Recent News
Apartment owners in NSW are being reminded to check that their building insurance covers the total cost of rebuilding should a disaster occur. The Institute of Strata Title Management (ISTM) and CHU, Australia‟s leading strata insurance company, warned that most policy holders won‟t find out they are underinsured until it‟s too late.
THE owner of an apartment in which water flowed through power points has won a test case in the NSW Supreme Court after a body corporate was ordered to compensate her for the rent forgone in the past and in the future.
The ruling to pay Catherine Nicita the forgone rent for her unliveable apartment until September was made after building defects shaved $680,000 off the value of her waterfront home in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Abbotsford, reducing its resale value to $130,000.
It is the first time a judge has made a body corporate pay rent in advance to compensate a unit owner and lawyers say the case is already having implications.
In a media release today, the Urban Development Institute of Australia says “Sydney is facing some fundamental challenges in the near future with regard to population growth, housing, and transport. Challenges like strata reform will require strong leadership from both sides of parliament and a need to look beyond the short term election cycle."
A lower threshold for renewing strata schemes is needed to lift the supply of new housing and office space needed for Sydney’s future growth, according to the Property Council of Australia.
In a new paper released today, the Property Council has unveiled a Strata Title Renewal Plan Process to facilitate greater turnover of strata schemes in NSW.
“Strata title is a popular form of property ownership – and close to a quarter of everyone in NSW owns, lives or works in a strata titled building,” NSW Acting Executive Director Glenn Byres said today.
“Its common use places strata title renewal at the heart of Sydney’s inevitable future growth but we risk being caught in a strata title straightjacket.
“Approval is needed from effectively 100 percent of owners to dissolve a strata scheme, making it virtually impossible to achieve change and renewal. “We need a simpler and fairer system that will allow ageing buildings to be replaced with new housing and office stock that meets the demands of our growing population. “The centrepiece of any reform needs to be movement on the threshold for terminating strata schemes. “Instead of just one person stalling sensible transformation, the threshold needs to be changed so that renewal can proceed if no more than 25 percent disagree.
FEUDS among neighbours in high-rise blocks are on the rise, with tables, chairs and even used nappies being used as missiles in balcony wars.
Latest State Government figures show requests to the Department of Fair Trading for urgent mediation have increased by 10 per cent.
Health authorities have warned parents to keep furniture away from windows after the second Sydney child this week fell through a closed fly screen.
A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy died after falling from the window of a third-floor flat in southern Sydney yesterday, in what police believe was an accident during a bedroom play session.
Many buyers are looking for low strata levies rather than luxuries such as pools and gyms.
It was once all about lifestyle: the best-equipped gym; the biggest, warmest pool; and the smartest, most obliging concierge. But with the economic downturn biting, apartment-buyers are today more aware of running costs than they've ever been and the need to factor those into often already-strained budgets.
"People should always be aware of the size of their strata levies but it's only recently that they seem to be taking them into account," says mortgage broker Justin Doobov.
"The size of levies can be so important. What's the point of worrying about a 0.1 per cent rise in interest rates when your levy could represent an extra 1.5 per cent of the value of your property per year?"
What happens when complaints get trampled underfoot. When is a bylaw not a bylaw? When the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal decides it doesn't really matter, that's when.
Evidence for this is contained in the CTTT's own annual report, where it proudly tells the story of a couple who bought an apartment then discovered one of their children had a carpet-induced allergy for which the only cure was to polish their floorboards.
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RESIDENTS in flats and other strata buildings are demanding the State Government reintroduce clamping and towing of illegally parked cars to stop protracted legal and sometimes physical disputes they say are turning apartment car parks into battle grounds.
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