Sydney MP and Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s ambitious but much-needed effort to reform strata law was launched at a well-attended meeting in Parliament House last week. And first impression are that, however obvious the many and great flaws in the current law are, exactly how to fix them is much less clear-cut.
There was so much up for discussion that one huge issue – defects and the desperately unfair battles owners have to fight to get what they paid for – barely got a mention.
Purely by coincidence the Herald ran a story of mine a couple of days later about a woman who was almost killed by a combination of defects in her apartment, only now being fixed after 10 years of legal wrangling.
That block is far from unique. My own building has paid nearly $1m in lawyers’ bills just to establish that there are, indeed, defects and the developer should pay to fix them.
Predictably, the developers are dragging out the process, no doubt hoping we will give up and pay for most of the $6 million worth of remedial work ourselves (as strata law would require us to do). It would be comical if it didn’t involve people’s homes. During an inspection of my unit, our expert tapped on the ceiling to show it was loose, so their lawyer said it was his tapping that had loosened it.
In court, the hearings are conducted like a murder trial with our building experts browbeaten by their heavyweight legal eagles, often on irrelevant detail: “On which day did you type this report … which computer did you use … ?”
Chip, chip, chip, until the intimidated expert cracks like the sub-standard walls thrown up to complete our award-winning block.
This problem is much more widespread that you would imagine. Most owners are scared to go public in case it affects the value of their property.
By the way, I was on the panel at Clover’s meeting but I’m not a supporter per se. Anyone who’s prepared to grasp the prickliest nettle on today’s urban landscape gets my vote and if I can give a voice to Flat Chat readers then I will.