COMMENT: When we bought an investment property off the plan a few years ago, it felt like the right decision. We were buying into an area that was about to take off, and we were seriously thinking about down-sizing and sea-changing.

Then Covid happened, followed by horrendous rains and the building was delayed. We hoped the developer wouldn’t invoke their sunset clause and pull out of the deal. We should have been so lucky.

We first realised we might have made a huge mistake when, at the pre-handover inspection, one of the developer’s reps told us they’re received a five-star rating from then Building Commissioner David Chandler.

The developer’s minion went pale when we said we knew David personally and would ask him what he thought. Of course, the rating claim was a lie – and just the first of many.

There was the promise that there would be no Airbnb in the block. But the developer had overpriced the units and when he couldn’t sell them he put half a dozen on short-term lets and other investors quickly followed.

We were handed a booklet at the first AGM the contracts that were so one-sided they were almost criminal. Just in case we could read the small pring, some of it was in tiny, five point pale blue with others requiring QR codes to access the details. This, in a building where 75 percent of the owners were retirees and wouldn’t know a QR code from a Sudoku grid.

There was the 15-year stormwater drain contract that had the built-in option of a 10 percent increase in fees every year. Do the maths – it effectively more than doubles the cost over the length of the contract. Next, there was $60,000 allocated to maintaining lifts that were still under warranty – probably another scam.

The tiny solar panels on the roof were just enough to meet planning approvals but even then the energy company told us they were theirs, not ours, so they would charge us for any power generated, and it would cost even more to remove them.

Meanwhile the strata manager, Netstrata, refused to give our committee secretary the strata roll, citing entirely bogus privacy concerns. 

We’d accidentally delegated committee powers to them and they said if we needed to contact other owners they’d take care of it. This was before the scandal over insurance commissions was exposed on Four Corners. 

The issues mounted up. The building is only two storeys high and a quirk in NSW strata law means the developer (who still had 20 unsold units) is allowed to vote on defect-related issues at general meetings.

The developer also put three of their people on the strata committee and whenever defects were discussed, they should have declared a conflict of interest and been asked to leave the meetings.

However, they persuaded the other members that their representatives could stay because they were there as residents, not developers. Utter nonsense, of course, but the office-bearers didn’t want to create bad feeling.

FYI: The law says that conflicts of interest have to be declared and recorded at the beginning of the meeting and conflicted parties can’t even be there for the related discussions. The law doesn’t count for much when a bunch of strata newbies is confronted by a determined and plausible developer.

And so it went on. Every defect claim was met with misinformation and denial. I could have fought it all and probably should have, but late last year our tenants, the only people who have ever lived in the place, made us an offer that cleared the mortgage but represented a $50k loss on the whole deal.

My heart goes out to anyone who is struggling with dodgy developers and incompetent committees and now, on top of it all, another rise in their mortgage payments with more to come.

But please forgive me my relieved smile – it cost us $50k to get out of our off-the-plan flustercluck but it was worth every cent.