How we came to be

As far as strata nightmares go, it was one of the very worst.

Apartment owners had just uncovered around $5 million worth of defects in their building in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, their Building Manager was employed by the developer and was refusing to cooperate, and their Strata Manager, they’d found out, had been generously paying other clients’ bills out of their funds.

“It was an absolutely horrendous situation,” says the Chair of the Owners Corporation. “We didn’t know what to do, or which way to turn.”

In the end, they sought help from a surprising source: other owners. They phoned the Chairs and Secretaries of Executive Committees of other big buildings around Sydney and called a meeting. There, everyone talked about their own issues – and then sat back, stunned, at the realisation they were all struggling to cope with very similar problems.

By networking with each other, discussing issues, advising each other on the resolution of disputes we had all faced, and seeking out experts to address us on certain subjects, we gradually learned an enormous amount about an industry that had previously had no input at all from one of the major, and arguably one of the most important, stakeholders: apartment buyers. Issues of equity and social justice for this group had never before been addressed, the rights and responsibilities in the consumer/trader relationship had never before been adequately explored from the consumer point of view.

As a result, a new organisation was born – the Owners Corporation Network (OCN), made up of EC members of buildings all around Sydney, meeting regularly to exchange information, educate themselves about strata issues, help each other out with various problems, and lobby Government for more protection in the legislation.

Seven years on, the OCN has become a vibrant and active force on the strata scene.