Who looks after the gardens on a unit title development is not a matter of committee preference. It is set out in law, alongside your duties when engaging a contractor, and knowing exactly where the duty starts and stops makes the decision far easier to defend to other owners.
General guidance, not legal advice. For your development, check with your body corporate manager or a property lawyer.
The duty, in two sections
- Section 138, Unit Titles Act 2010. The body corporate must maintain and repair the common property. Shared entranceways, communal lawns, boundary hedges and car park planting are typically common property, which puts them squarely on the body corporate rather than any one owner.
- Section 116. Every body corporate must keep a long-term maintenance plan covering at least 10 years. Grounds belong in it wherever they form part of the common property.
Where the line falls between common property and an individual lot is set by the unit plan registered for that development, and it varies. A private courtyard may sit inside an owner's lot. If a committee is unsure, the unit plan is the document to check.
The review dates committees miss
The Act sets the planning horizon, but the review cycle sits in the Unit Titles Regulations 2011. Regulation 30 requires the plan to be formally reviewed at least once every three years.
Larger developments face more. Under regulation 30A, a development with 10 or more principal units must extend its plan to 30 years, with detailed costings for the first 10 and a high-level indication for years 11 to 30. That came into force on 9 May 2024. A larger complex running a plan written before that date is worth checking against the current requirement.
What belongs in a grounds contract
Hedge and shrub trimming along boundaries and communal areas, garden bed maintenance and weeding, pruning of shrubs and small trees, clearance of overgrowth, and green waste removal. Larger tree work near a boundary, driveway or shared structure needs its own assessment and should go to a qualified arborist.
Lawn mowing is often bundled into a grounds contract, but it is not something we offer. Our side is the beds, hedges, weeding, pruning, clearance and small tree work.
Our approach
We quote per job or as a set monthly rate, never by the hour, because a fixed figure drops straight into a maintenance plan and gives the committee a clear paper trail that the duty is being actively met rather than assumed. We are fully insured and fully battery-powered, which matters on a shared site where noise and access affect residents directly.