In New Zealand? Visit quarter.nz for body corporates.
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.
In the Northern Territory a noticeboard does something it does nowhere else on this list: it carries safety information. Cyclone season imposes obligations on residents — clearing balconies, securing loose items, knowing where the shutoffs are — and a building whose only channel is an owners' mailing list is a building where most of the people who need that information will not receive it.
Governed by the Unit Titles Act 1975 and Unit Titles Schemes Act 2009, administered by NT Consumer Affairs.
October is late. The list is the thing that makes everything else work.
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.
Preparation steps, shutoff locations, who to call. Permanently, not seasonally.
In Quarter: Announce it to every owner and resident in a single send — email, and posted to the residents' portal at the same time.
Water, power, lift and contractor access — the things that affect somebody's day.
It works when the power does not.
A cyclone warning and a bin reminder should not arrive the same way.
Under the Act that governs your scheme.
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.
In a building mostly occupied by tenants, that is most of the building missed.
People move in during the dry. The information should be there when they arrive.
Keep something physical.
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 Northern Territory, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with NT Consumer Affairs or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in Northern Territory and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
