Legal (Page 3)

Legal articles relating to legislation, disputes and civil suits

Contributed By: Vanessa Sciortino - Nicholsons on

All caretaking agreements will provide for an annual review of the caretaker’s remuneration. Unless there has been a specific change that review will normally be on the anniversary of the commencement date of the agreement.  Remuneration reviews in agreements can be specified to occur by the greater (or lesser) of two methods.  They are most commonly reviewed by a fixed percentage, CPI or market review.  Care should be taken when considering the drafting of the review clauses to ensure they, firstly, work correctly and secondly, that there is sufficient detail included in the review clause  (particularly for a market review clause) which sets out theRead More →

Contributed By: Michael Kleinschmidt Stratum Legal on

Forward bookings belong to the lot owner. Trying to hang on to them can cost more than you think When you lose a Lot from your Letting Pool don’t be tempted to try to hang on to the forward bookings – you have to act in the best interests of your, soon to be former, client (the lot owner). At the very least, you must ensure that the guests with the forward bookings are aware of the change over in management, so that they can keep their forward booking if they wish. A Noosa Real Estate Agent who failed to do this was recently finedRead More →

Contributed By: Kristine Lehmann of Lehmann Rights on

Kristine Lehmann, the principal of Lehmann Rights has kindly provided us with a series of really great industry discussions between herself and a number of industry leading experts. These are great, easily digestible 5 minute chats that offer some wonderful and current insight for those in and looking to enter this market. We’ll be bringing you a new one of these with each issue for the next couple of months.Read More →

Contributed By: Archer Gowland Redshaw and Vanessa Sciortino on

For our latest episode focusing on the Management Rights industry, Chris Lewis and Smiljan Jankovic (Management Rights Specialist, Archer Gowland Redshaw) host Vanessa Sciortino – Special Counsel, Nicholsons Solicitors. Throughout the episode, Vanessa & Smiljan provide the latest best-practice insights from a legal and accounting perspective involving Management Rights complexes. Across the discussion, each highlight the common issues associated with top-ups & exercising options (and the differences between the two), renewal strategies where a manager may find themselves in a dispute with their Body Corporate, the purchase process including the Body Corporate consent process, whether or not claw-back clauses continue to be relevant, and how best to support new entrants in theRead More →

The interim orders in Watermark Residences [2020] QBCCMCmr 306 provides some relief for bodies corporate that held virtual general meetings during the COVID-19 restrictions. In summary: The body corporate called an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to agree on the matters that needed to be decided at a general meeting. To meet COVID-19 social distancing restrictions the committee decided to conduct the EGM without physical attendance. There were some other minor deficiencies with how the EGM was called, and was to be held, that did not strictly comply with the legislative requirements of holding meetings. A group of owners sought to invalidate the EGM based on the failureRead More →

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

I want to give people some insight as to my reasons for joining Hynes Legal and in particular, why I strongly believe the strata industry needs a mediation offering to help reduce the instance of strata disputes in the Commissioner’s Office and QCAT. I’ll begin with a question I’ve been asked a few times since starting with Hynes in February 2020: why would someone pay you to do something that you previously did for free? It’s because of cases like this one. In summary, it’s a dispute heard in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal about management rights. In total, both sides – the bodyRead More →

I remember after the GFC I said something like, wow, now I’ve seen everything.   Wrong! We understand that these are challenging times.  I use the term challenging because really scary and uncertain just sounds too confronting! Please know that we are here for our clients and indeed anyone who needs us.  Having said that the banks have indicated that to expedite positive outcomes they are dealing directly with broker introduced borrowers and that’s fine.  If you need to us to support your case and liaise with your banker, we are here.  If you feel your bank is not stepping up please understand that they areRead More →

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

The background Law can be a very dry occupation. As long as you are not on the receiving end of them, some of the lines in legal judgments can be somewhat amusing. One of the best judgments in recent times was the striking out of the bulk of Mark Latham’s defamation defence, but the judgment in this decision started with: ‘In his notes for a law lecture dated 1 July 1850, Abraham Lincoln wrote: Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser – in fees, expenses, and waste of time.’ If you were inRead More →

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

Have you ever wondered what happens when a lot owner starts short term letting and it affects the ability of the body corporate to get the required statutory insurance? If so, you might want to read this the story about a dispute between owners of a two-lot scheme in North Queensland and what an adjudicator decided about those particular circumstances. We have previously written about the statutory insurance requirements for bodies corporate. The facts of this insurance dispute were relatively simple. Beach Meet is a two lot scheme regulated by the Small Schemes Module One owner started short term letting via Air BnB The body corporate insuranceRead More →

Contributed By: Short Punch & Greatorix on

A Townsville Management Rights operator has lost their management rights because of failure to comply with the BCCM Act.  On 10 July 2019 Adjudicator Barry declared that body corporate committee resolutions from 2015 consenting to the transfer of management rights were void… Accordingly, the current management rights operator did not own the management rights, despite having performed the caretaking duties, and having been paid for doing so, for almost 4 years. The Adjudicator’s decision was the latest in a line of decisions dealing with the management rights for Allure Apartments CTS 46322 in Townsville.  On 26 September 2018 another Adjudicator had declared the letting agreementRead More →

ADVERTISMENT: