Pub­li­ca­tions

7 Aug 2026

NSW Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 Pass­es Parliament

The Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 (the Bill) passed through Par­lia­ment on Tues­day after­noon 4 August 2026. The Bill is await­ing assent from the Gov­er­nor and will com­mence on a date set by proclamation.Much of the prac­ti­cal oper­a­tion and impli­ca­tion for those affect­ed by the pass­ing of this Bill will be…

31 July 2026

Nichol­son v Stra­ta Plan No 104042 –The Valid­i­ty of Debt Recov­ery Claus­es in By-laws

The recent NSW Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Tri­bunal deci­sion in Nichol­son v The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No 104042 [2025] NSW­CATCD 202 pro­vides impor­tant guid­ance on the lim­its of an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion’s pow­er to pass by-laws reg­u­lat­ing short-term rental accom­mo­da­tion in the scheme. More impor­tant­ly how­ev­er the deci­sion rein­forces a broad­er prin­ci­ple which…

15 July 2026

10 year long stop on build­ing defect claims rein­forced for con­tri­bu­tion claims

The recent deci­sion in For­tius Broad­way No 1 Pty Ltd V ACN 103 211 141 Pty Ltd (for­mer­ly known as Wat­pac Con­struc­tion (NSW) Pty Ltd) [2026] NSWSC 710 (For­tius) hand­ed down on 25 June 2026 rein­forces the 10-year ​“long-stop” peri­od on claims for defec­tive build­ing work[1], includ­ing con­tri­bu­tion claims, with the Court…

6 July 2026

A High­er Evi­den­tiary Bur­den for Work Orders: The Prac­ti­cal Impli­ca­tions of The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No 102171 v Ceerose Pty Ltd [2025] NSW­CATCD 137

The deci­sion in The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No 102171 v Ceerose Pty Ltd; Zone Q Mil­sons Point Devel­op­ment Pty Ltd v Ceerose Pty Ltd; Ceerose Pty Ltd v South­ern Cross Cli­mate Con­trol Pty Ltd [2025] NSW­CATCD 137 is a sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ment in under­stand­ing the evi­den­tiary oblig­a­tions of an appli­cant when seek­ing a work order under…

11 June 2026

Strata Plan 92183 v Samdora Pty Ltd [2026] NSWSC 406 | 'Substantive Control' over Works & s37 of the DB&P Act

In this case, the plain­tiff (Stra­ta Plan 92183) brought pro­ceed­ings alleg­ing defec­tive res­i­den­tial build­ing work in rela­tion to 9 town hous­es locat­ed in Manger­ton, NSW.Rel­e­vant­ly SP92183 claimed that both the builder’s direc­tor (Mr Nas­sif) and the developer’s direc­tor (Mr Chah­wan) had both breached their duty to exer­cise rea­son­able care to avoid eco­nom­ic…

19 May 2026

SP6534 v Elkhouri; Own­ers Cor­po­ra­tion SP6534 v Per­pet­u­al Cor­po­rate Trust Ltd [2024] NSW­CA 279 (in Eq. Div) (27 Novem­ber 2024)

Back­ground and PartiesMr. Elkhouri (Elkhouri) owned Lot 11, a pent­house apart­ment in an 11 lot res­i­den­tial stra­ta scheme at Point Piper, Syd­ney. The lot occu­pied the top two lev­els of the build­ing and includ­ed bal­conies and rooftop areas that were com­mon prop­er­ty. When Elkhouri pur­chased Lot 11 in 2007, he had no exclu­sive rights…

18 May 2026

Aus­tralian Anti-Mon­ey Laun­der­ing AML/CTF Tranche 2 laws are coming

Australia’s Anti-Mon­ey Laun­der­ing and Counter-Ter­ror­ism Financ­ing (AML/CTF) Act is designed to stop ille­gal funds from enter­ing the finan­cial sys­tem. It is esti­mat­ed to be a $68 bil­lion prob­lem in Aus­tralia alone. This leg­is­la­tion aims to stop the flow of crime mon­ey and bring us in line with the rest of…

18 May 2026

Ober­to Pty Ltd v The Own­ers Stra­ta Plan No 2004 No 2 [2026] NSW­CATCD 24 & costs in Stra­ta Dis­putes – Rule 38 of Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Rules 2014

After a lot own­er was suc­cess­ful in its claim for dam­ages in an apart­ment build­ing as a result of an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion’s breach of statu­to­ry duty under sec­tion 106(1) of the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015, the Tri­bunal applied rule 38 of the Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Rules 2014 (r38) to award costs…

15 May 2026

The Expand­ing Scope of Devel­op­er and Builder Lia­bil­i­ty: Own­ers Stra­ta Plan No 66375 v King [2018] NSW­CA 170

The New South Wales Court of Appeal’s deci­sion in The Own­ers Stra­ta Plan No 66375 v King remains one of the most sig­nif­i­cant author­i­ties on statu­to­ry war­ranties under the Home Build­ing Act 1989 (NSW). The case clar­i­fied both the inter­pre­ta­tion of sec­tion 18B war­ranties and the breadth of a developer’s lia­bil­i­ty to…

14 May 2026

The extend­ed 6 year lim­i­ta­tion peri­od for SSMA sec­tion 106 stra­ta claims is not retrospective

In the recent deci­sion of John Goubran & Asso­ciates Pty Ltd ACN 070 974 819 v The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan 57150 [2026] NSWDC 9 (Goubran) it was held that the lim­i­ta­tion peri­od which was amend­ed from 2 years to 6 years from 1 July 2025 under s106(6), is not ret­ro­spec­tive and does not extend…