The house file · Tab 3
Tab 3 · Body corporate
Pests in a body corporate: whose job it is in Queensland
In a Queensland community titles scheme, the body corporate is generally responsible for pest inspection, prevention and treatment on common property, and each lot owner for the inspection and treatment needed within their own lot. Who is responsible often depends on where the problem is, and may also depend on the scheme’s own papers.
General information, not legal advice. The official guidance is the Queensland Government’s body corporate pages, listed at the foot of this page, and Form 2 names the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management as the place to ask about rights and obligations in a body corporate.
Entry 1
Four places on the plan
The Queensland Government’s page on maintenance starts with location. It asks whether the thing in question sits wholly inside a lot, on common property, in an exclusive-use area, or across the line between two areas. For pests, the page’s own rule fills in two of the four.
From the Queensland Government’s page on maintenance issues not specifically covered in the Act. Responsibility can rest with the body corporate, the owner, or be shared in some way.
| Where it is | What the page says |
|---|
| Within your lot | The lot owner is responsible for any pest inspection and treatment needed within it. |
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| On common property | The body corporate is generally responsible for pest inspection, prevention and treatment there. |
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| In an exclusive-use area | Who maintains it may depend on the wording of the scheme’s exclusive use by-laws. |
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| On a boundary | Named as one of the places to think about; the page notes that responsibility is sometimes shared between both parties in some way. |
|---|
Two more questions sit behind the table. Who installed the item can matter, and so can any agreement between the parties about maintenance services.
Entry 2
The papers that decide it
A unit owner’s house file has more in it than a house owner’s, because the scheme’s documents draw the lines the table above depends on.
- The plan the scheme is registered under. The Queensland page lists it as something responsibility may depend on, and the government keeps separate maintenance pages for building format plans and standard format plans.
- The community management statement. Form 2, the seller disclosure statement, notes that it holds important information about owners’ rights and obligations, including lot entitlements, by-laws and exclusive use areas.
- The by-laws. They regulate how an owner uses common property and the lot.
- Any service agreement you have signed with the body corporate, which is the subject of the next entry.
Entry 3
When the body corporate arranges your treatment
A pest treatment inside the lots is the owners’ job, but it can be easier to book once for the whole building. The Queensland page allows for that: a body corporate may offer to arrange pest inspections or treatments that owners are responsible for, and it can be cheaper or easier than each owner organising their own. The rules for doing it are short and firm.
- First, an agreement
“The body corporate can only supply a service to an owner or occupier if it has an agreement with the owner or occupier. It is not enough for the body corporate to have passed a general meeting resolution agreeing to provide the service.”
- Then, the costs
The body corporate can charge its costs as part of that agreement, but it cannot charge users for its administrative work, and it cannot make a profit.
- Then, the bill
Each user pays the supply charges for the service. They are not part of the body corporate levies.
Entry 4
Passing on the notice
When a building is treated, Queensland’s Medicines and Poisons (Pest Management Activities) Regulation 2021 puts a duty on the place’s manager to tell the people who use it, and it names a body corporate manager and a letting agent among the people that word covers.
“If the manager of the place receives a pre-treatment pest control advice for a pest control activity to be carried out at the place, the manager must give notice to the attendees of the matters stated in the advice as soon as practicable after receiving it.”
Medicines and Poisons (Pest Management Activities) Regulation 2021, section 60(2)
The attendees are the residents, workers or visitors of the place. After a treatment, the manager must, as soon as practicable, either pass on the matters in the post-treatment advice or make the advice available to inspect and tell the attendees where and when. Either notice can be given by leaving a copy of the advice somewhere conspicuous; the regulation’s examples are a notice at a building’s entrance or in a lunch room. The maximum penalty for each duty is 20 penalty units.
Entry 5
When owners disagree
The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management has adjudicators and referees who can make orders in most disputes about maintenance. Earlier orders can help show who is responsible: the Queensland page says decisions by adjudicators and referees can be searched online at the Australasian Legal Information Institute, and it points to one adjudicator’s order on pest control in particular.
Buying into a scheme
Form 2 tells a buyer that purchasing a lot in a community titles scheme makes them a member of the body corporate, with the right to take part in significant decisions and a duty to pay contributions towards its expenses. It also says a buyer will have implied warranties under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997, including about latent or patent defects in common property. Tab 5 reads the form for pests, and Tab 4 covers inspections before you buy.