In order to obtain development consent conditions from a development application the Local Council needs the consent of the owner of the land.
If an owners application involves the common property the owners corporation’s consent to the lodgement of that development application is required to enable development consent conditions to issue.
A “fixture” refers to objects that are attached to the land in such a manner that they become part of the land. Once an object becomes a part of the property, it belongs to the property owner. But how does the concept of fixture and ownership play out in context of strata scheme buildings?
Whilst the most common strata building defects are still generally water ingress from defective membranes and window sealants as well as the fire and life safety non-compliances we are now also seeing a lot more defects claims featuring mould and termite damage, particularly in coastal and regional areas.
There are numerous ways to terminate a strata scheme such as approaching the Registrar-General or forcing a sale pursuant to the strata renewal process, but how do you achieve this if the required consent is not provided by all relevant parties?
It is not uncommon for co-owners to have disputes over property. When these disputes occur, a co-owner may apply to the Supreme Court for the property to be held on the statutory trust for sale or partition. Part 4, Division 6 of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (the “Act”) outlines the relevant provisions for this application. The Court usually makes this order unless special circumstances exist. This article focuses on the statutory trust for sale.
This will depend on the circumstances.
On 1 July 2020, the Design and Building Practitioners - Particulars for Regulated Designs Order 2021 (Regulated Designs Order) came into effect. Under section 5(3) of the Design and Building Practitioner Act 2020 (NSW) (DBPA), the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, specify particulars that are additional to those prescribed by the regulations for regulated designs or regulated designs belonging to a particular class.
Amendments to the Strata Management Schemes Act 2015 (NSW) (SSMA) and its regulations came into effect on 24 August 2021. These changes significantly move the legal position on pets from the recent Court of Appeal decision in Cooper.
There has been a widespread practice of extending caretaking or building management agreements to get around the 10 year cap in the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (SSMA 2015). In the recent appeal decision of Australia City Properties Management Pty Ltd v The Owners – Strata Plan No 65111 [2021] NSWCA162, Chief Justice Bathurst affirmed on appeal that deeds of variation used to extend the term of the agreement for a period of greater than 10 years by adding option periods were, in fact, capped at a term of 10 years.
The rapid changes to strata management under COVID-19 have left owners corporations and strata managers alike with many operational questions.
To assist you to navigate this challenging time, we have prepared some answers, solutions and tools to assist with FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS arising from Covid-19 in respect of the following areas:
Most people may already know that an owners corporation has a strict duty to repair and maintain the common property of a strata scheme. But do they know that if the owners corporation fails to fulfil its strict duty of repair and maintenance that they have a right to claim damages (compensation) in the sum of tens of thousands of dollars for its breach of such statutory obligation?
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