Williamson Maurice: Unit Titles Bill — In Committee 
Williamson Maurice: Unit Titles Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9858] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Acting Minister of Housing) 
: 
 I will take a very brief call to explain to the Committee that I have tabled a Supplementary Order Paper Supplementary Order Paper 112. I say to members that this Supplementary Order Paper—although it looks like a very considerable Supplementary Order Paper; it is quite a few pages in length—is mainly very technical and minor in its overall impact. Many of the recommended changes are merely corrections to typographical and cross-referencing errors. Some of the recommended changes are drafting changes that reword or re-order or even move around clauses. All of the proposed amendments are consistent with the policy intent of the bill and with the changes recommended by the Social Services Committee. The committee made some quite good recommendations about changes and I understand that those corrections have been made. I hope that Moana Mackey from Labour has had her assurance about what those changes are from the officials because I am happy for the changes to be made available to her. In particular the majority of the proposed amendments ensure that people who need to use the processes in the bill have a clear idea of what they need to do and how they are required to do it. 
The proposed amendments also respond to issues raised by the Retirement Villages Association and the New Zealand Holiday Ownership Council where recommendations made by the select committee had not been fully implemented in what came back. Examples of changes were in management and governance amendments. The only significant amendment to the management and governance provisions was made to the way in which votes were counted for ordinary resolution. The select committee recommended that votes for an ordinary resolution should be counted according to ownership interests in addition to there being one vote per unit. This recommendation was not fully implemented but the amendment that has been put in the Supplementary Order Paper will achieve that implementation. So that is just a brief outline of what the Supplementary Order Paper is trying to do. It is mainly technical and minor. 
The Unit Titles Bill is wide ranging in bringing the whole unit titles legislation up to date. When the first legislation of this nature was passed most people had blocks of units that were three or four units big. Blocks were very small clustery things; now we have massive buildings in units. So this bill brings into modern parlance things like the duties and powers of body corporates and body corporate managers. It enables the making of joint decision-making body corporate processes to be more manageable and it provides incentives for participation by unit owners. The bill also has a disputes resolution process mandatory disclosure and new ownership structures. 
One matter that I think is important from another portfolio of mine from the portfolio of building and construction is mandatory long-term maintenance schedules. What happens with these big buildings is that tenants move into them but no one puts up a maintenance schedule with a funding plan of how that maintenance is to be done. Then 20 years later places are in a complete state of disrepair but no one is prepared to stump up or to say how they should have been maintained and who should have paid. 
There are a lot of really good things in this bill. I know that the legislation had its gestation when Labour was in Government and that we have carried on with the major ideas in it. I do not believe that this will be one of the pieces of legislation over which a big fight will occur in the Chamber but I am happy to let members go ahead with questions and try to get the Committee stage through.