I’m starting to wonder if we are going to end up as a failed strata. The best outcome is that we are going to have a lot of forced sales, and some of those we are going to lose the levies that are in arrears.
One of the unforeseen consequences of too many owners owing too much is that it makes the whole scheme vulnerable to predatorial investors who, in extreme cases, can take control of the block and push through work that requires special levies, forcing more owners to sell. Once they have bought enough properties at knock-down prices, they then sell or plan the whole block for demolition and rebuild at a massive profit.
And if that sounds like a paranoid conspiracy, there’s a bloke in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney doing it right now. Even if he can’t get the 75 percent of votes to do it on his own, he can get the 30 per cent he needs to stop anyone else doing it.
And then it’s just a case of using strata laws on repairs and maintenance and fire safety orders to squeeze the other owners financially until they are coming to him begging him to buy their flats. Evil incarnate.
The answer, before it gets too bad, is to sniff around for a legit developer who might be interested in a collective sale where everyone would get more than the paper valuation of their flat, not less.