upon what the scheme is - you can end up paying for lots of things that you'd just do yourself for nothing if you owned a house - like people putting your bins out, and cleaning the foyer glass, and vacuuming the common area carpets etc. Laziness is somewhat encouraged because "strata will pay for it".

Now a 3 unit townhouse development is a different kettle of fish, but small developments can have their own issues very much depending upon who the other two owners are - it can be simple or an absolute nightmare. Don't buy without working out the likelihood of the latter being the case.

Examine the strata records and see what the money is being spent on - insurance is a biggie, but if you bought outright you'd need insurance anyway, so via strata that's one expense you don't have.

Strata fees, in a well run development, are not necessarily a bad deal, but you simply have to get into the detail to work it out.

 

[drzoidberg]

@godschild29 Apartments are just renting with extra steps. This is what the purpose of density is, to suck every drop from you. You will own nothing and be happy.

 

[diannna]

@drzoidberg Yeah not like those levies go to actual costs that houses also have like insurance and maintenance.

 

[drzoidberg]

@diannna Housing has completely different expenditure cycles which you are in charge of.

 

[diannna]

@drzoidberg I actually own both asset classes, houses and strata titled units. People who way strata is bad just don’t actually understand how it works.

 

[drzoidberg]

@diannna Yeah and I have previously. Where did I state strata is bad?

 

[diannna]

@drzoidberg Fair enough, not you necessarily, but lots of people in these comments.

 

[drzoidberg]

@diannna All I stated was it's renting with extra steps, unlike housing which has varying levels of maintenance effort and care.

 

[diannna]

@drzoidberg But it’s not really. It’s owning with an upkeep regime.

 

[faithhope119]

@diannna This guy is goofy. Calling it renting with extra steps is ridiculous.

 

[resjudicata]

@diannna Well, much of it goes to "management", so you're literally paying a company to pay themselves with your money.

I'm happy to take your money too as a money-taking fee - I'll provide a very good service.

I'm not sure what "management" they're doing when they ignore my queries for months leaving me unable to use my own car stacker.

 

[diannna]

@resjudicata Get a better BCM.

Stratas titled properties themselves aren’t the problem.

All the BCM’s I deal with, and I oversee about 200 corporations for the landlord I work for, charge about $300 per lot per year.

Most of the levies are about $3k per year. So the cost is ~10%. That’s not a whole lot to not have to deal with trades and insurers etc myself.