Pub­li­ca­tions

May 20, 2019

Con­struc­tion — Inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion, is it that simple?

The Aus­tralian Stan­dards Design and Con­struct Con­tract AS 4902 – 2002, does not make any pro­vi­sion for an inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion process through­out the build. With build­ing defects on the rise, one has to con­sid­er that the appoint­ment of an inde­pen­dent project ver­i­fi­er, to over­see the works and con­duct inspec­tions at…

May 15, 2019

NSW con­struc­tion indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 1 of 6)

Inter­view with Peter Kar­sai – Cladding specialist 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…

May 8, 2019

Gain­ing con­trol — what you can do under the new stra­ta renew­al legislation

Although Part 10 of the Stra­ta Schemes Devel­op­ment Act 2015 com­menced on 30 Novem­ber 2016 (Part 10), the intri­ca­cies of the tech­ni­cal work­ings of Part 10 have still not been ful­ly test­ed or con­sid­ered by the Courts. This is tes­ta­ment to the fact that Part 10 requires a lengthy, con­vo­lut­ed and high­ly…

Apr 15, 2019

The con­struc­tion indus­try, cur­rent state of play in NSW

There has been a flood of arti­cles and com­men­tary from all cor­ners of the con­struc­tion indus­try since the high­ly pub­li­cised ​‘Opal Tow­ers’ inci­dent. This arti­cle is not intend­ed to pos­ture again over the poten­tial rights of the Opal Tow­er res­i­dents (ques­tions which many stra­ta own­ers have faced before) but to look…

Apr 9, 2019

Pri­or­i­ty Notices: Pru­dent or Impractical?

With the dead­line for manda­to­ry e‑conveyancing fast approach­ing, con­veyanc­ing in New South Wales has unequiv­o­cal­ly entered the dig­i­tal age.  And while the change from ​‘paper’ con­veyanc­ing to online plat­forms gives prac­ti­tion­ers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stream­line their ser­vices and poten­tial­ly pass on costs sav­ings to clients, it also cre­ates new poten­tial prob­lems…

Mar 21, 2019

A Caveat on Caveats

When used cor­rect­ly, caveats can be an impor­tant ally in your secu­ri­ty arsenal. Loaned some­one mon­ey? You should con­sid­er a caveat.  Con­tract­ed to pur­chase real estate? You should con­sid­er a caveat. You get the idea. A per­son seek­ing the pro­tec­tion of a caveat is called a ​“caveator”. A caveat is used to pro­tect a caveator’s legal…

Nov 12, 2018

Use it or lose it; a recent case on the law of adverse possession

In New South Wales law it is pos­si­ble for you to become the own­er of land by ​‘adverse pos­ses­sion’. Adverse pos­ses­sion, also known as ​‘squat­ters’ rights’, allows some­one to legal­ly take own­er­ship of land they have occu­pied exclu­sive­ly for at least 12 years. In oth­er words, it is essen­tial­ly a case of…

Jun 19, 2018

The GST with­hold­ing régime starts July 2018 — A look at the trans­ac­tions to which it will apply

The new GST ​‘with­hold­ing’ régime for sales of new res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties and vacant res­i­den­tial lots will apply from 1 July 2018 onwards. WHY The changes are an anti-avoid­ance mea­sure to pre­vent devel­op­er com­pa­nies from sell­ing prop­er­ties for a pur­chase price that includes GST and then dis­solv­ing their busi­ness before they are liable to…

Sep 11, 2017

Is a ​“Trans­fer Grant­i­ng Ease­ment” enough to sat­is­fy a deferred com­mence­ment condition?

Is a ​“Trans­fer Grant­i­ng Ease­ment” enough to sat­is­fy a deferred com­mence­ment con­di­tion? Mau­ro Polet­ti v Inner West Coun­cil [2017] NSWLEC 1325 Why is Polet­ti important? This case con­firms that reg­is­tra­tion of an ease­ment is required to give cer­tain­ty and it is rea­son­able for the ease­ment to be required to be reg­is­tered pri­or to the…

Sep 11, 2017

Some obser­va­tions on the approach to val­u­a­tions, land tax claims and the ​‘actu­al use of land’

Some obser­va­tions on the approach to val­u­a­tions, land tax claims and the ​‘actu­al use of land’: Car­lewie Pty Ltd v Roads and Mar­itime Ser­vices [2017] NSWLEC 78 Why is Car­lewie important? The Appli­cant ran some inter­est­ing argu­ments on val­u­a­tion approach­es in this mat­ter, and the Court has made it clear that sec­tion 5…