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Most buildings communicate through three things at once: a corkboard by the lifts, a group chat that half the owners are not in, and an email list somebody last updated in 2019. Nobody knows which one is authoritative, tenants are usually on none of them, and the committee ends up repeating itself. A noticeboard is the cheapest thing on this list and it removes more friction than most of the expensive ones.
ACT owners corporations run under a statute that is fairly clear about notice and about records, and a noticeboard sits outside both. Canberra's particular circumstance is a large and growing apartment stock with a high proportion of renters and government-sector tenants who move often — so the contact list decays faster here than the building's memory of updating it.
Governed by the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011, administered by Access Canberra.
With Canberra turnover, a list is a process rather than a task.
In Quarter: Owners, occupiers and tenants are held as contacts against the building rather than in somebody's phone, so the list you send to is the list that is actually current — and the people who only rent here can be on it.
The record comes first; the announcement reports it.
In Quarter: Announce it to every owner and resident in a single send — email, and posted to the residents' portal at the same time.
And say so, everywhere, once.
For the residents whose details you never get.
Building-wide only, minuted so it outlasts this committee.
In Quarter: The ownership register, financial records, insurance, contracts and documents sit in one searchable place, so a handover is an export rather than an archaeology project — and they are still there when the committee turns over.
Separately, and on time.
In Quarter: Build the motion from the quotes and the budget, send the notice to every owner off the ownership register on the statutory clock, and record the vote as it is cast — a decision carries its majority automatically and emails the outcome to whoever raised it.
High turnover makes this the ACT's specific failure mode.
The decision has to exist before it is reported.
Notice has its own requirements.
Nearly every complaint a committee gets about communication is the same complaint: I did not know. Not disagreement — absence. A single place people trust fixes most of it.
A physical board still has its place for the lift lobby. What it cannot do is reach the people who are not standing in front of it.
Publish once and it reaches owners and residents by email and in the app, and is posted to the noticeboard in the resident portal at the same time.
Tenants and occupiers can be on the noticeboard without being on the owners' register — which is the group most buildings cannot currently reach at all.
A notice is a record with a date, not a message that scrolls away. Six months later you can still show what was said and when.
Residents can ask the Manager about the building and get an answer immediately, instead of adding to the committee's inbox.
A burst pipe and a reminder about bin night are not the same message, and should not travel the same way.
General information about Australian Capital Territory, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with Access Canberra or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in Australian Capital Territory and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
