High-rise unit owners urged to vote out LNP after law changes force body corporate fees to skyrocket

A GROUP representing Coast high-rise unit owners is urging residents to vote down the LNP following law changes that saw body corporate skyrocket.

Clellia Zilli is a unit owner in the Sonata Apartments complex at Broadbeach and has seen her body corporate fees double from 2013 to 2014 Pic by David Clark

A GROUP representing unit owners in some of the Gold Coast’s biggest high-rises is urging residents to vote down the LNP following law changes that saw body corporate fees go through the roof.

Some owners — many of them retirees — had their fees double overnight in 2013 when the Government allowed millionaire penthouse owners to pay the same levies as owners of small units.

They claim a three-part review of the changes, commissioned by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie, was completed in September last year, but the government has refused to release it before the January 31 election.

However, Mr Bleijie claims the report is not finished.

“When we moved in 2013 we were paying $1196 per quarter and it went up to $2213,” says retiree Clellia Zilli, who lives with husband Sergio in a Broadbeach unit.

Clellia Zilli is a unit owner in the Sonata Apartments complex at Broadbeach and has seen her body corporate fees double from 2013 to 2014 Pic by David Clark

“There are a lot of things we have to do without now, and the value of our property has gone down — people are not interested because you’re paying about the same as you would in a bigger unit.

“I certainly won’t be voting for the LNP — we are Liberal voters but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Queensland has more than 43,000 community titles schemes, more than a quarter of which are on the Gold Coast — many of them in the electorate of Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek.

Mr Langbroek, who was aiding the LNP campaign between central and far north Queensland yesterday, could not be contacted.

Unit owner Michelle Hunt was forced to leave and rent out her Broadbeach apartment and return to a higher paid job in Roma after her fees jumped from $70 a week to $120 a week.

“And there are a lot of people in the building on pensions who have had to go back to work to cover these levies,” she said.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie did not answer questions about when the review would be released. Picture: Jerad Williams

Mr Bleijie did not answer questions about when the review would be publicly released, saying it had not been completed.

“Recommendations will only be acted on following extensive public consultation,” he said.