Residents at Lake Serenity Helensvale in row over pontoons

Residents of luxury Gold Coast homes have been threatened with court action if they don’t remove their pontoons or pay fees to a body corporate which says they’re “trespassing” on a lake.

OWNERS of waterfront homes in a luxury Gold Coast estate have been stunned to receive letters threatening legal action unless they remove their pontoons.

The residents of houses fronting Lake Serenity in north Helensvale were told by the body corporate servicing a nearby gated community that it “owns” the waterway and their pontoons were an “unlawful trespass” on the scheme’s common property.

The letters, sent by lawyers acting on behalf of body corporate Oyster Cove Waterfront, demanded that the home owners either have their pontoons professionally removed or apply to the body corporate for approval and agree to pay annual fees of $900 plus GST.

Residents were given as little as four weeks to comply, or face court proceedings seeking damages for trespass, the removal of the pontoon, interest and costs.

Keith Stuart, Igor Grabczyk and Brian McNicholas on one of the pontoons at the centre of the dispute. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

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Serenity Boulevard resident Brian McNicholas, who has lived on the street for four years, said he would not have bought his property if he had known it would mean becoming involved with a body corporate.

“I still have all the ads from when I bought the house, saying it is waterfront and contains a pontoon,” he said.

“It also said no body corporate.

“I’ve bought a lot of property in Queensland and I would not move into a body corporate.”

Mr McNicolas said that despite the fact that his home fronted the lake and was sold with a pontoon, the body corporate had informed him he was on a “dry block”.

“I rang them up and said ‘I think you’ve got the wrong house, wrong address, wrong person’. I said, ‘I’m not on a dry block, I live on the water.’ And he said, ‘no you don’t’.

“That’s when the letters started.”

Neighbour Igor Grabzyk said plans for his home dating back to 1996 showed the presence of a pontoon – well before the nearby body corporate was established.

“We had a pontoon from the beginning, when the house was built. I’ve got it on the plans,” Mr Grabzyk said.

“I’ve got special stairs and everything, special platform. They (the house plans) clearly show, from ’96, it’s been put in, so well before any body corp starts here.”

Location of the homes beside Lake Serenity in north Helensvale.

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Another resident, Keith Stuart, said residents had not been given a justification for the almost $1000-a-year fees demanded by the body corporate to allow them to keep their pontoons.

“What are they doing to maintain the lake that demands $1000 a year,” he said.

“ … If they are asking for fees, surely they should be able to produce costs.”

A navigation lock was installed on Lake Serenity in 2016 at a cost of $5m ahead of development of a large parcel of land on the other side of the waterway, which has recently begun construction. The lock links the lake with Saltwater Creek, providing access to Gold Coast waterways.

However, Mr Stuart said not all of the residents who had received letters regarding their pontoons owned boats or used the lock.

Long-time resident and real estate agent Nikki Dunlop, who owns three properties in the area, said that until recently there had been no issues with the pontoons.

“As a real estate agent, I’ve sold a couple of properties prior to knowing,” she said. “You feel bad because you weren’t aware either and there’s no documentation to state otherwise and the previous owners weren’t aware. Where did the rules come from?”

The entrance to Serenity Shores at Lake Serenoty in Helensvale. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

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In a letter to residents from the body corporate committee following Bulletin inquiries, the body corporate said it had budgeted $176,456 for the maintenance of Serenity Waterways for the 2021-22 financial year.

It said costs included water testing, revetment wall repairs, dredging and expenses associated with maintenance of the lock.

“Lake Serenity was originally a land-locked lake developed over 20 years ago,” the letter said.

“ … Over the past 20 years the Lake Serenity waterway has progressively been expanded as each community was developed ... to the extent it now has a shipping lock enabling vessel access to Saltwater Creek and Morton Bay.”

The letter added that a decision was taken by the principal body corporate that upon completion of Serenity Greens – which occurred in May this year – “the cost to manage and maintain the Lake Serenity Waterways and shipping lock must be equally shared between our Oyster Cove-Serenity member lot owners and non-scheme contiguous lot owners.”

The letter added that the committee was prepared to meet with “two representatives” of the aggrieved home owners to provide further information.

A source told the Bulletin the committee was simply seeking “a fair and equitable contribution for the use of the waterways”.

Local MP David Crisafulli. Picture: Lachie Millard.

Broadwater MP David Crisafulli said rules governing body corporates were causing confusion and encouraged all involved to take part in a “reasoned negotiation”.

“It’s clear the rules surrounding the Body Corporate and Community Management Act and use of the waterways is causing confusion and angst among residents,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“Because the lake is not a common area it comes under the Act as does the use of the waterways.

“I’d urge the body corporate to work with residents to allay their concerns so that a reasonable outcome is achieved.

“This is a time for reasoned negotiation and discussion, not lawyers at 10 paces.”

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