I agree with Bunyip. There is no way that “disclosure” obviates a conflict of interest. Total crap. There has to be an investigation into the whole strata building thing, whether by royal commission or otherwise. Further, how did the NSW govt get away with reducing the defects provisions and lowering the bar ? Outrageous.
This legislation may be able to be challenged as ultra vires the government’s power. In the meantime, we should all join the owners’ corp ginger group and give it backing to bring representative (class) actions against directors and shareholders (!) of liquidated builders and developers. It can be done and the organisation could well get a litigation funder for this.
I am joining this organisation right now and will put myself up to organise an action, be the lawyer for the plaintiff, on spec if we can’t get a funder, hire Counsel to do the same, and run it in the appropriate court in NSW. We need a building in NSW to complain about and not Opal as it will get its own attention.
So which building is suitable for this proceeding? The best one would be one that has been certified and the defects period has expired but which has ongoing defects which are not covered by the useless bond. It might be too early for this to be apparent under the amended legislation so the next best thing is a building that is caught between the old legislation and the new and has suffered accordingly or an older building in the same situation as the ACT ones. Any takers?