A developer completed a 45-unit apartment building in late 2023 and handed it over to the body corporate with a comprehensive long-term maintenance plan: 10 years of cost estimates, professionally prepared, well documented. The first AGM was held in February 2024. By 9 May 2024, the building's LTM plan was non-compliant — from that date, large developments needed a 30-year plan, not a 10-year one. The committee, who had accepted the handover plan in good faith three months earlier, now had to commission a new one.
The 30-year maintenance plan requirement is one of the more significant practical changes introduced in May 2024 for large developments — those with 10 or more principal units. Understanding what is required and what 'compliant' actually looks like is worth doing before you find yourself in the committee's position above.
What does a compliant plan for a large development need to cover? It must span at least 30 years, identify the maintenance and repair work anticipated over that period with estimated costs, summarise the current state of the common property, and state the sources of funding for the work. The point isn't spurious precision about year 27 — it is a reasonable basis for long-term financial planning, grounded in an honest assessment of the building's condition.
The plan should also be developed or reviewed with input from building professionals or other suitably qualified people — a quantity surveyor, building engineer or specialist maintenance planner — where the body corporate considers it necessary or appropriate. Owners can decide by special resolution not to involve professionals, but that decision needs to be made explicitly and recorded, not arrived at by default.
Review timing matters. The plan must be reviewed at least every three years, or sooner if something material changes — a significant repair that wasn't anticipated, a major system failure, or a change in the building's condition that affects the projections. A plan that was prepared in 2022 is due for review. A plan that hasn't been reviewed since 2018 is overdue.
The funding side: the plan must now state the sources of funding for the maintenance work it anticipates. This means the plan shouldn't just say 'we need $200,000 for a lift replacement in year eight' — it should say where that money is coming from. If the LTM fund isn't going to hold enough by year eight, the plan should identify that gap and address how it will be filled.
For buildings that had a compliant 10-year plan before the changes: the deadline has already passed. Large developments had until 9 May 2024 to bring their existing plans up to the 30-year requirement. If your plan still only looks 10 years ahead, it is overdue — and updating it to meet the new requirements at the next review is the efficient path.
The reason the 30-year requirement exists isn't bureaucratic. Buildings that think only 10 years ahead consistently underprovision for major capital works — roof systems, cladding, lifts, major plumbing and electrical infrastructure — that have 20 to 40 year lifespans. A 30-year view forces that reckoning. Buildings that plan properly at this horizon don't get surprised by $3,000 emergency levies.
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