The OCN welcomes the opportunity to comment upon the Building Bill 2023 – Licensing Proposals. The OCN is one of, if not the most, important stakeholder in this area, but does not have the resources or paid staff or lobbyists that industry stakeholders have.
19 JULY 2023 Strata levies paid by apartment owners are up by 15 to 20 per cent on average over the past year as the costs of insurance, utilities and repairs and maintenance outstrip even the rapid rise in general inflation. Apartment owners are facing an increase in strata fees on top of rises in mortgage repayments. Without any official source of strata levies, the evidence for rising levies is anecdotal, [...]
OCN Executive Director talks with Fran Kelly on ABC Radio 702 Mornings about the good, the bad and the ugly sides of mandatory mediation.
16 JULY 2023 The number of people applying for strata scheme mediation has surged by 45 per cent in five years as owners clash with owners corporations over building defects and repairs. The average wait time for parties to meet with a mediator was three months, NSW Fair Trading confirmed, while it takes another four months on average for a resolution for those who escalated the issue to the NSW Civil [...]
15 JULY 2023 Brian Tucker is forking out thousands of dollars on quarterly strata fees and paying down his mortgage on an apartment that's been uninhabitable for more than four years. So far this year NSW Fair Trading has issued more than 30 work rectification orders across building sites, including The Laneways Rosebery, which remains empty and has serious structural defects, and Toplace's Vicinity complex in Canterbury over "potential serious defects". [...]
13 JULY 2023 Patrick Quintal was newly married and eager to begin a fresh chapter when he bought a Sydney apartment two years ago. Now the IT manager feels financially trapped, fearing a $180,000 repair bill after the developer of his apartment, Toplace, went into administration. Karen Stiles, head of peak residential strata body Owners Corporation Network, said the situation surrounding Toplace was "not a one-off occurrence". She said apartment owners [...]
12 JULY 2023 OCN talks to Ruby Cornish, ABC News, after apartment developer Toplace goes into voluntary administration, leaving apartment owners in financial ruin. Watch ABC News:> HERE
12 JULY 2023 Controversial Sydney developer Jean Nassif is being urged to submit to authorities as his company collapses, a month after a warrant was issued for his arrest. NSW Fair Trading this week said it was working with Strata Communities Australia and the Owners Corporation Network to help strata managers and owners in Toplace buildings. The agency advised buyers with deposits on off-the-plan Toplace sales to contact their conveyancer or legal [...]
11 JULY 2023 Every time IT manager Patrick Quintal leaves work to travel home, he feels sick with dread that his apartment building may no longer be standing. Each night when he goes to sleep, he dreams about waking up buried beneath rubble. The former chair of apartment peak body, the Owners Corporation Network, Stephen Goddard, says Vicinity has all the hallmarks of the Mascot Towers disaster. “At this stage it [...]
9 JULY 2023 When Eloise O’Connell joined the strata committee for her apartment in Liverpool, their first task was to raise the fees to prevent insolvency. “Whether your building can be well run is just by the sheer luck of the combination of people who put their hands forward,” O’Connell said. Head of the peak body for residential strata owners the Owners Corporation Network Karen Stiles said the strata management industry [...]
Owners Corporation Network
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