What a well-run owners corporation gains

For committees

Owners who are elected to their committee carry a real responsibility: managing the building in the interests of everyone who owns there. When a dispute is placed on the record, the owners corporation hears first, replies free of charge in its own words, and the record shows what the committee did and when. What any of this means for your situation is a question for your legal adviser; this is general information only.

For managers

A manager runs the owners corporation's affairs for the committee: the records, the correspondence and the certificate a seller needs. When a dispute about a building you manage is placed on the record, the letter comes to the owners corporation first and nothing is public for fourteen days. The owners corporation's reply, in its own words, is published beside the notice, and a settled matter shows as resolved. An owners corporation that acts early goes into a sale with its side of the story already on the record, and that is a building a manager can put forward with confidence.

What the certificate must show, and what a buyer may inspect

When a lot is sold, the owners corporation certificate (the document that shows what the owners corporation records) must disclose the owners corporation's liabilities and contingent liabilities (costs that might become debts if something happens), repairs or other work about to be done that may add charges, notices and orders served on it, and any circumstances it is aware of that are likely to lead to proceedings. Any person may ask for one; it must be issued within ten business days of the application and fee. A buyer, or someone acting for a buyer, may inspect the owners corporation's records at any reasonable time, free of charge. A well-kept record makes that certificate easy to issue and easy to stand behind.

What the register gives a well-run owners corporation

• You are told first. Before a notice is published, the owners corporation named in it receives what was lodged, the publication date and how to reply. Nothing is public during those fourteen days.
• A free reply, published beside the notice everywhere the notice appears, in your own words, unedited. No lawyer is needed, and a reply is never too late.
• A resolved status. When the matter is settled, the notice shows it: by the lodger marking it resolved, or by the owners corporation's resolution.
• A dated record that you acted. A building whose notices show a prompt reply and a resolution tells a buyer how its owners corporation deals with a dispute.

The register writes nothing about any owners corporation. It records what a party to a dispute lodged, under a sworn statement with a supporting document, and shows the reply. A person reads every notice before it shows, and a report about a notice is acted on within seven days.

How long a notice stays public

A notice stays on the record until it is archived. Once a matter is settled, the record shows it as resolved, and the sooner that happens the sooner a reader sees it.

What buyers read

Cases in which buyers discovered costs after settlement have been reported publicly; PNDR does not comment on those cases or the people involved.

Buyers, their conveyancers and the people in a sale are sent word that a record exists: see Strata Sales Watcher and what buyers are told to look for.

Not sure a notice about your building is right?

If something in a notice is wrong, report a problem and a person acts on it within seven days. If you have not received a letter about a notice that names you, the same form reaches the reviewer, who sends it again.