An important obligation on Unit Owners relating to this matter arises by virtue of the Rules of a Body Corporate. A serious breach of the relevant Rules will arise if additions or structural alterations or (in some cases) other changes are made to Units without first obtaining the consent of the Body Corporate. A large number of Bodies Corporate have extended the ability to exercise control over changes to the appearance of Units by expanding their Rules to exclude things like changes to colour schemes, changing or adding doors/windows, installing awnings, heat pumps, aerials and many other things.
Naturally, Local Authority Building Consents must also be obtained where applicable as this requirement, whilst being an obvious by-law requisite of the Local Authority, is also provided for in the Body Corporate Rules. We are able to assist Proprietors with the process of endeavouring to obtain the necessary Body Corporate consents to facilitate desired additions/alterations/changes.
Additions to Units, in some instances, will involve a Proprietor in having to undertake to arrange and pay for the cost of changing the Unit Plan of the Body Corporate following their completion. We know what needs to be done in order to bring about the necessary changes to the Unit Plan in these circumstances and can give an indication of the likely costs.
Where additions have been made over a period of time and they are such that the Unit Plan no longer reflects the current boundaries of the Units or the outlines of the buildings contained within the Principal Unit areas, there are likely to be difficulties when it comes to selling affected Units. We know what needs to be done to organise an updating of Unit Plans in respect of past additions to Units.
Please contact us for further information.