By Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management on April 10th, 2025
Living in a community titles scheme can come as a surprise to many new residents. It can take some time to adjust.
Perhaps the most striking difference is the proximity to others in your scheme.
Life in a body corporate means thinking about how your everyday behaviour might affect other occupants.
Behaviour that might seem perfectly normal to you – for example, watching a movie late at night with the volume up high, allowing your dog to roam around the communal garden leash-free, or smoking on your private balcony – might interfere with another resident’s right to the peaceful enjoyment of their lot or the common property.
Another common point of contention in community living tends to be decision-making. Naturally, not everyone is going to agree with the decisions made by their committee or the other lot owners at general meetings.
While there are those fortunate enough to be part of a harmonious body corporate, the reality is that a low-conflict body corporate requires a conscious effort on the part of all owners and occupiers.
If there is a dispute – and particularly a dispute that the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management (BCCM office) has jurisdiction to resolve – it is crucial to know about self-resolution.
Self-resolution involves taking reasonable steps to resolve your issue internally without recourse to formal dispute resolution.
Self-resolution can take different forms depending on who the dispute is with and what it is about. It might involve you:
In line with the fundamental legislative objective of self-management being essential to community living, self-resolution must be attempted before lodging a dispute application with the BCCM office.
Internal dispute resolution has two key benefits – efficiency and preserving relationships.
Submitting a formal application means completing paperwork, paying a lodgement fee, and waiting for the matter to be considered.
On the other hand, self-resolution is a chance to settle issues simply and cheaply.
Escalating a problem to dispute resolution through our office prematurely may also harm already fragile relationships.
In a community living situation, poor relationships can be a source of considerable and ongoing stress. Keeping the matter within the body corporate goes a long way to maintaining a degree of harmony in the scheme.
If you have a dispute with your body corporate, emails back and forth discussing the issue will generally not be sufficient evidence of self-resolution.
An application lodged against a body corporate may be rejected from the outset if there is no evidence of a body corporate decision on the issue in dispute.
If you want your body corporate to address something, first propose it as a motion (a formal way of making a request).
Guidance about submitting motions and drafting motions can be found on our website.
The elected committee can make day-to-day decisions as the body corporate unless it is a restricted issue for the committee.
The committee has a legislative obligation to act reasonably when making decisions.
If the committee can vote on your issue, you can submit your written motion – or written request if you are a non-owner occupier – to the committee for their consideration as part of your self-resolution.
If your motion or request is rejected, you may wish to write to the committee seeking the reasons for their decision. Or, if the committee has already provided reasons and you disagree, respectfully provide the reasons why you disagree.
When drafting correspondence, bear in mind that the purpose is to encourage healthy dialogue towards change.
Owners and occupiers often express concerns about the committee stonewalling them or delaying decisions.
To prevent this, the legislation places clear timeframes on committee decisions – specifically, the committee must decide an owner’s motion within 6 weeks after the day the motion is submitted (called the ‘decision period’), unless they have notified the owner that they need more time (no longer than an additional 6 weeks).
If the committee does not decide an owner’s motion within the 6-week decision period (or extended decision period if they request additional time), it is automatically deemed declined, leaving the path to dispute resolution open.
Although the legislation specifies that this timeframe applies to an owner’s motion, an occupier can still use the decision period as a guideline about what is a reasonable period to wait before lodging a dispute application.
Different timeframes apply to committee decisions where an owner or occupier submits a request to keep an animal.
Lot owners typically vote on more significant body corporate matters at general meetings.
The legislation requires the body corporate to act reasonably when making decisions at general meetings.
If the committee does not have the authority vote on an issue – for example, changing the scheme’s registered by-laws or a maintenance proposal which exceeds the committee’s spending limit – an owner can submit a motion to be decided at the body corporate’s next general meeting as part of their self-resolution.
An owner may also prefer to submit a motion for an upcoming general meeting if they believe the owners are more likely to vote in favour of their motion than the committee.
One of the main difficulties with general meetings – especially in larger schemes – is that they may be few and far between. Depending on the size of the scheme, the preparation associated with holding a general meeting can be both time-consuming and costly.
If a general meeting decision is required and the next general meeting is too far away, an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) can be called by either:
Although non-owner occupiers cannot submit a motion to a general meeting, either an owner or the committee may be willing to submit a motion on their behalf.
Some of the more common disputes that arise between owners or occupiers relate to alleged nuisance behaviours – for example, claims of excessive smoking or noise, or potential by-law breaches.
Depending on your relationship with the person, you may feel more comfortable expressing your concerns in person or by phone. Remember to document any attempts to resolve the issue verbally, as you may need this for evidence later.
However, it may be preferable to communicate in writing where possible – for example, a polite informal letter or email sharing your concerns. Written communications can more easily be used as evidence of self-resolution later if the matter escalates.
If you believe another owner or occupier has breached the by-laws, you must follow the preliminary requirements for by-law enforcement before lodging a dispute application. The first step is to give a BCCM Form 1 notice to your committee, alerting them to the by-law breach.
You can read more about enforcing by-laws as an owner or occupier on our website and in Issue 47 of our Common Ground e-newsletter.
Open communication is vital for promoting a low-conflict body corporate.
Of course, how you communicate your initial concerns sets the tone. Accusatory or hostile communication is only going to inflame the situation.
An effective method of maintaining control over disputes is for a body corporate to develop its own dispute resolution mechanisms. The committee or an owner may submit a motion to a general meeting to approve these processes.
Establishing processes such as mediation or meetings – either formal or informal – may prove especially useful for managing grievances.
In addition, smaller steps like making a particular committee member the first point of contact for residents in difficult situations may also defuse conflict.
Implementing internal dispute resolution processes means owners or occupiers who feel aggrieved will have an internal forum for voicing their concerns. Without these mechanisms in place, residents may feel that lodging a formal application is the only avenue for their issue to be addressed, as there is no support within their own body corporate.
Proof of having participated in these processes may also be used as further evidence of self-resolution should the issue remain unresolved and progress to a dispute in the BCCM office.
If efforts to resolve the dispute internally are unsuccessful, the aggrieved person may consider lodging a formal conciliation or adjudication application with the BCCM office.
Conciliation involves an impartial conciliator equipped with knowledge of body corporate legislation assisting parties to navigate their issues – either by teleconference, or less often, face-to-face.
While the ideal outcome of conciliation is a good faith agreement, an adjudication application results in a binding and enforceable order.
In most cases, conciliation must be attempted first.
As emphasised throughout this article, it is critical to remember that lodging a formal dispute resolution application for conciliation or adjudication is a last resort, not a starting point.
With that in mind, it is important that we stress again that self-resolution is mandatory. If an application is lodged with the BCCM office without appropriate evidence of self-resolution, it is more likely to be rejected.
If you would like further information or have a question about this article, please contact the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management by phone on 1800 060 119 or by submitting an online enquiry atASK A BODY CORPOATE QUESTION.
Article contributed by the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management
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