How body corporate painting works: quotes, committee approval, scheduling

Who pays: common property is the body corporate's job, the rest depends on your plan

The body corporate paints the common property. Lot owners look after their own lots. The Queensland Government says a body corporate must keep common property in a good and structurally sound condition, and each owner must keep their lot in good condition. Which walls count as common property depends on the type of survey plan your scheme was registered under.

• Building format plan. Here a lot's boundary is the centre of the floors, walls and ceilings that separate it from the next lot or the common property. The Queensland Government says the body corporate is usually responsible for the outside of the building. That includes the balustrade on a private balcony, and garage doors in a boundary wall.
• Standard format plan. This is common in townhouse complexes, where each lot has its own building and yard. The Queensland Government says the owner is generally responsible for the outside of the building within their lot, including the exterior walls, doors, windows and roof.

That second point matters for townhouse committees. Under a standard format plan, the Queensland Government says the body corporate can't pay for, or levy owners for, maintenance an owner is responsible for, such as painting the building. The exception is when it has an agreement with an owner and charges that owner for the work. If you're not sure which plan you have, Titles Queensland can give you a copy of the survey plan and the community management statement.

Quotes: two are needed once the job passes the major spending limit

A body corporate repaint needs at least two quotes once it costs more than the scheme's major spending limit. The owners can set that limit at a general meeting. If they haven't, the Queensland Government says it's the lower of $1,100 times the number of lots, or $10,000. GST counts towards it.

The job can't be cut into pieces to dodge the rule. The government's own example is painting a building. One quote came to $17,900, split into paint, scaffolding, labour and other costs. Each part was under the $10,000 limit. It still needed two quotes, because the project is painting the building, and the whole project is what counts.

When the spending goes to a general meeting, both quotes have to go out with the notice of meeting. The motion to approve the spending is listed as a group of same-issue motions, so owners can vote on the options side by side. One quote is only enough in exceptional cases, such as something that can only come from a single supplier.

Comparing quotes is easier when each one is laid out the same way. Ask every painter to price by building, stage or elevation, with the scope for each part written out. That's how we quote strata work. It helps owners compare. It doesn't change which approval the whole job needs.

Approval: the committee can only sign off small jobs on its own

The committee can approve painting only up to its own spending limit. Above that, the owners decide by ordinary resolution at a general meeting. If owners haven't set a different limit, the Queensland Government says the committee's limit is $200 times the number of lots, including GST. In a 12 lot scheme that's $2,400. A quote of $2,300 plus GST comes to $2,530, so the committee can't accept it without a general meeting.

The committee can also spend over its limit if every owner gives written consent, an adjudicator approves it for an emergency, or it's needed to comply with an order or notice. Before approving anything, the committee has to be sure the money is in the budget. If it isn't, a general meeting can amend the budget or raise a special levy.

Owners can put a painting motion forward too. It has to be in writing and include any quotes it needs. An owner can add explanatory notes of up to 300 words. For an annual general meeting, an owner can send the motion to the secretary any time before the end of the financial year.

A colour change can raise one more question. The law doesn't define maintenance, and adjudicators have used a like for like test to tell maintenance from an improvement. Improvements have their own approval limits. If your committee wants a new colour scheme, ask your body corporate manager how it should be approved before the vote.

Budget: painting is a sinking fund cost, planned ten years out

Painting a building comes out of the sinking fund. The Queensland Government names painting as one of the big, one-off items the sinking fund is for. Each year the body corporate has to set a sinking fund budget that covers the current year and reserves money for likely spending over at least the next nine years. Painting a building is the example the government gives of what that ten year window must allow for.

A body corporate may pay a professional to prepare a sinking fund forecast, but it doesn't have to. The committee or an owner can estimate it. The forecast still needs real numbers. A painter's site walk and a staged scope give you something solid to plan around. A staged plan also lets the committee fund the work over more than one year, starting with the walls that take the most weather.

Scheduling: written notice comes at least seven days before entry to a lot

Painters may need to get onto balconies, courtyards and other parts of a lot. The body corporate can authorise someone to enter a lot or an exclusive use area to inspect or do work it's required or allowed to do. It does that by a committee resolution or an ordinary resolution at a general meeting. The Queensland Government says written notice must reach the owner, or the occupier if the owner doesn't live there, at least seven days before entry. The entry has to be at a reasonable time.

The law doesn't say what the notice must contain. The government suggests including:

• the name of the person or company coming in
• the date and time they'll arrive
• how long they'll stay
• why they need to come in
• contact details for questions

On our strata jobs, the dates go out in writing before we start, through the strata manager or as a notice to residents. It says which areas we're in on which days, and what we need from residents, like a balcony cleared. Noisy prep stays inside the hours the building allows. We work stage by stage, in the order the committee agreed, and plan each one so residents can still get in and out.

Before anyone sands: check the licence, then the lead and asbestos

Check the painter's licence before the committee signs. The QBCC says a licence is mandatory for painting work valued at more than $3,300, and you can check a painter's licence class and history on the QBCC licensee register. Our QBCC licence is 1281728, and we're fully insured.

Older blocks need testing before any sanding starts. If a block went up before 1970, the Queensland Government says lead-based paint has probably been used on it. Sanding and grinding that paint makes a lot of lead dust, which people can breathe in or swallow. The state's asbestos site gives a rule of thumb by age. A home built before the mid-1980s is highly likely to have asbestos materials, and one built from the mid-1980s to 1990 is likely to. Some asbestos cement products were still used until the total ban in December 2003.

We're qualified to test and handle lead paint and asbestos. Our quote lists what we'll test, and where, before the prep starts. If the committee wants to see our certificates before it votes, just ask.

Access is the last check. We reach walk-ups and low-rise blocks with ladders and scaffold. If a building needs a kind of access we don't offer, we'll say so at the quote, before the committee votes. You can see how we run strata and body corporate painting, and the suburbs we cover, from Kings Beach to Kawana, on our service area page.