Pub­li­ca­tions

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

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…

24 Mar 2026

More Changes for Stra­ta — effec­tive 1 April 2026

The Fair Trad­ing and Build­ing Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Bill 2026 was passed by par­lia­ment dur­ing Feb­ru­ary 2026 with the changes effec­tive on 1 April 2026. This forms part of a broad­er reg­u­la­to­ry over­haul aimed at strength­en­ing con­sumer pro­tec­tion, tight­en­ing com­pli­ance stan­dards and improv­ing account­abil­i­ty across build­ing and real estate indus­tries. The objec­tive is to reduce…

20 Mar 2026

When can an own­er com­mence pro­ceed­ings in the 6 months after the expiry of the statu­to­ry war­ran­ty periods

When a defect claim emerges in the final six months of statu­to­ry war­ran­ty peri­ods, own­ers may still have time to act. This update explains when pro­ceed­ings can be com­menced under the Home Build­ing Act 1989 (NSW), fol­low­ing recent Supreme Court guidance.Own­ers cor­po­ra­tions often dis­cov­er defects in their build­ings in the last 6 months…

4 July 2025

10 Tips For Stra­ta Reme­di­al Con­struc­tion Contracts

Are you won­der­ing why your stra­ta work to repair or main­tain your stra­ta build­ing is over bud­get, rid­dled with delays, plagued with costs over­runs and vari­a­tions at every turn?It is impor­tant to con­sid­er and fol­low these steps:Before ten­der­ing for the work to be done, have your build­ing con­tract, con­sul­tan­cy agree­ment and/​or sep­a­rate…

2 July 2025

Impor­tant Stra­ta Law Changes — Effec­tive 1 July 2025

The Stra­ta Schemes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Act 2025 (Amend­ing Act) intro­duces fur­ther reform in Gov­ern­men­t’s ongo­ing review of the stra­ta legislation. On 1 July 2025, the sec­ond tranche of changes under the Amend­ing Act com­menced, which will impact or give effect to the following: enhanced pro­tec­tion of own­ers cor­po­ra­tions from stra­ta man­agers, build­ing man­agers and oth­ers…

26 June 2025

Own­ers Cor­po­ra­tions / Asso­ci­a­tions now sub­ject to Unfair Con­tract Terms 

Under the new stra­ta law reforms com­menc­ing 1 July 2025 (the Stra­ta Schemes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Act 2025 (No. 14) NSW) a key change that will impact own­ers cor­po­ra­tions and asso­ci­a­tions[1] are the unfair con­tract terms (UCT) pro­vi­sions.In line with Aus­tralian Con­sumer Law, UCT will now be banned and will apply to:con­tracts for a sup­ply of…

26 June 2025

Unfair con­tract terms in out­dat­ed stan­dard form con­tracts could cost you a fine of $50 mil­lion (Com­pa­nies) or $2.5 mil­lion (Indi­vid­u­als)

If you have not reviewed your stan­dard form con­struc­tion con­tracts since 9 Novem­ber 2023 (when the amend­ed Com­pe­ti­tion and Con­sumer Act 2010 (Cth) – Sched­ule 2 (ACL) became effec­tive), you could be at risk of any/​all unfair con­tract terms being declared void and hav­ing to pay a penalty. This means that:Any stan­dard form con­tract…