13 NOVEMBER 2019
The job of fixing the construction industry is too big for just one person and NSW needs a standalone building commission, not just a single commissioner, to fix the state’s construction industry Greens MP David Shoebridge. And apartment owners have called on the goverment to close the loopholes that allow the developers of sub-standard buildings to shut up shop before they have to repair defects, and even “phoenix” into new companies intent on doing the same thing.
The Owners Corproation Network (OCN), has issued a qualified welcome to Government amendments proposed to the Design & Building Practitioners Bill 2019 currently being considered by the NSW Parliament, saying they still want action on “disposable” developers and phoenixing. However, a spokesperson for the OCN, the largest organisation run by apartment owners for apartment owners, says the amendments to the Bill proposed this week “begin the vital process of providing much improved consumer protection for people buying new apartments”. “The Statutory Duty of Care proposals, in their revised form, more effectively deliver on promises made by Government before the State election and are most welcome” said OCN Chairman Philip Gall. “They restore some much needed building industry accountability to its consumers to the benefit of tens of thousands of new apartment owners” he says.
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Jimmy Thomson