What Actually is a Body Corporate?

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 111

Summary:

What exactly is a Body Corporate? What is its significance to apartment buyers? Andrew Murray will provide his insights and why it's an essential factor in every apartment building. Learn more from this podcast.

TRANSCRIPTION:

What is a Body Corporate?

A lot of people will buy an apartment thinking a body corporate is a company. They think, "Oh, because it is body corporate, I do not have control." That is actually not the case. A body corporate is not a company. It is not an external company that looks after your complex or your apartments. A body corporate is actually you. When you buy an apartment, you actually become, automatically, part of the body corporate.

These body corporate companies that you hear about, like Strata, The Crockers, BCA or Body Corporate Admin or Strictly Body Corporate. All these kind of companies, they are actually employed by the body corporate, which is decided by the owners. Because as an owner, you are the body corporate. The first thing you need to know is the distinct difference between buying a house and buying an apartment.

Buying a house, you are in charge of doing the lawns. You are in charge of doing the rubbish. You are in charge if the house needs to be repainted. The roof needs to be redone every fifteen years. With a body corporate, the body corporate as a whole has to be in charge and you can not just let it go. You can not just go, "Ah, yeah, I'll do it next year. It's not too bad." Everything has to be looked after spick and span, which is actually better.

That is where you have got to understand the big one. Just because you are in the body corporate, it does not mean you have control. Everybody has a vote and you all elect a committee to represent you, which is also voted at, what is called the AGM, the annual general meeting, which happens once a year.

The body corporate is actually responsible for, not the individual - like inside each person's apartment. The body corporate which is, you know now, collectively you are all responsible for the maintenance and the up-keep of what is generally called the common property. The common property are the corridors, the lifts, the actual building structure. You know, if you have got a pool,  if you have got a tennis court, if you have got land, if you have got a garden - things like that. When you buy an apartment, you have got to understand that you are  actually becoming the body corporate. You are becoming part of that body corporate. And that is really important.

Now, what I will do in the next podcast is actually go over what does a body corporate actually do? What are their key responsibilities?

I will help you understand more of what a body corporate does. It will help you understand how to look, when you are looking at an apartment to buy, how good is your body corporate. It is almost like a health check. That's what these body corporates minutes are. So you've got to know what a body corporate is to be able to judge if it's a good one. Okay, Andrew Murray, apartment specialist, hope that helps, and talk soon.

Cheers, bye.