It’s becoming increasingly common for strata meetings to be recorded.
So what happens when a person announces that he or she intends to record a strata meeting and some of those present object to the meeting being recorded?
Is it legal to do so? The answer might surprise you.
To read the full article click here now – Recording Strata Meetings
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
The NSW Supreme Court recently found a Local Council which acted as the certifier of a house, liable to the homeowner for structural defects.
This case offers hope to owners corporations whose buildings are affected by building defects.
To read the full article – Building Defects Certifier Liable
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
From the entire JS Mueller & Co team we wish you a Safe and Happy Festive Season!
We are taking a short break from the 23rd December 2015 and returning on the 11th January 2016.
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266 and we’ll get back to you following our break.
Bruce Bentley, Partner JS Mueller & Co presented recently at a Legalwise Seminar ‘Review of Strata Title Reforms’.
To view a copy of Bruce’s paper please click the link below.
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
In September 2015 the JS Mueller & Co team presented at a forum to the strata industry the new proposed strata laws.
Since the forum, it has been announced that the new strata laws will come into operation on 1 July 2016.
On 29 Oct 2015, the New South Wales Parliament passed the new Strata Schemes Management Bill 2015 and the Strata Schemes Development Bill 2015.
Papers and presentations are available to view here:
JS Mueller & Co Forum Presentations_Sept15
JS Mueller & Co Forum Papers_Sept15
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
JS Mueller & Co partner and strata law expert, Adrian Mueller, shares the following case Frankel – v – Patterson [2015] NSWSC 1307 with LookUp Strata Newsletter.
For more information read – Pet By-laws
Senior Lawyer, Adrian Mueller reminisces…
“In 1980 my parents took me to the Gold Coast for a holiday. It was my first adventure in Queensland. I was 2 years old. We stayed at the (in)famous Iluka hotel.
The Iluka was built in the 1970’s. It was an iconic building – one of the Gold Coast’s first high rises. It had 72 luxury apartments and was a stone’s throw from Cavill Avenue.
It held fond memories for me and, I imagine, many families who enjoyed wonderful times together at the Iluka.
You can imagine my horror when I recently discovered that the Iluka has been demolished. Why? Because of concrete cancer.
You see the owner of the building was faced with a dilemma. Repair the concrete spalling which had been left untreated for decades at exorbitant cost or demolish the building. The owner chose to demolish.
A leading architect Professor Holden, Head of Architecture at the Griffith University in Qld, has said that high rises built in the 1970’s have an average lifespan of 40 years.
That is a sobering thought for apartment owners many of whom cannot afford special levies to repair widespread concrete spalling.
So what is the solution? For some buildings, it may simply be too late. The Iluka is a case in point.
For other buildings, the key is preventative maintenance. As unpalatable as it might be, apartment owners need to realise that spending a little to detect and treat concrete spalling at an early stage saves money in the long run.”
Adrian Mueller also acknowledges that the challenge for strata managers and other stakeholders is to convince owners to invest in proactive maintenance to protect their investment by spending a little in the short term to save big money down the track.
Says Adrian “Convincing owners to spend now to save later is no mean feat. But it is achievable. And doing so can avoid potential disasters.
I will miss the Iluka.”
Adrian specialises in strata law and those areas of the law that particularly deal with building defects.
“An apartment is someone’s home and most valuable asset. That is something worth protecting and knowing where you stand is vital” says Adrian.
For more information on concrete cancer, visit the following websites – Concrete Cancer or Remedia Structural Repairs
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
Short term lettings might void strata insurance policies leaving no cover for property damage caused to strata apartments and common property by unruly tennants.
This issue came to the fore again last month when a Canadian couple returned to their property to discover it had been wrecked by visitors who had booked the property via the popular Airbnb site.
Unfortunately, short term lettings of strata units are becoming a major contributor to building disharmony with the current law not providing effective solutions.
At JS Mueller & Co we believe each building is different and that the problem of short term lettings can only be dealt with properly by way of specific by-laws giving owners corporations greater powers to deal with the problem.
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
Short term tenancies have long posed problems for community living. The problem most commonly arises in communities where there is a mixture of permanent residents and short term tenants. Issues of noise, damage to common property and inappropriate behaviour are often attributed to short term tenants. Short term tenants vary from backpackers to holidaymakers to short term workers.
Strata schemes have tried to both regulate short term tenants and prohibit short term tenancies by use of by-laws.
Effectively regulating the behaviour of short term tenants has proved difficult. Short term tenants are exactly that, short term, and are not generally around long enough to be effectively subjected to the laborious and lengthy procedures set out in the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 (“the Act”) for enforcement of by-laws.
Click below to download the presentation and full paper on Short Term Tenancies from our April 2015 seminar:
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.
As any Airbnb (and similar sites) convert will attest, where there’s a spare bed, there’s money to be made. But while the rise and rise of short-term letting sites have delivered a windfall to many apartment-owners for some, its days – or nights – may be numbered.
Many residential committees are hitting back at apartment owners who sublet their lot’s, blaming loud parties and bad behaviour for the move to stamp out the unofficial ‘bed-and-breakfast’ businesses.
It’s apparent that many Australians are fed up with the issues surrounding short term letting and are looking for solutions.
Bruce Bentley, expert Strata Lawyer provides ‘eleven steps to combat short term living’ inclusive of case studies and a podcast. Click below to download his paper inclusive of case studies.
For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.