Recently, there was a request for some guidance on a not so common situation. A young scheme, only a year old and with everyone just settling in, the committee received a request to remove the palm trees. As with most new high value developments, the committee were new to body corporate and asked “What is the process in responding to this owner’s request?”.
The first place to start is the development approval document [DA] to assess if the local council requirements in relation to the Palm trees are a condition of the DA approval. Another reference document is the Community Management Statement [CMS], which contain by-laws specific to the scheme with respect to maintenance of common property.
The reasons for these conditions is that owners in a body corporate typically buy off the plan and are delivered the asset in the way in which the developer has been approved to deliver.
But what are the Body Corporate's options?