Enforcing by-laws in a QLD body corporate: complaints, contravention notices, and what happens next

By-laws only work if someone is prepared to enforce them, and in Queensland that job sits primarily with the body corporate, acting through its committee. The rules are in the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (BCCM Act), chiefly ss 182 to 185, with the detail filled in by the scheme's regulation module (most commonly the Standard Module or Accommodation Module).

Most enforcement disputes fail for procedural reasons, not because the breach was unclear: a notice that skipped a required step, a complaint the committee never answered, or a rule that was never validly a by-law in the first place. This guide walks the process in the order the Act expects it to happen.

First check: is it actually an enforceable by-law?

Before any notice goes out, confirm three things:

• It is a registered by-law. By-laws live in the scheme's community management statement (CMS). A "house rule" the committee circulated by email is not a by-law and cannot be the subject of a contravention notice. Changing by-laws needs a special resolution at a general meeting and a new CMS lodged with Titles Queensland; exclusive-use by-laws need a resolution without dissent.
• It is not oppressive or unreasonable (s 180). A by-law that fails this test is invalid even if it is registered. Blanket pet bans are the best-known casualty; by-laws that discriminate between types of occupier, or that purport to impose monetary fines, also fall outside what a Queensland body corporate can make.
• The conduct is covered by the by-law as written, not by what the committee wishes it said. Adjudicators read by-laws literally.

If the conduct is a nuisance rather than a by-law breach, s 167 of the Act applies directly. Since 1 May 2024 that section expressly treats regular smoke drift into another lot or common property as a nuisance, whether or not the scheme has a smoking by-law.

Who can start enforcement

Two parties can:

1. The body corporate, on its own initiative, where it reasonably believes an owner or occupier is contravening a by-law and the breach is likely to continue or be repeated.
2. An owner or occupier, by giving the body corporate a BCCM Form 1 — the approved Notice to body corporate of by-law contravention. This is the mandatory first step for an owner; an owner generally cannot apply to the Commissioner's office about another owner's breach without having lodged a Form 1 first.

Tenants can lodge a Form 1 too. The body corporate manager or caretaker cannot enforce in their own right; they act on the body corporate's instruction.

The committee's 14-day window

When a Form 1 arrives, the committee has 14 days to tell the complainant whether it has issued a contravention notice to the person complained about. The decision can be made by the committee or by the body corporate at a general meeting; issuing a contravention notice is not a restricted issue, so it does not have to wait for an AGM.

Missing the 14 days does not make the complaint go away. It opens the door for the complainant to apply for conciliation, against the alleged offender or against the body corporate itself for failing to act. Respond in writing inside the window even if the decision is "no notice at this time", and record the reasons.

Two kinds of contravention notice

The Act gives the body corporate two notice types, and the choice depends on whether the breach is ongoing or intermittent.

	Continuing contravention notice	Future contravention notice
Section and form	s 182, BCCM Form 10	s 183, BCCM Form 11
Use when	the breach is happening now and likely to continue (an unapproved structure, a pet without approval, an item stored on common property)	the breach has happened and is likely to be repeated (noise, parking, short-term misuse of facilities)
Must state	the by-law breached, how it was breached, a period within which the person must remedy it, and the consequences of not complying	the by-law breached, how it was breached, that the person must not repeat the contravention, and the consequences of a repeat
Consequence of non-compliance	the body corporate may apply for conciliation or start Magistrates Court proceedings	as for a continuing notice

Both notices must be in the approved form or contain everything the approved form contains. The remedy period in a Form 10 must be reasonable for the breach in question; a week to remove a pot plant is reasonable, a week to demolish an unapproved pergola is not. Serve the notice on the person in breach; if that is a tenant, send a copy to the owner, whose lot is the one carrying the by-law obligation.

When the notice is ignored

The body corporate has two routes, and it may choose either:

• Conciliation and adjudication through the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management. Conciliation costs $117.90 and adjudication $117.90 (final order) or $247.90 (interim and final order) from 1 July 2026. An adjudicator can order the person to comply, and an adjudicator's order is itself enforceable in the Magistrates Court, where failing to comply with an order attracts substantial fines.
• Magistrates Court proceedings for the contravention itself. Failing to comply with a contravention notice carries a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units, currently $3,454 (the penalty unit is $172.70 from 1 July 2026). In practice most bodies corporate go through the Commissioner's office first because it is cheaper and adjudicators' orders are tailored to the breach.

An owner who lodged a Form 1 and is unhappy with the outcome has the same conciliation route, but must first attempt self-resolution with the other party and be able to show they tried.

The 2024 changes that affect enforcement

The BCCM and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023 commenced on 1 May 2024 and changed three enforcement hot spots:

• Towing. A body corporate may tow a vehicle from common property without first obtaining an adjudicator's order, provided it acts under an appropriate by-law and follows the by-law's process. Before this, towing without an order was itself a common ground for complaint.
• Smoking. By-laws can now prohibit or restrict smoking on common property and in outdoor areas of lots such as balconies, and regular smoke drift is a statutory nuisance under s 167.
• Pets. By-laws cannot ban animals or cap their number, size or type; a request must be answered within 21 days or it is taken to be approved. Enforcement against an unapproved pet therefore begins with checking whether the approval was refused in time and on a permitted ground. See the pet approvals guide.

Common mistakes

1. Enforcing a rule that is not in the CMS. Committee "policies" and noticeboard rules are not by-laws.
2. Skipping the Form 1 or the 14-day response. Complainants who are ignored end up in conciliation against the body corporate, not the neighbour.
3. Sending a letter instead of the approved form. A polite warning is good practice, but it is not a contravention notice and does not start the statutory clock.
4. Choosing the wrong notice. A Form 11 for an ongoing breach gives the person nothing to remedy; a Form 10 for a one-off noise complaint sets a remedy period for something that already stopped.
5. Threatening fines the body corporate cannot impose. Queensland bodies corporate have no power to fine owners directly; penalties are imposed by a court.
6. Losing the record. Adjudicators decide on the paper trail: the Form 1, the committee minute, the notice as served, and the evidence of the breach. Keep all of it with the scheme's records.

Where the committee's authority ends

Deciding to issue a contravention notice sits with the committee as ordinary business. Two things do not: changing the by-laws (a general-meeting special resolution) and starting court proceedings beyond the enforcement of a contravention notice, which may need a general-meeting decision depending on the scheme's module and the cost involved. If a breach reveals that the by-law itself needs fixing, put the amendment on the next general-meeting agenda rather than stretching the existing wording.

How StrataPilot handles this

StrataPilot keeps every stage of enforcement on the record. Owners and tenants submit a complaint under a by-law breach, noise or parking category with photos attached; the submitter stays visible to the committee and hidden from other owners. The committee acknowledges, assigns, and tracks the complaint through to resolution, with internal notes kept separate from anything an owner can see, and the submitter is emailed at each status change. The scheme's by-laws register holds the current CMS by-laws with their adoption resolution and lodgement reference, so a notice cites the actual registered wording, and a formal dispute record carries the matter from contravention notice through conciliation to an adjudicator's order with overdue reminders along the way.

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This guide is general information about Queensland legislation, current as at the "last updated" date above — it is not legal advice. Penalty unit values and application fees change each 1 July. For decisions that matter, check the current BCCM Act and your scheme's regulation module, or ask the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.