Unit Titles Amendment Bill

I move, That the Unit Titles Amendment Bill be now read a second time. I will apply my affable, if bumbling, approach to this reading.

The Government Administration Committee considered that the amendments to the Unit Titles Act 2010 proposed in Part 27 of the Statutes Amendment Bill be introduced. They are minor and technical, but as there are so many of them—21 in total—it was considered more appropriate for them to be considered as a separate bill by the committee, so it recommended that course of action.

The Unit Titles Act 2010 has been in force since June 2011. Its purpose is to allow bodies corporate that comprise all unit owners in a development to operate and manage unit title developments, and the Act provides guidance to bodies corporate and unit owners to assist them in managing their property. I commend the bill to the House.

I think the Government made somewhat of an error in putting these amendments into a Statutes Amendment Bill. The tradition is that there are generally only two or three amendments to any particular piece of legislation in a Statutes Amendment Bill and that they be minor. I think that most members are aware that any member can object to a clause of a Statutes Amendment Bill, and it was indicated that these amendments would be objected to if they continued as part of the Statutes Amendment Bill. Therefore, they were split out and became the Unit Titles Amendment Bill.

I will take the opportunity, though, to say that there were some very good submissions at the Government Administration Committee on issues other than those that are to do with the Unit Titles Act and its needs for revision, other than those that came as part of that Statutes Amendment Bill. What I would like to do is urge the Government to get on with its promised review, to get the legislation into the House, and therefore to get that legislation tidied up so that it does, in fact, work. We have nothing more to say about the bill.

I would like to take a very short call on the Unit Titles Amendment Bill. This issue has been around for about 10 years or so. We have people buying units and many people do not know what they are getting into. Overseas when somebody buys a unit they can also add the body corporate deferred fund. It has, certainly, a great measure on the cost of the units. In New Zealand, for too many years we have had people actually going in blind into bodies corporate, not understanding that the body corporate is simply a collection of owners. But very few bodies corporate in New Zealand actually put money into a sinking fund for deferred maintenance. So for me it is pleasing to look at this and see that measures are in this bill to correct those issues and to help owners going into unit titles. I said I would take just a short call. I would like to say that I support this bill. As it is, I think it is a good bill. Thank you very much.

Bill read a second time.

The House adjourned at 11.18 a.m. (Thursday)