Lawyer bashing a free kick for cowboys

Yay!  Let’s go lawyer bashing. Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts says he plans to curb strata lawyers who get rich by pursuing defect claims against developers.

They will have to “find another ambulance to chase,” Mr Roberts told the Australian Financial Review, commenting on developers’ claims that the reason apartment block development had slowed in NSW was because of the cost and disruption of legal actions over defects.

“The banquet is over,” added the Minister. “I’d rather see money put into quality construction and rectifying faults than putting money into the pockets of lawyers,”

Good thinking, sir! That’ll teach those pesky legal eagles not to … um … defend our rights.

But setting aside the “well, d’uh!” point that if there were no defects in the first place there would be no claims, are they honestly such a big problem?

Developers say they don’t have this issue anywhere else.  Really?  If that’s the case, why then has strata home building in NSW dropped by less than half the national average in the past year, according to Strata Community Australia, the strata managers’ organisation.

It doesn’t make sense. Does the Minister honestly plan to remove the last vestige of consumer protection from high-rise apartment buyers? There is no building warranty insurance for apartment blocks over three storeys high, so legal action is the owners’ only option when developers refuse to fix their defects.

We can’t even choose to do nothing; apartment owners have an unlimited legal obligation to maintain and repair common property, regardless of who’s at fault.

Are we being too harsh?  Perhaps the minister plans to set up a system whereby truly independent surveyors decide what the defects are and how much it should cost to fix them.

Maybe … maybe not. He’s already reduced the claim period for non-structural defects –  like loose balcony balustrades, sagging ceilings and badly fitting windows – from seven years to two.

You know, there are some very good developers out there, building great apartment blocks. They shouldn’t have to compete with construction cowboys who’ve been given a licence to build slums.

Read JimmyT’s  full -analysis of the issue here. Join the conversation and read other views HERE. Read the original Financial Review story HERE.