Building format plan and building units plan maintenance

This webinar will discuss building format plan maintenance. Building format plans are also known as a building unit plan or BUP for schemes established before July 1997. If you need to confirm whether your plan of subdivision is a building format plan you can contact the Titles Queensland to obtain a copy of your scheme's registered survey plan.

The topics that will be covered in this webinar will be: maintenance overview and exceptions, what types of buildings can be a building format plan, how to determine the boundaries, responsibility for parts of the building and owners maintenance responsibility. The information is applicable to all the regulation modules in this webinar.

As a general guide, usually the common property maintenance is the responsibility of the body corporate while maintenance of a lot is mostly the responsibility of an individual owner. There are three main questions that an owner or committee need to ask if they wish to confirm whether the body corporate is responsible for carrying out maintenance work. Does the maintenance relate to the scheme's common property? Is the maintenance one of the additional maintenance responsibilities of the body corporate that may not be part of the common property? If the answer to either of these questions is a yes do any exceptions apply to prevent the work from being a body corporate responsibility? We hope the following information will assist you in answering these questions and understanding the maintenance responsibilities under a building format plan.

The body corporate is responsible for common property maintenance and most items that are located on common property. However there are exceptions. The body corporate is responsible for common property utility infrastructure; gardens, trees, mowing of lawns; roads and driveways on common property; fences around the boundary of the whole of the scheme's land; pools, spas, saunas or other buildings or structures located on common property. The exceptions are owners are responsible for maintaining certain items even if they are located on common property. This includes devices providing utility services to only one lot. Exclusive use by-laws over common property areas can make an owner responsible for maintenance and owners must maintain their own improvements to common property in most cases.

As the previous slide stated, while the body corporate normally maintains common property there are some exceptions which make an owner responsible for maintenance of common property. Owners are responsible for maintaining utility infrastructure located on common property providing utility services to only one lot. This includes hot water systems including the system wiring and pipes, washing machines, clothes dryers, solar panels, air conditioners, television antennae or another device providing a utility service to a lot. Improvements installed by an owner on the common property are the owner's responsibility unless the body corporate has voted to excuse the owner from the maintenance when authorising the improvement. Common property water meters installed after the 1st of January 2008 are neither the body corporate or the owner's responsibility. They are the property of the service provider.

If there are exclusive use bylaws recorded over common property, the wording of the bylaw can change the non-structural and structural maintenance responsibilities for common property areas. For example, painting outside walls or doors and windows in a boundary wall become the owner's responsibility to maintain unless the by-law wording specifically states otherwise. If a private yard is marked on a building format plan it makes the land part of the owner's lot. The usual wall boundaries in the plan are changed from the walls to the survey pegs in the ground. This means that the walls are no longer a boundary structure and changes wall maintenance responsibilities. The owner becomes responsible for windows, doors, non-structural maintenance of the wall like painting. The land within the boundaries marked on the survey plan is part of the owner's lot and mostly the owner's responsibility to maintain. Exceptions for maintenance within the owner's boundaries may be common property utility infrastructure and structural maintenance of essential supporting framework or load-bearing walls.

The owner is responsible for most of the maintenance inside the boundaries of the lot. This includes: owners utility infrastructure; the gyprock / plasterboard, skirting boards and painting; any fixtures and fittings installed for the owner's benefit; waterproof membranes in wet areas and shower trays; windows, doors and associated fittings that are not located in a boundary wall and floor coverings such as tiles, carpet, lino or floating wooden floors. The body corporate is responsible for various elements of the building inside the boundaries of the lot. These include common property infrastructure; essential supporting framework and load-bearing walls; foundations; roofing structures and roofing membranes providing protection for common property and lots; windows and doors and associated fittings located in boundary walls; and balustrades and railings on the boundary of a balcony.

We have already mentioned some of the parts of the building that remain the body corporate responsibility even inside the lot boundaries. Common property utility infrastructure includes pipes, wiring, cables, phone lines and drainage for example. The responsibility for utility infrastructure located inside a lot depends on whether it meets the three requirements in Section 20 of the Act. Any utility infrastructure that does not meet all three requirements stays common property unless it was an owner's improvement. The body corporate must maintain all common property utility infrastructure in good condition. Fixtures and fittings installed within the lot boundaries by the owner for the owner's benefit remain the owner's responsibility.

Any type of building can be registered under a building format survey plan. These types of buildings can include high and low rise multiple story buildings, townhouses with or without shared boundary walls, villas with or without shared boundary walls, stand-alone houses in an estate, or a duplex scheme. This is why you must confirm your survey plan type as any building could be a building format plan.

The first step to understanding the maintenance responsibilities is knowing what is common property and what is part of your lot in the building format plan. This depends on where the boundaries are. In this slide is an example of a building format plan or a BUP. The survey plan gives a view of the boundaries from the top view looking down on the land and buildings. It shows level A for the ground floor and level B for the upper level of the townhouses. A general guide is that the darker or thicker lines are the boundaries of the lot. The boundaries are usually the walls or some other structural part of the building. Some lines on the plan may be paler, thinner, grey, dotted or dashed. These lines may define walls or parts of a building that are not a boundary structure. For example looking at the plan of level B, the two smaller balcony areas are shown by lines that are paler and thinner than the dark thick line that mark the exterior walls of the building and between the four lots. These balcony areas are contained within the dark thick lines that mark the boundaries of lot two and three respectively. This means that the smaller balcony areas are part of those lots and are not part of the common property. You can see that the plan refers to the different parts of each of the lots on each level. Some plans show the square meterage for the inside and the balcony areas or the garages plus the total of the lot square meterage. This can also be handy to determine what parts of the building are part of the owner's lot if the lines are not clear particularly on older plans. The body corporate may need to engage a surveyor to interpret the plan if required.

This is an example of a two-story townhouse under a building format plan showing the boundaries from a side view. Note that this is only a guide to assist you in understanding where the boundaries may be located. The boundaries in a building format plan are the center of the floor structures, the wall structures, and the ceiling structures. The boundaries are usually the outer face of the balustrading or railing. Posts under a balcony may define the boundary as they are a structural support element. And where the parts of the building that do not have a defined ceiling structure the boundary usually projects out from the ceiling structure.

There are many elements of the building that are the body corporate's responsibility to maintain. The body corporate is usually responsible for walls, soffits and eaves, doors and windows, common property balconies, parts of owner's balconies, roofing structures and roofing membranes, and the foundations. The next slides will cover examples of how the general rules about maintenance responsibilities can apply to these parts of the building in more detail.

As the boundaries are the center of the wall structures, the exterior half of the wall is usually common property. When it is common property the body corporate must maintain the exterior of the wall in good condition. This can include non-structural types of maintenance such as painting or fixing cladding or render. Soffits and eaves would usually be outside the boundaries of the lot and are generally body corporate responsibility to maintain. The body corporate must maintain in a structurally sound condition the structural elements of the common property and the structural maintenance inside the lot.

The body corporate must maintain in a structurally sound condition all load-bearing walls and essential supporting framework inside the owner's lot boundaries. The legislation does not differentiate between a common wall, which we call a boundary structure or a partitioning wall. These are walls located inside the lot boundaries. The supporting framework or load-bearing parts of any of the walls usually remain the body corporate's responsibility to maintain.

The owner is generally responsible for non-structural maintenance of walls inside their boundaries. Remember that the inside half of the boundary wall between two lots or the lot and common property is inside the owner's lot. Non-structural maintenance of the part of the wall inside the boundary can include maintaining the gyprock or plasterboard if it gets cracked, or painting the internal walls. Cracks in walls are usually the owner's responsibility to maintain. All buildings move over time and cracks can appear at any time. Cracks do not automatically mean that the building is in a structurally unsound condition. If an owner believes the cracks are the body corporate's responsibility, the owner must demonstrate that the cracks are caused by structural issues and that the body corporate has not maintained the building in a structurally sound condition under the requirements of section 180 of the Standard Module.

Doors and windows and the associated fittings are the body corporate's responsibility if they are located within the boundary wall between the lot and common property. Associated fittings can include garage door motors, auto closers, locks and hinges, fly screens or security screens if they were installed by the builder. Owner's improvements to doors and windows are the owner's responsibility to maintain. Any doors or windows in a wall that is not a boundary structure and are inside the boundaries of the lot would usually be the owner's responsibility to maintain.

Here is a diagram to clarify the responsibilities for doors and windows. In the plan we showed earlier, you can see the thicker lines are the boundaries and the thinner line is not a boundary. The doors or windows marked in red are located in a boundary wall between the lot and a common property balcony. They are the body corporate's responsibility. The doors marked in green are located in a wall that is within the boundaries of the lot. Note that the line is thinner than the boundary lines on the plan, showing that the wall is not a boundary wall. The doors leading to the balcony that is part of the lot are the owners responsibility.

The whole of the balcony would usually be the body corporate's responsibility if the balcony is located outside the lot boundaries as it is part of common property. If the balcony is part of the lot, in other words it is within the boundaries shown on the survey plan, then the body corporate is responsible for the maintenance of only parts of the balcony. This includes balustrades or railings on the boundaries, roofing membranes if the balcony provides protection to lots and common property below and structural maintenance of the slab, joists or other supporting framework.

Where the balcony is part of the owner's lot, the owner is normally responsible for the following: The walls inside the balcony are part of the lot so painting inside the balcony is usually the owner's responsibility; the doors, windows and their associated fittings leading to the balcony; the tiles and other non-structural maintenance inside the boundaries of the lot are also usually the owner's responsibility.

Foundations located under the floor boundary would be common property and the body corporate's responsibility. Both structural and non-structural maintenance is a body corporate responsibility if the foundations are part of common property. If the foundations are located within the boundaries of a lot, non-structural maintenance is generally the owner's and the body corporate is responsible for maintaining the foundations in a structurally sound condition.

Roofing structures and the roofing membrane are usually located above the ceiling boundary structure so in that case it would be part of common property. The body corporate must maintain roofing structures and roofing membranes in good condition generally, as well as maintaining the structural elements in a structurally sound condition. Sometimes roofing structures can form part of the lot. A balcony may have a roofing structure over the top of it or a balcony could be a roofing structure to lots or common property below. The structural parts of a roofing structure located inside the lot boundaries will usually be the body corporate's responsibility to maintain in a structurally sound condition as well.

Even inside the boundaries of the lot, the body corporate is responsible for roofing membranes providing protection for lots or common property. If the body corporate must maintain the roofing membrane the body corporate may have to cover the cost of lifting and replacing the tiles, if the tiles are in good condition. If the tiles are in need of repair the owner may have to contribute some or all of the cost of the tile lifting and replacement.

The adjudicator stated in this order for Rutherglen a clarification of the responsibility for removing and replacing tiles, depending on their condition. "Maintenance of the tiles falls under the general rule that the applicant must maintain her own lot. If the balcony tiles are in good condition and the body corporate needs to remove those tiles to repair the waterproofing membrane then the body corporate should also repair or replace tiles that need to be removed to rectify the membrane. However if the tiles are not in good condition then it would be appropriate for the body corporate to seek some apportionment as a result of the body corporate replacing old tiles with new tiles."

In this order for Galileo Tower, the adjudicator explained the responsibility for removing and replacing the tiles with the same or modern equivalent. "Normally an owner is responsible for tiles on their balcony. However to the extent that it was necessary to remove the tiles to enable the waterproofing work that the body corporate is responsible for, the body corporate would be responsible for replacing the tiles. If only a part of the tiled area needs to be removed to undertake work, replacement of all tiles in the area may be necessary, if it is not feasible to match the tiles that have been removed. Any body corporate responsibility to replace tiles would arguably be only for tiles that are the same or the modern equivalent of the tiles that are removed or tiles of an equivalent value to that. If an owner wanted different tiles they would be responsible for any cost above the tiles that the body corporate is responsible for."

A common issue that people get confused about is the difference between a roofing membrane and a waterproof membrane. Wet areas such as the kitchen, laundry or bathroom may have a waterproof membrane installed. As it sits on top of the slab or boundary structure, this type of waterproof membrane is located entirely inside the lot boundaries. It is not a roofing membrane. Older buildings may not have required a waterproof membrane under building codes at the time the building was certified. However, now building codes requires waterproof membranes in wet areas, so owners who are renovating will have to install a membrane or maintain one that was installed at the time of the build.

To clarify the previous slide, adjudicators have stated that a waterproof membrane inside a bathroom for example, is not considered a roofing membrane. In the order for the Dalgety (Apartments), the adjudicator stated: "However I do not consider waterproofing within the bathroom of a lot can rationally be categorized as a roofing membrane."

To summarise the owners’ responsibilities for maintenance inside the lot boundaries includes but is not limited to: painting and plastering; flooring - for example tiles, carpet, floating wooden floors or lino; doors and windows not in a boundary wall; fixtures and fittings, for example kitchen cupboards; vanities, toilets, shower screens and shower trays; and utility infrastructure that services only that lot and is inside the boundaries and is not within a boundary structure.

You can find on this slide the details to contact the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management. If you need to check if your body corporate scheme is registered as a building format plan, or you want a copy of your community management statement containing the bylaws, please contact Titles Queensland on 07 3497 3479.