New regulations made under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld) (BCCM Act) will take effect on 1 March 2021. To assist developers, owners and industry professionals, we have prepared a comprehensive overview of the changes.

The regulations amend and replace the various Queensland body corporate regulation modules, with relatively uniform changes made across the modules (noting that simplified processes apply under the small schemes and specified two-lot schemes modules).

For the most part, the new regulation modules aim to legitimise many modern practices, such as providing notices by email and electronic voting, and should assist members to actively participate in their body corporates. They do not represent a comprehensive regulatory overhaul, with amendments targeted at addressing known issues, modernising administrative practices and providing members with some additional rights.

The new regulation modules will:

• facilitate electronic voting and attendance at meetings, including the use of 'live' electronic voting and remote personal attendance by teleconference and videoconference;
• facilitate the use of email and other forms of electronic communication for the exchange of information and documents;
• amend voting procedures in some instances (e.g. 'same issue motions');
• require information to be submitted to and recorded on the relevant rolls in a more timely manner; and
• encourage early identification of building defects by requiring consideration of a motion to prepare a defects assessment report.

The review conducted into Queensland's legislative framework for body corporates raises several important recommendations on other ways the legislation could potentially be improved. These recommendations include making it easier to terminate schemes for redevelopment, allowing body corporates to impose fines for repeated by-law breaches and resolving various contentious issues such as pet by-laws (and prohibitions). Whilst these proposed changes were not introduced through the regulation modules, we expect that they will form part of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld) in the coming years.

The new legislation will enable members to decide whether to implement the newly available mechanisms (such as electronic voting) by passing an ordinary resolution. If electronic voting is implemented, then the body corporate will need to ensure strict compliance with all operational requirements. 

The new legislation also grants owners a new a right to submit motions for consideration by the committee. However, a committee is not required to decide a motion if within a 12 month period before the member submitted the motion, the member has submitted either a motion about the same issue or 6 or more motions (in total about any issues). This could result in a member being precluded from having a proposed motion decided for some time, particularly, if they have submitted a prior motion as to the same issue or more than 6 motions about any issues.

These new provisions are aimed at improving member participation by explicating granting members the right to submit motions, yet they may also cause significant conjecture amongst members. For example, determining whether two motions are on the 'same issue,' may result in disputes, ultimately discouraging committee participation.

All owners need to ensure that their details are kept up to date on the body corporate roll at all times. If an email address is given to the body corporate as an address for service, the owner is taken to have consented to receive all documents (to be given or served) by email.