Recent Work

Non-contentious management rights matters

Current major transactions recently settled or on foot include:

(a) Advising purchasers on several significant off the plan management rights matters in Brisbane including:

  • ‘The Newstead Series’,
  • ‘Lumira and Riverstone’;
  • ‘Sola North Lakes.’
  • ‘The Chelsea Bowen Hills’;
  • ‘Hamilton Harbour I and II’;
  • ‘Mosaic’ (including the related acquisition of the adjoining leasehold hotel);
  • ‘Madison Heights Bowen Hills’;
  • ‘Westmark Milton’;
  • ‘Stillbrook’; and
  • ‘Precinct on Prospect’.

Each of these purchases involved a myriad of issues, not the least of which were:

  • Claw-back and claw forward arrangements for the letting pool involving security for further payments;
  • Competing commercial uses in mixed use schemes;
  • Building management statements and related strata schemes;
  • The infusion on NRAS approved units into the letting pool and consequential additional risk factors for the resident manager;
  • Substantial variations to proposed management rights agreements and related ‘material prejudice’ discussions so far as it related to proposed unit purchasers;
  • Staging of various developments and the consequences of that.

(b) Acting for the purchasing partnerships and other interests relating to large management rights businesses including:

  • ‘Riverside Gardens’ (three schemes of circa $12 million in value);
  • ‘Turtle Beach I and II’ (reportedly the largest management rights business in Australia);
  • ‘Aria Apartments’;
  • ‘M on Mary’;
  • ‘Gabba Central’; and
  • ‘Ocean Plaza’ and ‘Points North’.

(c) Advising various receivers for BankWest and other lenders on strategies to deal with distressed management rights assets including acting for the receivers in the disposal of those management rights businesses.

(d) Advising clients on conversion of leaseback management rights arrangements to normal PAMDA compliant management rights arrangements, including consequences under the Corporations Act with respect to Product Disclosure Statements.

Contentious management rights / body corporate matters

We also have an extensive practice which extends to acting for both bodies corporate and resident managers in strata disputes.  Examples of recent or notable matters in which we have advised include:-

  • At Surfers Palms North, we managed to have the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management order the appointment of an administrator to a body corporate committee. This was based solely on their conduct with respect to our client, the resident manager, and was the first time in Queensland this had occurred.
  • Acting for a body corporate in North Queensland in circumstances where the QFRS had issued certain statutory notices relating to alleged fire safety defects in the building, fundamentally arising out of concerns over whether it was a class 2 building being used for class 3 purposes.  This is only the most recent example of us advising on this issue.  We have being involved in numerous disputes issuing out of the
  • class 2  / class 3 issue, particularly where they involved a dispute with a resident manager undertaking short term letting in a class 2 building.
  • Acting for many resident managers to resist breach and remedial action notices including strategies around defending any claims and prosecuting actions (both legally and commercially) to prevent further breach notices being issued, such as changing committee, varying agreement at general meeting, raising issues surrounding spending limits and the like.

Speak to our Team

If you have an inquiry or a question that we can help with, please contact us through the following form and one of our experts will be in touch with you shortly.