What is a body corporate?
In Queensland, a body corporate is the legal entity that is created when land is subdivided into lots under a community titles scheme. In other states this may be referred to as an owners corporation. We may also use the term strata scheme. Typical examples of a body corporate are an apartment building, townhouse complex or residential estate.
The easiest analogy for a body corporate is like a company. In a company, there is a board of directors and a group of shareholders. The company itself owns the company assets and the shareholders each own (in effect) their proportionate share of those assets.
A body corporate is similar. Inside a body corporate are individual lots and common property.
The lots (for example units or apartments) are the pieces of property inside the body corporate that are owned by individual owners. The owners may live in or rent out their lots.
The body corporate owns everything else, which is known as common property. This may include a pool, gardens, roads and lifts. Each of the lot owners own a proportionate (but not separate) share of this common property.
Each of the lot owners is a member of the body corporate by virtue of their ownership of a lot. They can only leave the body corporate by selling their lot – in the same way that you leave a company by selling your shares.
The body corporate is a separate legal entity and can enter into its own contracts and manage its own legal proceedings through its committee.
