Brookwater Augusta Home Owners Club [2009] QBCCMCmr 360 (21 September 2009)

Number of Scheme:	35226
Name of Scheme:	Brookwater Augusta Home Owners Club
Address of Scheme:	Birchwood Crescent BROOKWATER QLD 4300

TAKE NOTICE that pursuant to an application made under the abovementioned Act by the Body Corporate Brookwater August Home Owners Club

I hereby order that for the purposes of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (“the Act”), and pursuant to section 283 of the Act, the next financial year end date of the Body Corporate for Brookwater August Home Owners Club Community Titles Scheme 35226 shall be 31 May 2010, in place of the previous financial year end date.

I further order that, thereafter, each successive financial year for the Body Corporate for Brookwater August Home Owners Club Community Titles Scheme 35226 shall commence on 1 June and end on 31 May.

Brookwater August Home Owners Club Community Titles Scheme 35226 consists of 39 lots and common property. The scheme’s community management statement indicates the Body Corporate and Community Management (Standard Module) Regulation 2008 (Standard Module) applies to the scheme.

This application was made under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Act) by the Body Corporate for Brookwater August Home Owners Club (applicant) on 18 September 2009, and seeks the following declaratory order:

The Body Corporate for Brookwater Augusta Home Owners Club CTS 35226 seeks a declaratory order that the Body Corporate's financial year which ends 28 February each year be changed to financial year end date 31 May each year to be in line with the other subsidiary body corporate's at Brookwater.

The application is made pursuant to Resolution 3 of the adjourned and reconvened Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Body Corporate held on 9 February 2009. The motion passed with 1 vote in favour and nil against.

I am satisfied that this is a matter which falls within the legislative dispute resolution provisions.[1]

Section 276(1) of the Act provides that an adjudicator may make an order that is just and equitable in the circumstances (including a declaratory order) to resolve a dispute, in the context of a community titles scheme, about a claimed or anticipated contravention of the Act or the community management statement, or the exercise of rights or powers, or the performance of duties, under the Act or the community management statement. An adjudicator's order may contain ancillary and consequential provisions the adjudicator considers necessary or appropriate (section 284(1)).

Section 283 of the Act specifically provides that, with the consent of the body corporate, the order of the adjudicator may include a change of a body corporate’s financial year and of the dates when later financial years will begin.

Brookwater August Home Owners Club is part of a layered scheme. The application says its financial year currently ends on 28 February but the Principal Scheme has its financial year end on 31 March. All other subsiduary schemes have moved to a financial year end of 31 May, to allow time to take into account the budgets set by the Principal Scheme in seeting their own budgets. The change to the financial year end for Brookwater August Home Owners Club will achieve consistency with the other subsiduary schemes.

In the circumstances, I am satisfied that the Body Corporate has properly consented to the proposed change of the Body Corporate’s financial year and that it is appropriate to make an order changing the financial year end date to 31 May in each year.

This order results in the Body Corporate having an abnormal length financial year for one year. The Body Corporate should be cognisant of this fact when managing its financial affairs.

Queensland Body Corporate and Community Management Commissioner - Adjudicators Orders

Brookwater Augusta Home Owners Club [2009] QBCCMCmr 360 (21 September 2009)