What’s in a disclosure? The new body corporate certificates

Written by Jarad Maher, Partner, Grace Lawyers

The commencement of the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld) (PLA) on 1 August 2025 brings with it a new property law regime in Queensland, including new disclosure requirements for sellers of property.

There has been a lot of noise around the requirement for bodies corporate to produce the “body corporate certificate” as part of the disclosure process.

This article will explore the changes, and clarify some of the more notable aspects of the new regime – particularly as it relates to bodies corporate.

Background

The PLA replaces the outdated Property Law Act 1974, and establishes new disclosure requirements for vendors of properties (including community title lots) in Queensland.

For contracts captured under the new framework (which will be most), sellers must give the buyer a Form 2 under the PLA before the contract is entered into. The Form 2 contains a number of “prescribed certificates” including, notably for bodies corporate, a “body corporate certificate”. The certificates are:

·       Form 33 – for schemes regulated under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld) (BCCMA) and regulated by the standard, accommodation, commercial or small schemes modules;

·       Form 34 – for BCCMA schemes regulated under the specified two-lot module; or

·       Form 18 – for schemes regulated under the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 (Qld) (BUGTA).

The Form 33 and Form 34 replace the previous Form 13 and Form 26, respectively (which were known as “body corporate information certificates”).

Obligations of bodies corporate

The PLA makes amendments to the BCCMA and BUGTA, and associated regulations, replacing the existing disclosure requirements. The changes only affect existing lots in a community title scheme, and do not impact the disclosure requirements for the sale of proposed lots “off the plan”.

A body corporate must produce a body corporate certificate to an “interested person” within five (5) business days of a request and payment of the prescribed fee (or within twenty-four (24) hours of a ‘priority request)’. An interested person includes the owner, mortgagee or buyer of a lot, an agent of such person, or another person who satisfies the body corporate of their interest in the information.

At the time of writing this article, the current prescribed fees a body corporate may charge are as follows:

•       $84.10 for the body corporate certificate;

•       $71.50 if the same person requests an updated certificate for the same lot within three (3) months of a previous certificate; and 

•       An additional $30.00 for a priority request (which must be refunded if the certificate is not provided within 24 hours).

The certificate

The Forms 33, 34 and 18 are ‘approved forms’, meaning their adoption in providing the requisite information is compulsory. The use of the forms means that, provided they are substantially complete, the body corporate will have satisfied its statutory obligation of disclosure by providing the completed certificate.

The information that is required for inclusion in the certificates covers:

-       Details of the scheme, lot and plan of subdivision, including whether a building management statement (BMS) applies, and whether the scheme is part of layered arrangement.

-       Lot entitlements, contributions (levies), statement of accounts, sinking fund balance, body corporate assets and insurance information.

-       Details of by-laws and exclusive use areas.

-       Improvements to the common property that benefit the lot.

-       Details of caretaking and letting contracts for the scheme.

-       Details of embedded electricity networks in the scheme.

Whilst there is no doubt a greater volume of information required in the certificates than the previous Form 13 and Form 26 information certificates, much of the information relates to the scheme itself (as opposed to the specific lot for which the certificate is being requested) and will not vary for lots within the same scheme.

That said, it is certainly arguable that the modest fee increase from the previous information certificates (less than $10) is far from adequate to appropriately reimburse bodies corporate for the costs of preparing the new certificate. Much will come down to how efficiently and accurately body corporate managers and their software suppliers can establish systems to produce and verify the information contained in the certificates.

By-laws and exclusive use areas

Notably, whilst there is an obligation on sellers in the PLA Form 2 to produce a copy of the current community management statement (CMS), it does not form part of the body corporate certificate.

BCCMA schemes

For schemes registered after commencement of the BCCMA on 1 July 1997, or former BUGTA schemes that have registered a unique CMS after that date, the CMS is not required to be produced with the certificate. For such schemes, it sufficient for the certificate to simply confirm that the by-laws and exclusive use areas are those contained in the current CMS.

However, for former BUGTA schemes with a “Standard CMS” (issued by the titles office on 15 July 2000 stating that the by-laws are “Taken to be those in effect as at 13 July 2000”), a consolidated set of by-laws and details of any exclusive use areas must be included with the certificate.

Producing a consolidated set of by-laws for such schemes can be a tedious one, requiring an analysis of historical land title searches. If a body corporate has a Standard CMS and has not already consolidated their by-laws, it is strongly advisable that the body corporate undertake that task now (rather than wait for a request for a body corporate certificate).

BUGTA schemes

For schemes regulated under BUGTA, a copy of the by-laws and any exclusive use areas must be included with the Form 18. Although the legislation empowers it, the Form 18 does not currently require the by-laws to be in consolidated form.

Accordingly, whilst this makes the process somewhat simpler than BCCM schemes with a Standard CMS, a BUGTA scheme that does not already hold all of the historical records to enable them to produce relevant by-law and exclusive use information with the Form 18 should undertake that process now.

Of further complication for older schemes that were registered prior to BUGTA (under the Building Units Titles Act 1965), there was no requirement for exclusive use allocations to be recorded in the land registry before BUGTA was introduced, so it is possible there are unregistered exclusive use grants for such schemes.

Conclusion

As part of the overhaul of Queensland’s property legislation, bodies corporate have more extensive obligations of disclosure to property vendors in community titles schemes, and must produce a body corporate certificate (BCCM Forms 33 and 34, or BUGTA Form 18). The previous BCCM Form 13 and Form 26 are no longer in use.

The new laws create additional obligations on property vendors in Queensland on the ground of consumer protection, shifting some of the costs of property transactions from buyers to sellers. Bodies corporate may end up bearing a portion of such costs, given the increased disclosure required in body corporate certificates, and the only modest increase in fees a body corporate is able to charge a seller (or other interested party) for producing them.

Significantly, bodies corporate with a Standard CMS that have not already consolidated their by-laws, or BUGTA schemes that have not previously obtained full details of all their by-law and exclusive use allocations, should take immediate steps to do so. This will ensure that the required certificates can be produced in a timely manner in accordance with the body corporate’s obligations under the legislation.

If your scheme requires assistance with producing a consolidated set of by-laws, confirming exclusive use allocations, or otherwise ensuring that the information it is providing with its body corporate certificates is accurate and compliant with the new legislation, Grace Lawyers offer competitive fee arrangements. Please contact us for an obligation free quote here.