Yadreamin
I have taken the liberty of starting a new thread so the 'whole block' discussion didn't get buried within Gordon's worst nightmare:
I didn't "quote" paste this, but you said -
............."l have never looked at buying a block of units.So tell me if one buys every unit in the complex .
who then owns the land?
who has to run the body corp if there is one?
or do you look at only buying non strata units?
l hope l make sense here but l really want a run down on how this type of ip works.
cheers yadreamin:" ...........
(Ahem) Allow me?
OK. If we decide that 'units' means villas, or buildings with their own foundations, and 'flats' means apartments which are part of a building and which may or may not be multi-storied:
A Body Corporate is simply the incorporated body (group) of owners of the properties which form part of the Plan of Subdivision of a previous, larger (Parent) title.
As soon as the Plan of Subdivision is approved and issued through the Titles Office, the Body Corporate comes into legal existence. It has the same number as the P/S number.
The Body Corporate then has to conform to certain legal requirements eg first Meeting within 15 months, Annual General Meetings each 12 months, BC to hold certain insurances, levies and accounts of BC required to be paid, etc
OK. So, say I decide to buy Unit 10, 53 Park Avenue, Marlborough.
A year later I buy Unit 3, then later on 8 and 2, etc and finally I own all ten units.
Each unit owns its own footprint anyway as shown on the Certificate of Title, but the Common Areas are owned in an undivided way by all owners with equal benefit and equal liability.
Now that I own all ten units, I don't have to 'actively' have BC meetings, but I still must meet all other legal requirements such as insurance, public liability insurance, etc
Say the property I now own AND CONTROL has a large area of common land, perhaps because the subdivision was done when councils would not permit more than four units per block, no matter how large the block was.
Can I do a further plan of subdivision? If it meets with council requirements, go for it.
In other words, the common property remains the common property. The BC may very well decide to subdivide the land and share the proceeds with the existing members of the BC. If you are the only member, yadreamin, then lucky you.
The BC is a legal structure which can be held accountable for the feasance or nonfeasance of certain requirements. You may sometimes hear people say 'Oh, well there's no BC', as if that's a good thing, then you find there is no sinking fund, no insurance over common property, no nuthin, and that is certainly not a good thing.
You can't buy non-strata-ed units in the same way. If no separate title has been issued, how would ownership change hands. Lenders hate Company Owned share flats (that would be a very long post - just don't go there) as the lenders security is very low quality. In other words, you own shares in the Company which owns the property and you are allocated exclusive right to Unit 10, and the easement rights of passages, common property etc. The Service Company then maintains the property and you have shares in that, too. If the lender has to sell, quell horror! The Companies often had really obscure membership criteria eg only retired Methodist ministers could buy shares, or only ladies with pink hair, etc. Therefore, the lender may 'seize' the property (shares) but who can they sell them to to recover their money?
Of course, you could buy the whole Company, and when you own the whole block, then do a subidivision and have the property strata titled. Many fortunes have been made doing that!
So the simple answer is, if you own the whole property then it is yours. Good luck!
Cheers
Kristine
I have taken the liberty of starting a new thread so the 'whole block' discussion didn't get buried within Gordon's worst nightmare:
I didn't "quote" paste this, but you said -
............."l have never looked at buying a block of units.So tell me if one buys every unit in the complex .
who then owns the land?
who has to run the body corp if there is one?
or do you look at only buying non strata units?
l hope l make sense here but l really want a run down on how this type of ip works.
cheers yadreamin:" ...........
(Ahem) Allow me?
OK. If we decide that 'units' means villas, or buildings with their own foundations, and 'flats' means apartments which are part of a building and which may or may not be multi-storied:
A Body Corporate is simply the incorporated body (group) of owners of the properties which form part of the Plan of Subdivision of a previous, larger (Parent) title.
As soon as the Plan of Subdivision is approved and issued through the Titles Office, the Body Corporate comes into legal existence. It has the same number as the P/S number.
The Body Corporate then has to conform to certain legal requirements eg first Meeting within 15 months, Annual General Meetings each 12 months, BC to hold certain insurances, levies and accounts of BC required to be paid, etc
OK. So, say I decide to buy Unit 10, 53 Park Avenue, Marlborough.
A year later I buy Unit 3, then later on 8 and 2, etc and finally I own all ten units.
Each unit owns its own footprint anyway as shown on the Certificate of Title, but the Common Areas are owned in an undivided way by all owners with equal benefit and equal liability.
Now that I own all ten units, I don't have to 'actively' have BC meetings, but I still must meet all other legal requirements such as insurance, public liability insurance, etc
Say the property I now own AND CONTROL has a large area of common land, perhaps because the subdivision was done when councils would not permit more than four units per block, no matter how large the block was.
Can I do a further plan of subdivision? If it meets with council requirements, go for it.
In other words, the common property remains the common property. The BC may very well decide to subdivide the land and share the proceeds with the existing members of the BC. If you are the only member, yadreamin, then lucky you.
The BC is a legal structure which can be held accountable for the feasance or nonfeasance of certain requirements. You may sometimes hear people say 'Oh, well there's no BC', as if that's a good thing, then you find there is no sinking fund, no insurance over common property, no nuthin, and that is certainly not a good thing.
You can't buy non-strata-ed units in the same way. If no separate title has been issued, how would ownership change hands. Lenders hate Company Owned share flats (that would be a very long post - just don't go there) as the lenders security is very low quality. In other words, you own shares in the Company which owns the property and you are allocated exclusive right to Unit 10, and the easement rights of passages, common property etc. The Service Company then maintains the property and you have shares in that, too. If the lender has to sell, quell horror! The Companies often had really obscure membership criteria eg only retired Methodist ministers could buy shares, or only ladies with pink hair, etc. Therefore, the lender may 'seize' the property (shares) but who can they sell them to to recover their money?
Of course, you could buy the whole Company, and when you own the whole block, then do a subidivision and have the property strata titled. Many fortunes have been made doing that!
So the simple answer is, if you own the whole property then it is yours. Good luck!
Cheers
Kristine
