Pub­li­ca­tions

Feb 10, 2023

Shift­ing the dial on build­ing defects lia­bil­i­ty – a greater risk for com­pa­ny direc­tors and devel­op­ers under recent leg­isla­tive reform

Under the Home Build­ing Act 1989, claimants in defec­tive build­ing cas­es against cor­po­rate builders and/​or cor­po­rate devel­op­ers may hit a road­block in the case of ulti­mate insol­ven­cy of those par­ties even if the claims are suc­cess­ful and rec­ti­fi­ca­tion or dam­ages orders are made in respect of the defects.  Has this now changed…

Jul 25, 2022

Reme­di­al Works Are Dif­fer­ent | NSW Con­struc­tion Reform

The real­i­ty of the NSW Con­struc­tion reform for the reme­di­al industry Reme­di­al is an inte­gral part of the con­struc­tion industry. Twelve months down the road, after the com­mence­ment of new design com­pli­ance require­ments under the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (DBPA) and the accom­pa­ny­ing reg­u­la­tions (DBPR) on 1 July 2021, the reme­di­al…

Jun 17, 2022

The evo­lu­tion of a legal team, intro­duc­ing Swaab’s team ser­vic­ing the prop­er­ty industry

The pace of trans­for­ma­tion, increased vol­ume and com­plex­i­ty of projects has con­tin­ued unabat­ed with­in the prop­er­ty sec­tor. As one of the fir­m’s fastest grow­ing teams, our team ser­vic­ing the prop­er­ty indus­try has seen a grow­ing demand over the past 24-months across the full spec­trum of prop­er­ty services. Diver­si­fi­ca­tion and the intro­duc­tion of…

Feb 22, 2021

Helen Kowal’s arti­cle pub­lished in Source​able​.net | Final­ly, Bet­ter Build­ing Prac­tices are Being Enforced

Back in 2019, frus­trat­ed in my pro­fes­sion as to how many build­ing defects appear in mul­ti-storey res­i­den­tial build­ings short­ly after con­struc­tion lead­ing to mul­ti-mil­lions of dol­lars being spent on reme­di­al repairs, I spent the year inter­view­ing expert build­ing con­sul­tants as to their views on the state of play in con­struc­tion and…

Aug 31, 2020

NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try Reform

The NSW Build­ing Com­mis­sion­er, David Chan­dler OAM, is at the ready with ​‘boots on the ground’, to ​‘rid the indus­try of dan­ger­ous builders, devel­op­ers and cer­ti­fiers’ and improve con­sumer con­fi­dence in the buy­ing of res­i­den­tial apart­ments in NSW with the com­mence­ment on 1 Sep­tem­ber 2020 of the Res­i­den­tial Apart­ment Build­ings (Com­pli­ance…

Aug 3, 2020

Address­ing Build­ing Defects in Stra­ta Schemes

Leg­isla­tive oblig­a­tions and func­tions for a stra­ta scheme can be over­whelm­ing in the first few years and it may take time to estab­lish a func­tion­ing stra­ta com­mit­tee. Obvi­ous­ly, the thought of defects in a stra­ta scheme are not what is on a lot own­er’s mind hav­ing just pur­chased a new unit. How­ev­er, with strict time…

Jul 16, 2020

Mer­i­tas — An Intro­duc­tion to Tem­po­rary Changes Affect­ing Busi­ness­es in Aus­tralia and New Zealand

Look­ing for busi­ness and legal guid­ance regard­ing COVID-19 updates and pro­grams in Aus­tralia & New Zealand? This doc­u­ment has cov­er­age across the region with mem­ber firms who are here to assist. Please vis­it any of the COVID-19 resource mate­ri­als for more com­pre­hen­sive updates.  View here…

May 15, 2020

Stra­ta Schemes Gen­er­al Meet­ings in light of COVID-19

It has just been announced that the NSW Par­lia­ment is con­sid­er­ing reforms to the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (SSMA) to remove the need for face-to-face meet­ings and allow own­ers cor­po­ra­tions to oper­ate elec­tron­i­cal­ly. In the mean­time, own­ers cor­po­ra­tions are still required com­ply with their oblig­a­tions to hold meet­ings in…

May 14, 2020

Is your stra­ta scheme functioning?

We recent­ly act­ed for a lot owner/​building man­ag­er in a Stra­ta Appli­ca­tion to the NSW Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Tri­bunal (NCAT) suc­cess­ful­ly seek­ing orders for the removal of the exist­ing stra­ta com­mit­tee and the com­pul­so­ry appoint­ment of a stra­ta man­ag­er to the scheme under s237 of the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (SSMA 2015)…

Mar 23, 2020

Tips for Own­ers Cor­po­ra­tions, Stra­ta Com­mit­tees and Stra­ta Man­agers — COVID-19

In these unprece­dent­ed times, there is a lot of uncer­tain­ty for busi­ness­es and indi­vid­u­als. This uncer­tain­ty extends to the ongo­ing and sat­is­fac­to­ry func­tion­ing of an own­ers corporation.  Stra­ta Man­agers and Stra­ta Com­mit­tees should be aware of their ongo­ing oblig­a­tions to ensure that an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion con­tin­ues to func­tion sat­is­fac­to­ri­ly dur­ing the…