Strata title and body corporate

If you are planning to buy a unit or a flat in apartment building, you need to know what the strata title is. Basically, strata title makes it possible for you to own a part of the building (and before the strata title law was introduced, it was impossible.)

Why do we need strata title?

Usually any apartment building or block of units has “common areas” such as entrance hallway, car spaces or garages, garden, gym, pool, etc. It is clear that you’re responsible for maintenance of your flat, but who is responsible for maintenance of all common property? The answer is “all of the owners of flats/units together”. Naturally, when many people are involved in something there might be differences of opinion between them, so this is why body corporate was created. It is the organization that is in charge of enforcing all the regulations for strata units or apartments.

What kind of regulations are there?

As an owner of a strata title, you are responsible for things such as:

getting the right insurance for the property
maintenance and repairs of common areas
participating in owners meetings
paying levies – money to cover the cost of paperwork accountants handle for you, etc.

And that’s just a few examples. So you can see there are a lot of things to take care of. This is why many strata units are using special agents to take care of that entire headache.

Also, if you are thinking of getting involved in strata title, there is a whole new vocabulary you will need to know. For example, “by-laws” means a set of rules that tenants and owners must obey – such as no pets allowed, no noise after 11 pm, etc. I have found a great site that explains everything about strata title in details, including those new words and terms – check it out here .

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