Body corporate group to help people running blocks

Lyn Gillingham (left), Robert Boyd-Bell (centre) and Peter Dawson of Auckland Body Corporate Chairs' Group. Photo / Jason Oxenham

A new organisation has been formed to help people running big Auckland apartment blocks.

The Auckland branch of the Body Corporate Chairs' Group was formed after apartment owners saw a need for assistance for those administering thousands of units across the city.

Lyn Gillingham has been appointed the Auckland branch chairwoman.

The resident and body corporate chairwoman of Grafton's 74-unit Phoenix Gardens heads the new five-person committee whose members are all apartment body corporate chairpeople including Robert Boyd-Bell of Lorne St's 187-unit Precinct and Peter Dawson of Ponsonby's leaky Pulse at 80 Richmond Rd.

In 2012, Wellington apartment owner Neil Cooper formed the original group. That entity has more than 200 members, Gillingham said, including body corporate chairs from Auckland, Tauranga, Napier and Queenstown.

But she said Aucklanders needed their own entity to deal with the issues which dog apartment blocks.

"With the growth in apartment complexes in Auckland, it was recognised that there was a need for this branch and regular meetings here [for] body corporate chairs to attend. We're aiming to be educational but as membership grows, we could become a lobby group - we may have to," she said referring to widespread concern about apartment block rules, particularly the Unit Titles Act.

Committees and their chairs were often the powerhouses of a body corporate yet they faced many issues outside their expertise and there was a need for an organisation to provide advice and direction, she said.

"Some of the topics covered in Wellington include earthquake strengthening, how to run an annual meeting, governance of committees and how to amend body corporate rules," she said.

Topics planned to be covered in the next 12 months included issues about utility providers, forming and running a long-term maintenance plan, keeping a building up to standard and dealing with tenant issues.

Aucklanders are being invited to the inaugural branch meeting for free, but then a $100 annual membership fee will be charged, Gillingham said.

She emphasised that each block should send only the chairperson to the meeting.

Speakers at the gathering are construction expert Brian Duffy from Contrado and lawyer Michelle Hill of Kensington Swan.

Auckland branch, Body Corporate Chairs' Group, 6pm, Thursday, April 16, Wine Chambers, O'Connell St, CBD.

Who's who

Auckland branch Body Corporate Chairs' Group executive:
• Chairwoman Lyn Gillingham: body corporate chair Phoenix Gardens, 135 Grafton Rd.
• Robert Boyd-Bell: body corporate chair Precinct, Lorne St, CBD.
• Peter Dawson: body corporate chair Pulse Richmond Rd, Ponsonby.
• Frances Horton, body corporate chair Ridgeview Terraces, Newton Rd.
• David Watt, body corporate chair The Galleries, 23 Graham St, CBD.