Episode 15: Kate Yeowart - Owner's Corporations - What do they do?

Owner’s Corporations, or Body Corporations, as they were once known, are the key to managing land titles with multiple owners, such as units, apartments and sometimes whole housing estates. They set a standard of how well a shared property is maintained, and the reality is, there’s the good the bad and the ugly in both building maintenance and Owner’s Corporations. Today we are going to find out how to know if your Owner’s Corporation is doing the right thing by your block and what to do if they aren’t. 

A respected leader in the strata management sector, we welcome back again Kate Yeowart, the Director of Strata Equity Management. Kate has worked in all facets of real estate and as a law cler,k and she holds a degree in Political Science which she puts to good use in her business. Welcome Kate.

 

The reality is, Owner’s Corporation Managers are necessary to maintain order within a shared development. But they do get a bad wrap for various reasons. What is it Kate, that an owner’s corporation and what do they do?

If there is a defect to the common property, say a broken pipe that’s flooding the basement car park, how is that usually brought to the Owner’s Corporation’s attention?

Chris from Sunshine is looking at buying his first investment property. Because he won’t be living there, he wants to know what to look out for when buying a property, if the Owner’s Corporation is good or bad…how can you tell by just being at the property?

Hypothetically, say we have an 60s brick apartment block of 8 x 2 bedroom apartments, what can be the difference in Owner’s Corporation fees from lowest to highest that we would be expected to pay?

How involved should your Owner’s Corporation Manager be?

How often show we hear from our Owner’s Corporation Manager?

Nick from Ballarat is concerned about his noisy neighbour when he’s trying to study in the early hours of the morning. He thinks it maybe some religious music blaring, like at odd prayer times, should he report it to his Owner’s Corporation that there’s supposed to be an element of noise control between certain times of the day, or is that a matter for the police?

What happens if you want to change the Owner’s Corporation Manager?

What happens when different owners have different expectations for the common property?

How are insurance claims dealt with?

How does it work when there is an evan number of properties to make a decision on common matters?

What happens if someone misses a payment or is well behind in payments contributing to the management of the building? How is that dealt with?