I’d be tempted to say this has stirred up a hornets’ nest in Queensland but it seems that things are already buzzing there. Earlier this year, Melissa Pocock, an academic researcher at Grioffith University on the Gold Coast published an article in the Monash University Law Review Journal  drilling down to the essential issues here, specifically that “consumer rights” laws favour developers and caretaker managers to the detriment of apartment owners and residents.

In it she says, “the interests of both lot owners and … the body corporate have been subjugated to the commercial imperatives of the original owner, the [caretaker management rights holders] and financiers.

“Key court and tribunal decisions … demonstrate a high threshold before the body corporate may validly terminate [caretaker management] arrangements,” she writes, add that “arguably, the BCCM Act [Queensland strata law]  has failed in its secondary consumer protection objective when bodies corporate are bound in the long-term by a statutory system designed to protect others.”

You can download and read the paper HERE.

Also have a look at this online article from the Unit Owners Association of Queensland and the frustrated responses from apartment owners in the state.