Current Page

[tina]

My state MP doorknocked me.  I mentioned strata.  He told me that a forum about strata was about to be held and sent me an invitation link:

https://events.humanitix.com/strata-matters-u49j8rpf

Time:  6:00PM – 8:00PM

Date:  Monday, 8 September 2025

Here is the blurb from the Event registration page:
Whether you own an apartment or are considering buying one, it’s essential to understand how strata works — from your rights and responsibilities to how your building is managed.

This forum will bring together NSW Minister for Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong, NSW Strata and Property Commissioner Angus Abadee, and other industry experts to share insights on key strata issues, including recent reforms affecting local residents.

Hear updates on topics such as strata law, building defects, by-laws, dispute resolution, and governance. You’ll also have the opportunity to put your questions to people working directly in the strata field.
 

I have not been keeping up with the forum lately.  Apologies if this has already been mentioned.  Anyone, who can get to Strathfield, Sydney next week, should attend.

Topic

[Jimmy-T]

tina wrote:

I have not been keeping up with the forum lately.  Apologies if this has already been mentioned.  Anyone, who can get to Strathfield, Sydney next week, should attend.

For some reason, Fair Trading didn’t pass this on to me. Maybe they don’t want Flatchatters turning up, asking informed questions and making relevant comments.  Or perhaps it’s just another SNAFTU (‘sanother Fair Trading upstuff).

If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.

Quote

[Vermont]

Thanks Tina.

More widely, are the email distribution lists that I should subscribe to so I get more invitations to events like this?

I feel like I find out too late or after they’ve already occurred.

Quote

[tina]

@Jimmy, if you have not interviewed Angus Abadee yet, I think you should.  He knows a lot about the power of the Strata and Property Services Taskforce.  He’s enthusiastic about the resources being put together to help strata committees.  People were firing all kinds of personal strata questions.  He was 15 minutes over time in the Strata Matters forum tonight.  As I left the building, there was still a line of people wanting to talk to him.

Jason Yat-Sen Li (NSW MP for Strathfield) hosted.  More than 100 people attended.  Anoulack Chanthivong (Minister for many things including Fair Trading) addressed the crowd briefly.  Angus Abadee (Property Commissioner) gave a Strata 101 overview and took questions from the floor.  There were heaps of questions.  They covered the same kind of topics we read about here.  It was like Jimmy taking questions on the James Valentine radio show but it went for two hours.

Angus Abadee mentioned the Strata and Property Services Task Force.  He wants to take the workload off NCAT.  Everyone should try and talk to each other to sort out disputes.  If that fails, go to mediation with Fair Trading (which is free).  NCAT should be the final step.

He expressed concern that strata buildings were not well maintained.  Successive generations of owners have kicked the can down the road.  Failure to maintain common property years ago means they cost much more to fix today.

Rising Insurance premiums:  he attributed this high volume of insurance claims.  He thinks claims would reduce if people maintained their buildings in the first place.  ACCC is looking into the small size of the insurance industry (not many players).  Without competition, premiums can be kept high.

Angus Abadee encouraged people to join a strata committee.   It was explained that they have to get involved by attending meetings and voting.

Strata Hub was mentioned a few times.  There are tools to help people do a building health check and put together their own capital works plans.

We were encouraged to use NSW govt resources to query the qualifications of builders / contractors, project managers.

He said that strata managers are not happy to see him when he and his team come to audit their practices.

A sampling of complaints heard tonight:

.  Strata managers being corrupt, overpaid, unqualified, biassed towards certain strata committee members.

.  Problems with repairs, increased cost of repairs due to a “design and building practitioner” scheme

.  Cost of updating by-laws (someone was quoted $800) whilst renovating a bathroom.  Other people in the strata plan had renovated their bathroom without seeking permission.

.  Ten-year building manager / cleaning contract costing $300K raised sympathetic grumbles in the room.

.  Embedded networks

 

Quote

[Author]

Replies