Conversion to Residents Association
Here's my understanding of what unit owners want. Broadly speaking it's replacing the BC with a group-of-owners per building, with land titles and easements etc updated accordingly.
Red
The units marked in red (on the plan above) would become a distinct legal entity/title. The large concrete retaining wall (between them and the cafe building) would become the subject of a new easement.
The red
units would of course have their own driveway, the western driveway. These units shouldn't need any other new easements, except perhaps for the small fence/wall adjoining the cafe units.
These red units would form a group/society per their needs, as either an unincorporated group or as an incorporated society. If unincorporated there would be no distinct legal entity, and no external reporting requirements.
I assume the choice (unincorporated vs incorporated) will be at the discretion of these unit owners, ditto the rules adopted, though perhaps insurers will take an interest.
That group/society would be responsible for maintenance of their own building and other property such as the western driveway, and perhaps the retaining wall to the north.
The existing easement to the west (adjoining the dive-school property) would be taken over by the red-unit property, the blue & green units would cease to be parties to this easement.
Blue
The units marked in blue on the plan above are the cafe-building units, and the building for units 1-4.
These blue
units could form a single body if they wished to, or they could form two bodies, one per building, each it's own group/society. They could form either unincorporated or incorporated group(s).
They would either own the main (eastern) driveway or would be parties to an easement on this driveway.
The building for units 1-4 has a common wall with our 408 neighbour. I assume any existing easement for this would transfer from the BC to the new unit 1-4
entity.
Green
The units marked in green are the unit 9 building and the unit 8 building, each of these buildings has it's own single owner, so each property would become it's own fee-simple title, and wouldn't need to be a member of any group/society/association.
These properties would of course be parties to easements, in particular for the eastern driveway (shared by the blue & green units) and for the large concrete retaining wall, and for services such as drainage etc.
Easements & common property
We want to minimise the number of new easements, and minimise the number of parties to existing easements.
All existing easements to which the BC is a party would be either modified or replaced, substituting one or more of the new entities.
All existing BC common property would become part of the property of one or another of the new entities.
Large concrete retaining wall
The large retaining wall would be owned by one of the new entities (red, blue, or green) and there would be a new easement which would define how responsibility for maintenance & repair is divided with all the other parties.
Perhaps this large retaining wall should be owned by the cafe-building property, seeing as they've got the most to lose if it ever collapsed.
Eastern driveway
The eastern driveway (to the right of the cafe) would be owned by one of the entities, and the right of use by other parties (and responsibilities for maintenance & repair) would be defined in an easement. Likewise services passing under the driveway such as drainage etc.
Perhaps the driveway owner should be one or the other of the blue
properties, seeing as they've got the road frontage.
Our 408 neighbour
I assume there's existing easements with 408, our neighbour to the east. If possible these existing easements would be taken over by either the unit 1-4 property, or the unit 9 or the unit 8 property, whichever arrangement keeps things simplest & keeps the number of parties to each easement to a minimum.
Up the hill
The common property to the north, up the hill, is land that is undeveloped. Council rulings forbid building I believe, Bill Jackson tried more than once to get permission to build up there without luck. Because there's negligible costs or benefits attached to this land it doesn't get talked about much.
North west
The western portion of this common property, immediately north and up-hill of the red units, this portion could become part of the red-unit property.
That way the existing retaining wall above the red units would become their responsibly alone, there wouldn't need to be any easement for it, the blue & green units wouldn't be involved.
North east
The eastern portion of the common property, to the north & up-hill of building 8, the area with greenhouse ruins etc, this could become part of the unit 8 property.
There's no significant retaining wall here I don't think, but the land is fairly steep, responsibility for any future land-slip protection work would rest entirely with the unit 8 property, no need for any shared responsibility or easement.
North centre
Up-hill of unit 9 the retaining wall (above the driveway) is made of railway irons & timber, the land above it is steep and undeveloped. This portion of common property north & up-hill of unit 9 could become part of the unit 9 property, this section of the retaining wall would become the responsibility of unit 9 entirely.
Insurance
Each of the new entities/titles would make it's own insurance arrangements. No doubt most of us are mortgage-holders, naturally the banks will want to see insurance in place.
It's possible the insurers and/or banks will take an interest in whether unit owners form unincorporated groups vs incorporated societies, and the rules adopted by those groups/societies.
Misc
Claire mentioned the possible need for additional dividing walls or fire walls, it's my understanding we wouldn't need anything like that, because the proposed splits are between buildings that are physically separate.
Once this conversion process is completed the existing body corp would cease to exist, and Oxygen would have no further role or responsibilities, unless perhaps the owners of the red
or blue
units wish to delegate authority for running their society/association.
association last updated 2025-07-29