The revolution has been postponed. The changes to strata law in NSW that were due to hit the statute books in July – meaning they should be before Parliament right now – are now more likely to be presented as a Bill in August at the earliest.
When they will become law is another matter entirely. It’s going to take a very steady hand on the tiller to keep them afloat and the boat has already sprung a few leaks (in every sense of the word)
We’ve heard of a threatened walkout by some members of advisory committees who reconvened after Christmas to discover a few nasty little surprises tweaked into the proposals.
For instance, the surveyors for defect bond claims, originally intended to be to be chosen by agreement between owners and developers, were now to be selected by developers alone.
This rang alarm bells for those who remember the konga line of corruption that self certification turned out to be, when developer-hired certifiers signed off on buildings only for local councils to declare them unfit for human habitation.
Thankfully, the collective dummy spit worked. The surveyors who decide how much (if any) of defects bonds will be refunded to developers will be chosen by mutual agreement or, failing that, by the Attorney General’s department.
Other proposals that might need a bit more glue include allowing council rangers into apartment blocks to control rogue parking. There are already whispers that a couple of major councils will be doing nothing of the kind because the extra costs will not be covered by the revenue raised.
And then there’s the election of committee office-bearers by the vote of all the owners at an AGM (instead of the members of the committee).
Trouble is, if the elected leaders turn out to be less than glorious, you need to hold another general meeting to get rid of them, rather than committee members simply choosing someone else from among their ranks.
We’re all hanging out for the law reforms but suddenly August seems a bit too soon, rather than too far away. Too soon or too late – join the debate of on the Flat Chat Forum.
A version of this article has also appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald’s online pages and in the print edition of Domain.