Flat Chat Strata Forum Living in strata Current Page

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  • #11502
    Jimmy-T
    Keymaster

      The family of the student who died in the Bankstown fire five years ago, as well as the surviving victim, are suing everybody and anybody who may have contributed to that tragic and utterly avoidable event when two young female students had to leap from a fifth-floor window to escape the blaze.

      According to this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ginger Jiang and her family, and the family and boyfriend of the late Connie Zhang, are suing the developer, the builder, the landlord, the certifier and the owners corporation for, among a variety of claims, allowing an extra room to be built, meaning they couldn’t escape when their apartment went on fire and, even worse, gaming the building code so that fire sprinklers weren’t installed.

      Needless to say, their claims for damages are being opposed, partly on the pathetic basis that they have allegedly left it too late to take legal action.

      Here at Flat Chat, it distresses us to think that the real culprits in all this will probably walk away unscathed.  In the event that damages are awarded, you have to wonder how many culpable entities will still exist in any sense that means they will pay their bills.

      In a fair and decent world, someone would already be in jail for this.  But strata is neither fair nor decent and tenants, especially, are just cannon fodder whose lives are put at risk so that developers, builders, real estate agents and landlords can chisel a few extra bucks out of their investments.


      Here are the latest questions demanding answers on the Flat Chat Forum.

      Can we change our ‘no laundry’ by-law? That’s HERE.

      What can we do about a bleeping smoke detector in another flat?  That’s HERE.

      Can we just paint lines on common property to create parking spaces?  That’s HERE.

      What can we do about a cheapskate owner who uses unlicensed tradies and bodgy fixes for her electricity and plumbing?  That’s HERE.

      Child-safe window checks reveal unapproved work in unit’s bathroom.  That’s HERE.

      There are new questions and answers of the Flat Chat Forum every day – register to ask your question or pitch in with your answer and help someone else.


      And talking about putting people’s lives at risk (and walking away from the problem when it’s revealed), we are hearing distressing tales about apartment blocks getting the dreaded letter from the government telling them their building needs to be checked for flammable cladding.

      Apparently, this is very quickly followed by the equally unwelcome letter from their insurers saying their premiums are about to go up faster that a cladding fire.

      Yet again, it’s the people who own and live in apartments who will suffer.  It would take about five minutes to discover who was most likely to be culpable for the installation of unsafe cladding on any building in NSW. But that, my friends, lies  in the deepest, darkest recesses of the ‘too-hard’ basket

      So what does our Minister for all things strata – i.e. Innovation and Better Regulation – do?  He bans cladding being used in the future. Big freaking deal!  How about the millions of dollars that are going to be spent on remedying buildings that have had this cheap, deadly crap installed already?

      How about some innovative, better regulations that would allow strata owners to deal with this without having to remortgage or sell their homes?

      All we want for Christmas is a lot fewer meaningless posturings and a lot more sensible and effective action. Have a good one!

       

      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.
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    • #28900
      Mailbox
      Flatchatter

        I read a book many years ago and for it was a religious experience, Orwell 1984, he writes about a government and its departments that are actually the opposite of their name, so a department of enlightenment would be doing the opposite, I can not help but feel sad when I see our governments taking on very similar personalities.
        so what does Innovation and Better Regulation mean, regulation that is better for big business as they will not be called to account and Innovation = news laws to protect business.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

        #28901
        TonyC
        Flatchatter

          It’s been a very distressing journey for the parents, relatives and friends of the girl that died and the girl who survived but became a paraplegic. First the fire, then the coroner’s inquest, and now the civil law proceedings for compensation.
          The scatter gun approach of suing every person remotely involved is normal in litigation such as this because until the evidence is in and the defences have been filed, it is often not possible to know who is responsible, and if so, how much responsibility they bear.
          The civil law proceedings will succeed against anyone who knew of the illegal partitioning, such as the owner and the managing agent, and anyone who failed to comply with fire safety standards for the building.
          It is likely that the proceedings will go to a court hearing because so many defendants (read – insurers) are involved, because they will not be able to agree between themselves how much responsibility each should bear.

          #28933
          imported_dech
          Blocked

               There is a unit block which has smoke or heat detectors on open walkways which has resulted in so many false alarms (insects, maybe water vapour, smoke from petrol blowers) that residents have tended to ignore any alarm for about an hour or so when they conclude that there is no “someone else” responding.  It has also turned off by unknown persons and left that way for about three months every year including 2017.

               None of the seemingly relevant authorities; the OC, local council or electricians who installed and maintain accept any responsibility and all three have been made aware of the situation in detail on multiple occasions.  The electricians say that they just followed the directive of the “Fire engineer” and this seems to be set in stone unless the OC pays thousands of dollars for some sort of comprehensive review to conclude what any adult would conclude after a minutes inspection. 

               The open walkways lead to steps and at the bottom of the steps are doors, apparently there is some ambiguity in the legislation which allows this to be interpreted as the open walkways being regarded as enclosed!!  Presumably there is a need for some discretion and this engineer was either being absurdly cautious or at worst providing a lucrative ongoing income for the electricians without regard for safety.

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