Understanding site-fee reductions in land lease communities
29/08/2025
Under the Residential Land Lease Communities Act and other related legislation, a land lease community operator has wide ranging responsibilities to ensure communities remain safe, and function at an appropriate standard.
A home owner’s right to a community that is safe and in a reasonable standard of repair is also contained in a standard site agreement where clauses 19 and 20 set out the requirement. The exclusive use of a residential site is primarily what your site fees are paying for but they also cover the use of communal areas, services and amenities made available to you.
By legislative requirement, an operator who enters into a site agreement has agreed that they will:
Ensure that the community is reasonably safe and secure;
Take reasonable steps to ensure home owners always have access to their residential site and have reasonable access to common areas within the community;
Maintain the community’s common areas in a reasonable state of cleanliness and repair, so it’s fit for use;
Ensure the common areas are reasonably free of noxious weeds and vermin;
Make sure all trees in the community are properly maintained and respond to reports of injury or the likelihood of injury; and
Ensure your reasonable right to privacy, peace and quiet as well as proper use of your site and the common areas of the village.
What you’ve agreed to pay for might have been expressed to you in your site agreement or other documents about the services and amenities provided at the community.
For example:
- Advertisements made available by the operator before you move in
- The Disclosure statement you were given.
- An FAQ document or other documents with information about the community
Home owners frequently report that a service or amenity in their community isn’t available for use – whether temporarily closed for repair, replacement or upgrade, neglected, withdrawn or, advertised but not provided.
Under the community’s development consent some services and facilities might need to be maintained for the life of the community. The development consent is a publicly accessible document, available upon request from your local council.
Often simultaneously when we hear from home owners about reduced services and amenities we are also hearing that the operator is engaged in other activities. For example when the operator has a development consent application for more residential sites (sometimes seeking to vary the local government requirement for a minimum of 10% open space in a community); when the community is under construction for another reason; when the operator is in the process of financing the purchase of another community; a change of management occurs; or the operator is more occupied with managing the holiday and tourist side of business since the permanent residents aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Home owners’ and residents’ committees can negotiate directly with operators or apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
Where an agreement can be reached, it should be confirmed in writing by the operator so changes to the payment of site fees are clear.
| Some specific examples we’ve heard about | Some of the impacts experienced |
|---|---|
| The community hall has been closed while construction nearby takes place. | We have nowhere to hold our resident committee meetings or social club activities while the hall is closed. |
| The pool is under repair and not available for use. | We use the pool most in summer and it’s been closed. The neighbour has had to spend extra money to go into town and use the pool for their rehabilitation exercises. |
| The trees are not being maintained like they used to be. | The previous manager took good care of the communal gardens, now there are palm fronds and palm seeds covering the paths and roads. I’m worried someone will slip and hurt themselves. |
| The street lighting is not working in a number of areas. They said they would fix them but haven’t. | Some of us are worried about tripping over at night so we don’t go out after dark. I won’t even walk over to the bins. We don’t know why it’s taking so long. |
| The tennis court is being taken away to install more homes. | We enjoy watching matches or joining in. It feels like all the open spaces are being replaced by more homes. We have no idea if the tennis courts will be rebuilt somewhere else. |
| We were informed in our disclosure statement that there was a lawn bowling facility, but it hasn’t been approved yet. | I agreed to the rate of site fees in my agreement expecting I’d have use of a lawn bowls facility for socialising and exercise. |
| The section of the community with permanent sites hasn’t had any work done to maintain internal roads. There are large potholes and uneven surfaces. | We can’t use the roads properly as we have to weave around potholes and each other’s cars to move through safely. One resident’s car was damaged. |
Going to Tribunal
The Tribunal’s power to reduce site fees under section 64 Residential Land Lease Communities Act is discretionary and limited to being satisfied of the following:
A substantial decrease in the standard of common areas
A significant reduction, loss, or withdrawal of communal facilities and services.
The absence of a service described in an advertisement by the operator or other documentation such as a disclosure statement before entering into a site agreement.
And whether the operator failed to use reasonable endeavours to meet their obligations.
The timeframe to apply is while the site agreement is in force.
As always evidence is of primary importance in the Tribunal so it is vital to have records such as colour photos, correspondence with the operator and keeping a diary to save memorising the relevant day to day circumstances. All of this will be important in establishing the obligation or breach on the part of the operator.
The Residential Land Lease Communities Act is silent on the issue of repairs to the site, with a few exceptions.
- At the start of your agreement when the operator must ensure the site is provided to you in a reasonable condition and fit for habitation.
- Or when the site becomes wholly uninhabitable through no fault of the operator or the home owner and the plan is to make it habitable again.
We expect to see phase two amendments of the Residential Land Lease Communities Act specifically address this gap and make the responsibility for site repairs an operator responsibility unless the home owner has caused the damage.
The Act covers some operator responsibilities for the site such as the continuity of supply of utilities to the site, proper use and enjoyment of the site, obligations for operators to notify affected home owners about development applications and for operators to comply with the development consent to provide some services and facilities for the life of the community.
The Local Government (Manufactured Home Estates, Caravan Parks, Camping Grounds and Moveable Dwellings) Regulation 2021, also protects the home owners right to have a certain standard of amenity and services available at their site.
Site fee reductions
Applying to the Tribunal for a site fee reduction for site repairs is not an explicit option in the Residential Land Lease Communities Act. However home owners and operators can still agree outside of the Tribunal about a reduction in site fees when repairs to the site are needed.
Calculating site fee reductions
Working out a fair site fee reduction doesn’t have a set formula but should take into account what your site fees cover and the importance of those services or amenities, big and small.
The calculation may not produce big sums of money per household but when communities work together to achieve a site fee reduction for everyone affected, the total amount can be hefty for the operator and may encourage better accountability moving forward.
Situations when the Act mandates site fee reductions
Change events
A change event is specified in the Residential Land Lease Communities Act as when a utility becomes separately measured or metered and the cost becomes payable by the home owner, or when a utility is no longer available for use. The operator must give the home owner notice about the event within 14 days, reducing site fees payable.
Disputes about this can be taken to the Tribunal by the homeowner.
Uninhabitability
The Act also mandates a site fee reduction when the site becomes wholly uninhabitable other than from a breach of the site agreement by the operator or the homeowner. Examples of this would be through flood disaster or bushfire. The Act states that site fees will abate accordingly until the site is wholly habitable or the site agreement is ended. See the provisions of section 62 Residential Land Lease Communities Act site becoming uninhabitable.
The Tenants’ Union is in the process of publishing a fact sheet and sample letter about site fee reductions, to help home owners take action on this right. It will be available soon on the Noticeboard.
This article was published in Outasite magazine issue 13. Outasite is published once annually. Outasite Lite email newsletter is sent several times a year – subscribe here. All past issues are available in the archive.