farm to the Commissioner’s Offi ce

Michelle Scott From the cane farm to the Commissioner’s O ce

By Grantlee Kieza, Industry Reporter

Michelle Scott grew up just outside Mackay on her parents’ cane farm watching them solve the many vagaries of life on the land.

She now brings vast experience in many fi elds to her new role as Queensland’s Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.

In a rural city, which was starting to celebrate the potential of its local hero Cathy Freeman, then a teenage athlete with golden potential, Ms Scott was off and running at the same time to meet her own loft y goals.

Her parents are still working the cane farm and she tries to visit every year, but aft er doing her primary and secondary schooling in Mackay she left the sugar town in the late 80s to study at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

Her interests away from the offi ce include skiing, the beach, bushwalking and reading and she tries to run twice a week to stay fi t.

Michelle Scott

Her education was a real marathon

“I completed my commerce degree and a law degree with honours at the University of Queensland and I’ve also done a diploma of education. I have a graduate certifi cate in management from Flinders University, too,” Ms Scott said. “My fi rst job was in a law fi rm in the Brisbane CBD for about four years and I also spent a year and a half in the mid-90s working in London as a corporate lawyer.

“I came back to Brisbane in 1997 and I joined the public service for the fi rst time at the Offi ce of State Revenue. Since then I’ve had a variety of roles in the public and private sector.

“I’ve come to my new role from the Queensland Treasury where I was Director of Land Tax in the Offi ce of State Revenue. Throughout my time in legal practice and at the Offi ce of State Revenue working in the tax sphere, I have had a lot of involvement with the property industry.”

Ms Scott started in her new role in April 2020 at a time when COVID-19 was turning the world on its head including the community titles sector which she says “has grown over recent years and now represents 500,000 lots in Queensland”.

Ms Scott said the COVID-19 environment was an especially challenging time with fi nancial pressures, changes, and uncertainty “aff ecting people who are living, working and investing in community title schemes”.

“They are having to deal with issues that are new and that they could not have foreseen six or 12 months ago,” she said.

“I’m fortunate to have a committ ed team that is providing information to people about their rights and obligations. We have a wealth of information on our website to try to support people and to help them resolve any issues they are having in their communities.”

She said her offi ce’s dispute resolution service had seen an increase in applications since COVID-19 started.

“Some of the issues are coming about because of fi nancial pressures and the fact that more people are working from home, so people are living in their properties in a diff erent way to what they used to.

“Common issues are around pets, noise, smoking and parking.

“These can be highly emotive issues because people are very concerned about their homes and what may be the most signifi cant investment in their life.

“The other thing that sets these

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Buying (existing businesses and off the plan), selling, renewals, new agreements and dispute resolution disputes apart is that they are with someone who is potentially your neighbour and you need to live beside them going forward.”

Ms Scott said, “the whole premise of the Community Titles Scheme in Queensland is around self-management”.

“The legislation gives communities a framework to self-manage and a key part of the success of that is that the parties in the scheme do their best to resolve issues themselves so that they can come to an understanding and mutual agreement that is

The whole premise of the Community Titles Scheme in Queensland is around self-management

more likely to promote harmony going forward,” she said. “Our offi ce always encourages parties to do what they can to

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Ms Scott said that in May 2020 the Queensland Government introduced a range of measures designed to alleviate the fi nancial burden caused by the COVID-19 emergency on Community Title Schemes.

They include body corporate committ ees being able to extend the date for payment of levies if they are satisfi ed that an owner is experiencing fi nancial hardship because of the pandemic.

Bodies corporate are also unable to charge late payment penalties for overdue levies. There is now also the provision for bodies corporate to double the maximum amount they can borrow and to adopt a smaller sinking fund budget, if approved by ordinary resolution.

“While those measures are there to help bodies corporate and committ ees to help navigate the fi nancial challenges,” Ms Scott said, “the overriding consideration always needs to be that committ ees and bodies corporate are acting reasonably in the circumstances.

“A priority for me is supporting my team and the Community Titles Schemes in Queensland as everyone tries to navigate the complexities that

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