Security of Payments Regulation
Karen Parish2020-10-06T21:49:16+11:0020 JUNE 2019 Download PDF: > OCN Submission - Security of Payments
About Karen Parish
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Buying a new high-rise apartment is a risk best avoided
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:28:02+11:0019 JUNE 2019 I write this piece as one of the lucky apartment owners. Lucky not because I managed to break into the apartment market, but because I survived it financially intact.The predicament facing Opal Tower and Mascot Towers apartment owners is only the visible tip of a very big iceberg. So my advice to my kids today, and anyone who'll listen, is this: do not buy a new apartment, especially [...]
Cracked up: how can apartment buyers guard against a defective purchase?
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:28:40+11:0018 JUNE 2019 With faults and cracks discovered over the weekend in Sydney’s Mascot Towers apartment complex – and similar cracks in Opal Tower six months ago – the spotlight is back on the quality of New South Wales apartment buildings. Research from the University of NSW in 2015 found that 85% of new apartment buildings had defects at completion – mostly with waterproofing and fire detection systems – and the [...]
‘Daunting’ reality for strata lot owners after Mascot Towers evacuation
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:29:49+11:0017 JUNE 2019 Strata lot owners could have to pay for building repairs after the Mascot Towers residents were evacuated. Owners Corporation Network President Gary Petherbridge tells Ross Greenwood the problem is systemic. “People shouldn’t be buying off the plan anymore, you’re better off to wait 10 years until the property is sorted out.” > Listen to the full interview at 2gb.com Brooke Corte
Falling through the cracks: Governments slammed over building standards after Mascot evacuation
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:30:46+11:0016 JUNE 2019 Lawyer and strata specialist Stephen Goddard claimed developments could be rushed through by governments eager to profit from stamp duty and other taxes. “Everybody is on a money hit,” Mr Goddard said. “The government wants to keep the builders building because it gets stamp duty … what happens in the end? People who buy in these apartments get it in the neck.” > Read the full article at [...]
Mascot Towers unit owners to foot bill for repairs prompting calls for better consumer protections
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:34:17+11:0016 JUNE 2019 Stephen Goddard, spokesman for the Owners Corporation Network — an advocacy group for owners in strata schemes — said owners of apartments in the decade-old Mascot Towers development were no longer covered by the statutory warranty period and would now be left with a hefty bill. "Consumers have nowhere to go in these sorts of situations, there's nobody for them to sue, there's nowhere for them to turn," [...]
NSW off-the-plan buyers to get better protection under new laws this year
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:35:23+11:0011 JUNE 2019 Off-the-plan property buyers will soon be better protected when long-awaited legal changes come into effect this September – and inject much-needed confidence into the Sydney new apartment market, project marketers predict. As a result of changes to conveyancing laws approved by the NSW Parliament late last year and to be introduced in the next quarter, developers will be made more accountable to buyers, and there’ll be more certainty. [...]
Unit rates changes fail to fix fundamental flaw
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:36:15+11:0010 JUNE 2019 Disgruntled ratepayers are amassing a war chest in order to fight future rises, saying changes to the way the charge was calculated in this year's budget do not fix the underlying flaw in the system. Separate rating factors will be introduced for houses and units for the first time, to help smooth out some of the huge rates increases seen by unit owners in the past two years. [...]
NSW still without Airbnb rules, one year after plan was announced
Karen Parish2020-10-28T19:35:18+11:0004 JUNE 2019 It’s been one year since the NSW government announced it would regulate Airbnb but the state is still without firm rules on short-term letting. In the meantime, it has left Anne Sullivan dealing with apartments in her Strathfield complex that are regularly let through Airbnb and used as party houses. “We’ve had people urinating off balconies, throwing beer bottles off the balcony,” Ms Sullivan said. “We’ve called the [...]
Falling Through the Cracks
Karen Parish2020-10-08T12:38:04+11:0001 JUNE 2019 "The ancient Greeks believed opal came from the tears of Zeus. When opal turns to tears again it will ... bring down Australia's booming high rise apartment business." - From the Opal Tower Sydney Residents Facebook page Three months after the initial evaculation of Opal Tower on Christmase Eve 2018, nearly half of the tower's apartments are still not fit for reoccupation and hundreds of people remain in [...]