COMMENT: I have been accused in the past of being biased against Victorian strata. Maybe I am – I’m certainly biased against anyone who expects apartment owners to suffer in silence while they are being ripped off and let down by the people supposed to protect and defend them.

Last week we had a lot of stories from Victoria, including a post in the Forum from a Victorian owner who applied to VCAT (the tribunal) to be allowed to attend strata committee meetings and to be sure motions for his AGM would get on to the agenda. 

Both requests were rejected by VCAT which determined that since there’s nothing in the law that requires either of these things, then they couldn’t rule in his favour.

So the law is at fault.  But that’s okay because there’s a whole tranche of suggested law reforms on the way… except none of the proposals address these issues which are basic strata rights in other states.

The final report of an expert strata panel makes 51 recommendations to the Victorian Government which supports only 17 in full, three in part and 26 in principle. Three recommendations are under review and two have been rejected.

The two rejected suggestions just happen to affect owners’ corporations ability to prevent the use of short-term holiday lets as party flats. Jeez, we can’t stop people having fun, regardless of how much disruption and damage they cause.

However, the government has supported moves to make it easier to stop smokers’ fumes from drifting into other apartments – one step forward, two steps back. 

And, in the face of public opinion which shows that only a tiny percentage of owners trust their strata managers, have supported some moves to licence them and is reviewing proposals to curb kickbacks and commissions.

So I’ll stand by my views, but don’t take my word for it.  Look at the final report and the government response and tell me that the state’s politicians couldn’t be doing a lot more for the Victorians who actually live in strata, rather than people who stream in for footy games and take the opportunity to raise Hell at residents’ expense.

There’s a new voice from Victoria is Flat Chat this week and we welcome Kate Yeowart from StrataSavvy who, at the very least, will offer a less biased view of what’s going on in Victoria than yours truly.

A version of this column appeared in last week’s newsletter.