How does the Home Owners Club Work?
The Brookwater Home Owners Club is an organisation run by the home owners of Brookwater to maintain entry features, street verges (including roundabouts), common property gardens and parks. The Brookwater development encompasses a layered arrangement of community title schemes (refer to Figure below). It currently consists of a principal community title scheme (Brookwater Home Owners Club) and a number of subsidiary schemes. Each subsidiary scheme in Brookwater contains a committee made up of residents. The committee chairperson or security typically represents the subsidiary at the principal body corporate committee meetings.
In Brookwater the home owner club committee is typically made up of the Chairperson of each subsidiary (stage) scheme.
The Home Owners Club can elect to install additional facilities for parks and gardens to benefit the community. This is an unusual arrangement for a residential development but is extensively used in the United States. It is a method of giving quality control back to the home owners and contributes to a culture of community pride. The arrangement also provides a revenue stream to allow high quality maintenance when the developer has finished its obligations to maintain.
A weekly contribution of approximately $35.00 from each residential lot in Brookwater ensures that the quality look, feel and value of the estate are maintained for the future. Under the Brookwater Scheme the local authority is still responsible for the maintenance of roads, water, sewerage, and stormwater systems.
Parks, streetscape infrastructure
As part of the initial community title scheme set up in Brookwater, Springfield Land Corporation negotiated a lease from Ipswich City Council (60 year lease) for the maintenance of Local Council owned verges, footpaths, parks, and entry statements. The lease was arranged and negotiated by the developer for the Brookwater Home Owners Club to contribute to the ongoing maintenance of landscaped areas throughout the community in lieu of handing the asset back to Council for maintenance. In the Brookwater Scheme the Developer maintains a newly developed area for 18 months then hands it over the Brookwater Home Owners Club for the ongoing maintenance as per the original lease. A joint inspection is carried out at the end of the developer maintenance period with the Brookwater Home Owner Club Committee members prior to handover.
Roads, sewer, stormwater, streetlights and water are excluded from the Home Owners Club maintenance obligations: these assets are handed back to the local authority and government institutions for maintenance after 12 months of the developer’s defect period.
Community funded infrastructure initiatives under the Brookwater scheme
By having a community title scheme in place and the developer funding the upfront cost of the installation of infrastructure, the community has had the ability to take control and deliver some of their own initiatives. This has been resulted in positive initiatives been driven by the community to benefit the community. Some of the key community led initiatives under the Brookwater Home Owners Club have included the following:
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Installation of security cameras throughout the estate
This was a community led program whereby they have installed 6 cameras throughout the estate which feeds back into the local police station to retrieve footage. The community was responsible for the supply, installation and maintenance of the cameras.
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Appointment of a community maintenance supervisor
The homeowners have agreed to appoint a maintenance supervisor to oversee the landscape maintenance work for the community and coordinate new work on behalf of the homeowners including landscape upgrades, vacant lot slashing and general common area repair work.
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Establish of slashing maintenance program for vacant lots in Brookwater
Ensures that the community is maintained to a high standard. The cost of slashing the lot is billed back to the homeowner of the lot in their quarterly levies.
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Further embellishment of landscaping in parks and entry statements
Areas which were developed early in the project are now being re-landscaped with new plants. This ensures that the areas remain looking new.
The scheme has provided an instrument for the community to take ownership of their estate and make desired improvements to streetscapes, parks and common areas.