Pub­li­ca­tions

22 Feb 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…

31 Aug 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…

3 Aug 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…

16 July 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…

15 May 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…

14 May 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)…

23 Mar 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…

30 July 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…

26 June 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…

12 June 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…