This year has been tough on strata managers. However, in NSW at least, there are signs that the enforcement tide is turning on strata owners who wilfully neglect their duties.
The latest strata reforms, set to become law in the new year, allow government regulators to enter lots and common property. They will be able to check that owners and owners corporations are maintaining and repairing their properties. These new powers come with teeth. The regulator can ask questions that must be answered in writing. It can demand the production of documents and conduct destructive testing.
The most powerful of the new provisions is the power to accept enforceable undertakings. This is a not-so-new trick. Regulators worldwide use it to make the bad guys pay for investigating their own wrongdoing. The powers were recently used to get Net Strata to pay $450,000 to fund an investigation into its alleged misbehaviour. Now the boot is on the other foot. The same type of undertaking can be extracted from an OC. Enforcement action that is cost-neutral to government is the new black.
Legal purists will scream. So will some owners corporation advocates. They sometimes refuse to accept that their members may be part of the problem. If used well, this power should reduce unsafe, dilapidated buildings that threaten life and property. Deadly mould, combustible cladding, and cancerous concrete will be in focus. OCs must change their ways. Getting stuck in a doom loop, asking for new quotes and reports over and over to avoid their responsibilities, will not cut it when these laws are in effect.
Michael Teys advises strata management businesses on improving profitability through professionalisation and streamlined operating systems.
He has more than 30 years’ experience as a strata lawyer and academic and has owned 11 strata management agencies throughout Australia. He has a Master of Philosophy (Built Environment) and Bachelor of Laws. He lectures and writes widely about strata management issues in Australia and internationally.
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