Your Questions Answered

Q: We have been looking at downsizing from our Mt Eden villa to a city-fringe apartment but have been put off by having to pay body corporate fees. Friends have offered differing points of view - what are your thoughts? Thanks Bruce T.

A: We often get negative feedback from potential buyers about the cost of the body corporate fees when we are marketing apartments.

What are they? Body corporates are legal entities made up of all the owners within a unit titled property. Body corporates are responsible for the management and maintenance of common areas and facilities, such as lifts, swimming pools, and gardens.

Body corporates provide a range of benefits to unit owners. They ensure that common areas and facilities are well-maintained, which can increase the value of the property and they are now required to have a long term maintenance plan to ensure the building and its common areas are maintained. This plan is required to cover a ten-year period. Body corporates also cover the cost of insurance for the building and all common areas, and they provide a sense of community and shared responsibility among unit owners.

One of the main criticisms of body corporates is that they can be expensive, especially in older buildings. Unit owners are required to pay levies to cover the costs of maintaining common areas and facilities and these levies can be significant, particularly if major repairs or upgrades have been deferred in the past. Additionally, some of the larger body corporates can be unwieldy and unaccountable, with some unit owners feeling that they have little say in how the body corporate is run.

If you buy into an apartment block we strongly recommend that you firstly ensure that there is a recent long-term maintenance plan in place and that there are sufficient funds available to implement the plan. Then either join the body corporate as a committee member, or at the very least you attend all of the annual general meetings. Your apartment is very often a major asset, if not your largest asset, so it pays to have some form of control over its upkeep.

And remember that the body corporate costs are often a lot less than you would be paying for annual maintenance of your 100 year old villa!