Hi
I’m about to purchase a townhouse (which will be my PPOR for at least 12-18 months), and have a few questions I’m hoping someone can help answer. I’ve done my own research to try and get answers, but the information I’ve found is conflicting, so thought I would post a thread in this forum.
1. When buying a townhouse, is the courtyard area usually considered yours, or is it always part of common property? I had thought that the court yard would be ‘mine’, but reading through the body corporate information, it says it is common property, but that I have ‘exclusive use’? Is this typical?
2. The courtyard currently has landscaped rocks etc which looks ugly and I hate, and so I was planning to rip it up and replace with lawn. Now that I’ve read this clause about the courtyard being common area, would I need to request approval from the body corporate for this (and would they be likely to approve it)? I’d thought that only structural changes would need body corporate approval, but now it looks like any change to the outside needs body corporate approval?
3. The information I’ve read regarding insurances is conflicting. I know that the building insurance will be paid as part of the body corporate levies. In terms of insurances that I need to personally organise - some of the information I’ve read says I only need contents insurance, but other information says that I also need building insurance to cover the ‘internal’ building issues of the townhouse. So what insurances do I actually need ?
4. When in the purchasing process should I get insurance? Again, I’ve found conflicting information. Some information says I need to have it as soon as I sign the contract, but other info says I don’t need it until settlement. The townhouse is brand new and still under construction if that has any impact?
Thanks for your help!
I’m about to purchase a townhouse (which will be my PPOR for at least 12-18 months), and have a few questions I’m hoping someone can help answer. I’ve done my own research to try and get answers, but the information I’ve found is conflicting, so thought I would post a thread in this forum.
1. When buying a townhouse, is the courtyard area usually considered yours, or is it always part of common property? I had thought that the court yard would be ‘mine’, but reading through the body corporate information, it says it is common property, but that I have ‘exclusive use’? Is this typical?
2. The courtyard currently has landscaped rocks etc which looks ugly and I hate, and so I was planning to rip it up and replace with lawn. Now that I’ve read this clause about the courtyard being common area, would I need to request approval from the body corporate for this (and would they be likely to approve it)? I’d thought that only structural changes would need body corporate approval, but now it looks like any change to the outside needs body corporate approval?
3. The information I’ve read regarding insurances is conflicting. I know that the building insurance will be paid as part of the body corporate levies. In terms of insurances that I need to personally organise - some of the information I’ve read says I only need contents insurance, but other information says that I also need building insurance to cover the ‘internal’ building issues of the townhouse. So what insurances do I actually need ?
4. When in the purchasing process should I get insurance? Again, I’ve found conflicting information. Some information says I need to have it as soon as I sign the contract, but other info says I don’t need it until settlement. The townhouse is brand new and still under construction if that has any impact?
Thanks for your help!
