Land Title Conversion – Adelaide

Moiety, Company, Strata, Community or Torrens title aren’t just words on a piece of paper. Each of these is a type of land title that has different benefits and restrictions for land and home owners. This can have consequences on your property that you may not need to be living with. Often older developments have titles which were the best fit half a century ago but are no longer the best suited to the modern function or requirements of your group of units, townhouses or dwellings. Undertaking a conversion to a better suited title can unlock a variety of benefits for you and other owners which you may not even know about!

Moiety or Company Title

Moiety or Company Title is a very old type of title which is relatively uncommon unless the original development is quite old. The owner of a Moiety or Company Title property essentially owns a share of the overall property and then effectively leases the right to occupy one of the dwellings. These titles can be a nightmare for owners or prospective purchasers. Banks and lenders will generally require a higher deposit just to purchase the property. Essentially everything is shared by all owners and administration, maintenance and insurances can be very tricky in this format.

Strata Title

Strata Titles are very common for unit developments at both ground and multi level. Strata boundaries are defined by internal areas of the building, so strata owners own the inside of the building but share ownership of all other aspects of the property. This can include unit subsidiaries like courtyards, external parking spaces, balconies as well as other common spaces which are not subsidiaries. Under strata titling everything is technically under shared ownership except for the internal space of your dwelling. Similar to Moiety or Company title, administration, maintenance and insurances can be tricky for strata properties.

BENEFITS TO TITLE CONVERSION

Changing your title is often one of the easiest things you can do to simplify some of the complexities of owning a home within a Moiety, Company or Strata Title complex in particular. Here are some of the common benefits to title conversion to Community Title that you may like to consider:

Boundary Changes

One of the most obvious side effects to the converting your title is a potential gain in what is owned by each unit individually. Areas outside of the dwelling such as courtyards, balconies and parking spaces can be under the individual ownership thus giving more control to each owner. Common property is often reduced to the minimum necessary which adds a level of separation that may not have been there under Moiety, Company or Strata Title arrangements. Often this change in the amount of land owned individually can also alter your property value positively depending on the individual circumstances of your situation.

Maintenance Changes

Under Strata and Moiety/Company Title you can often be up for large maintenance bills for property which is not even used by you. As all common maintenance costs are shared by the owners, you can be up for high costs without receiving any of the benefits. There can be little incentive for individual owners to undertake regular maintenance of these areas given the owners share all costs for common maintenance. This can include painting of external surfaces, fencing, gutter cleaning etc. By converting to a Community Title, the area which is considered common may be reduced, and more responsibilities fall to the individual owners.

Insurance Policies

Insurance costs for Moiety, Company and Strata Titles are generally shared by all unit owners under a shared policy for building insurance (not including contents). By opting for Community Title, the insurance can often be separated out so that each owner has full responsibility for insurances over their property. This does depend on the type of building and other factors. If possible, this allows greater flexibility and control of each owner depending on their individual circumstances. A common insurance policy is still required for any common area for public liability purposes only.

Decision Making and Rules

By converting to a Community Title the complexities of decision making are generally reduced. Depending on the situation this may allow a simple yearly AGM to make basic decisions like renewing public liability insurances and other common property requirements. As all maintenance and decisions in regard to individual lots fall on the individual owners, there is less administration time in maintenance and other decision making processes required. This often means that Community Title properties can self manage their common property rather than employing a strata management firm.

Costs and Overheads

The greatest benefit to individual owners is usually a reduction in overall costs and overheads. By reducing overall administration requirements of the complex there can be significant savings made to each owner particular where strata management companies are not required. Owners will also normally need to pay a much smaller contribution toward maintenance and insurance of the common property. More financial control is also given to individual owners in regard to building insurances and maintenance schedules which is generally not possible within other titling arrangements.

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