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Unit Titles Act 2001
168Effects of lease expiry
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168 Effects of lease expiry
(1) On the expiry of the terms of the leases of the units and the common
property in a units plan (as extended, if at all, under the Unit Titles
Act 1970, section 108)—
(a) the units plan is cancelled; and
(b) the owners corporation is dissolved; and
(c) for each unit, the Territory (or, if the units plan subdivides a
parcel of land under a declared land sublease, the Crown lessee)
is liable to pay a share of the value of the buildings on the parcel
(on the date of expiry) proportional to the unit entitlement of the
unit immediately before the expiry.
(2) The Territory (or, if the units plan subdivides a parcel of land under a
declared land sublease, the Crown lessee) is liable to pay the amount
mentioned in subsection (1) (c) for a unit—
(a) to the person who owned the unit immediately before the expiry
of the leases; or
(b) if the unit was owned by 2 or more people immediately before
the expiry of the leases—to each co-owner in proportion to the
co-owner’s former share in the unit.
(3) The value of the amount mentioned in subsection (1) (c) must be
worked out under the Planning Act 2023, section 362 as if the
Territory (or, if the units plan subdivides a parcel of land under a
declared land sublease, the Crown lessee) were the territory planning
authority.
(4) Subsection (5) applies if—
(a) the term of a lease of a unit or common property in a units plan
that subdivides a parcel of land under a declared land sublease
expires; and
(b) the owners corporation has not given the Crown lessee at least
6 month’s written notice before the lease expired that the owners
corporation did not intend to apply for a further lease under
section 167AA.
(5) The Crown lessee may deduct the amount (up to the prescribed
amount) of any expenditure reasonably incurred by the Crown lessee
in subleasing the land, or part of the land, under the expired leases to
someone else from the amount payable by the Crown lessee under
subsection (1) (c).
(6) On the dissolution of an owners corporation under subsection (1)—
(a) all rights (at law or in equity) vested in the corporation
immediately before the expiry are vested in the former members
as tenants in common in shares proportional to their former unit
entitlement; and
(b) the former members are liable separately and together for all the
liabilities of the corporation existing immediately before the
dissolution.
(7) For subsection (1), a reference in a document to an owners
corporation that has been dissolved is taken to be a reference to the
former members.
Example of a document
A contract signed by the owners corporation before the dissolution under which the
corporation owes, or is owed, an amount.
(8) The operation of subsection (6) on the owners corporation may be
varied by expiry dissolution order (under section 169).