Pub­li­ca­tions

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)…

May 13, 2020

COVID-19 | Con­struc­tion Works With­in Stra­ta Schemes

With the intro­duc­tion of the Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment (COVID-19 Devel­op­ment – Con­struc­tion Work Days) Order 2020 on 31 March 2020 (the Order), stra­ta schemes may be faced with deci­sions to make regard­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion or com­mence­ment of build­ing works dur­ing the Gov­ern­ment imposed restric­tions and social dis­tanc­ing guidelines.  Impact of…

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…

Jan 13, 2020

NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 6 of 6)

Inter­view with Tadd Wal­ford, Par­tridge, Struc­tur­al EngineerOver the past eight months, I have released a series of arti­cles. This arti­cle is ​‘part 6’ of a six-part series and will be fol­lowed by my ​‘2019 wrap-up’. The series doc­u­ments my dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of…

Dec 17, 2019

Our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing 2019

We are almost at the end of 2019, and with the end of a year comes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing the year:Deeds of Release and their effec­tive­ness – update 2019 | Richard Ott­ley | Employ­ment LawFair Work Com­mis­sion – When will the Full Bench enter­tain an…

Oct 23, 2019

Alert | Design­ers and Build­ing Practitioners

“Some­times the wheel turns slow­ly, but it turns” [1]It is tak­ing some time, but slow­ly and sure­ly it appears we are see­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions put for­ward in the Sher­gold Weir Report [2] being actioned.With the Sher­gold Weir Report released in Feb­ru­ary 2018 and the NSW Gov­ern­men­t’s Response to the Sher­gold Weir…

Jul 30, 2019

NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 5 of 6)

Inter­view with Mark Kavanagh — Build­ing Consultant Over the com­ing weeks, I will be releas­ing a six part arti­cle series. The arti­cles will doc­u­ment my dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of the NSW con­struc­tion indus­try and the high per­cent­age of prop­er­ties which…

Jun 26, 2019

NSW con­struc­tion indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 4 of 6)

Inter­view with Steven Nakhla – SJN Build­ing Consultants Over the com­ing weeks, I will be releas­ing a six part arti­cle series. The arti­cles will doc­u­ment my dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of the NSW con­struc­tion indus­try and the high per­cent­age of…

Jun 12, 2019

NSW con­struc­tion indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 3 of 6)

Inter­view with Allan Har­ri­man – BCA Log­ic Over the com­ing weeks, I will be releas­ing a six part arti­cle series. The arti­cles will doc­u­ment my dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of the NSW con­struc­tion indus­try and the high per­cent­age of prop­er­ties…