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Combustible cladding problems in strata apartments

Most of you would have heard about the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, the 2014 Lacrosse building fire in Melbourne and/or the 2012 West Terrace fire in Bankstown NSW. The result of those fires is the renewed focus in fire safety laws for strata buildings, especially those with external combustible cladding.

In New South Wales, those laws involve:

  1. Building Products (Safety) Act 2017 (NSW);
  2. Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 – which was amended under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Identification of Buildings with External Combustible Cladding) Regulation 2018; and
  3. State Environmental Planning Policy Amendment (Exempt Development—Cladding and Decorative Work) 2018 (NSW).

In brief, the legislative framework seeks to (i) ban certain products from being installed on buildings (Type A or Type B construction) regardless of whether they may have a current CodeMark Certification, (ii) override various requirements of the BCA where there is an inconsistency with respect to the product bans, (iii) identify and collect information about buildings to which external combustible cladding has been applied, (iv) maintain a statutory register of the affected buildings with certain information to be provided to Fire and Rescue NSW and (v) to restrict or prohibit cladding and decorative work from being carried out as an exempt development. [...]  READ MORE →

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Removal of Vehicles Illegally Parked on Strata Land

Removal of abandoned/uncollected goods and vehicles that are illegally parked on strata land

One of the problems with strata is that there is sometimes just “stuff” lying around in all the wrong places. For example, abandoned goods scattered across the scheme (especially when someone moved out) or even cars and trucks just parked everywhere out of convenience or they have been abandoned.

On and from 1 July 2020, abandoned and uncollected goods are no longer governed by strata legislation. The old section 125 of the Strata Management Scheme Act 2015 (NSW) and regulation 34 of the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 (NSW) are now repealed with the issues now dealt with under the Uncollected Goods Act 1995 (NSW). NSW Fair Trading has some great information on this topic which can be accessed by clicking here. So, you would need to stop following the old processes about the sticking of disposal notices on items/cars and remove them when obstructing access (like driveways). And accordingly, most parking by-laws should be updated as they would be referring to the old car towing provisions, albeit the wheel clamping provisions under the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) still remain. [...]  READ MORE →

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Common Problems with Common Property Rights By-Laws

Common problems with common property rights by-laws

Time and time again, we see some poorly drafted or “simple” by-laws. Sorry, we have to vent! Here is an example (below) – and no, it is not drafted by us:

  1. Special Privilege for Commercial Lot 1
  2. The owner of Commercial Lot 1 has the special privilege to carry out works on the lot without first obtaining the consent of the owners corporation to the alteration of the common property in connection with those works.
  3. The owner must give the corporation at least 7 days written notice of the intention to carry out works under this by law. The notice should give sufficient details of the works to be carried out to allow the owners to determine if the intended works are in compliance with this by law.
  4. Any works carried out under this by-law involving disruption to the access to the car space Lots to be carried out between 8:30 am-5:30 pm Monday-Friday only.
  5. Any works carried out under this by-law must not interfere with the structural integrity of the Building.
  6. The owner must repair any damage to the common property caused by the carrying out of the works under this by-law.
  7. The owner of Commercial Lot 1 is responsible for the maintenance and repair of any common property altered as a result of work carried out under this by-law.

We are all for quick/smart and short/sweet by-laws. But this by-law essentially became the central point of a recent NCAT dispute.

In short, the NCAT’s Appeal Panel held that the by-law was invalid back in September 2020, albeit it did comment that the matter was deceptively simple (which probably explains why it overruled the Tribunal’s original decision in holding that it was valid). The simplicity is alluring. However, a by-law needs to be sufficiently detailed or otherwise, it will be open to attack and/or fail to meet the prescriptive requirements of the Strata Management Scheme Act 2015 (NSW). In this case, it failed on both count. The outcome is that the commercial lot owner is required to remove its entire works so done pursuant to the by-law (which are quite substantial) and reinstate the common property to the state and condition prior to those works. The second and third respondent are also required to pay costs as agreed or assessed, even though the by-law was a developer by-law registered together with the strata plan back in year 2000. [...]  READ MORE →

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Short Term Letting Restrictions

Short-term letting restrictions and how they impact you

As most of you would know, short term lettings in strata units and houses were causing a big fuss some years ago. Then, there were the debates (including parliamentary debates) as to whether these should be permitted, prohibited or permitted with conditions. Even now, we hear about the massive out of control Airbnb parties from time to time. Then again, there are the many success stories behind these passive income gems. So, where are we at now? [...]  READ MORE →

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Property Law Tested by Developer

Jobema Developments Pty Limited is the first developer to test the new property law introduced by the Conveyancing Amendment (Sunset Clauses) Act 2015, which requires vendors to either obtain the consent of purchasers before they can rescind an off-the-plan contract in reliance on a sunset clause in the contract, or to obtain the permission of the Supreme Court to do so.

Facts:

In this case, Jobema, the defendant, purchased a development site from Xycom, who had exchanged a number of off-the-plan contracts with a sunset date for the registration of the strata plan of 31 December 2015. As part of the purchase, Jobema would assume Xycom’s obligations under the exchanged off-the-plan contracts, one of which was with Mr Wu. [...]  READ MORE →

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Changes to Property Laws – Strata

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS
The Conveyancing (Legislation) Amendment Act 2018 introduces changes that will provide better protection for purchasers buying property off the plan and more flexibility to those using electronic land contracts and deeds.

Off the plan Contracts:
An off the plan contract is used to sell a property such as a strata unit without its own separate title, given the property does not exist at the time contracts are exchanged.

Off the plan contracts can be beneficial to both property developers and purchasers. For property developers, finance is generally dependent on the percentage of lots that have been pre-sold. [...]  READ MORE →

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Changes to Short-Term Rental Accommodations – Is the Holiday Over

The Department of Planning and Environment is currently in the process to introduce state-wide planning framework for Short-Term Rental Accommodation (STRA) following reforms provided to the Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW) and Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) at the end of 2018.

The changes proposed are as a result of the ever growing easily accessible holiday rental market whereby STRA in New South Wales initially compromised of a voluntary Code of Conduct – Holiday Rental Code of Conduct – originally adopted in 2012. [...]  READ MORE →

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Covid-19 laws and new processes applicable to strata and community schemes

The additional flexibilities available to strata and community schemes in relation to meetings (including first annual general meeting), voting, signing of documents and funds reconciliation requirements under the new covid-19 laws have now been extended.

Back on 5 June 2020, the NSW Government has enacted emergency provisions applicable to the strata and community schemes in this State to allow additional flexibilities as to how they meet (including for the first time for new schemes), vote, sign documents and reconcile administration and capital works accounts. These emergency provisions were due to expire on 13 November 2020. [...]  READ MORE →