In the case of issues of validity of title, that applies to any type of property, it is not limited to strata. From your story it sounds like whomever did the conveyancing had no idea what they were doing, as a check of the title records would have shown any interests such as a mortgage.
I certainly agree that it is surprising how many people buy property (and not just strata) without doing even basic checks. I don’t necessarily think that it is more important to do those checks if you are buying into strata, but certainly there are a number of additional elements to throw into the mix, including what the co-owners are like, whether it is primarily owner occupied or the apartments are largely rented out and the absentee owners don’t care what happens.
It is worth bearing in mind that even if you do the most thorough checks of strata records it is highly likely that there will be issues that are “off the books”, and you won’t find out about them until you are actually in the place, so PeterC makes a good point.
Looking back now, I sometimes wonder if I knew what I know now about our scheme whether I would have bought my place – the answer is probably yes, as the good things outweigh the bad things. I agree with all the points Jimmy makes, and personally I would be reluctant to buy into a recent development unless I was absolutely sure re defects etc.