Trust issues: Can platforms like Airbnb regulate themselves?
9 NOVEMBER 2019 Australian residents' groups have rejected Airbnb's promise to overhaul verification procedures and prevent unauthorised parties at properties booked through the site, saying community trust issues caused by the rise of short-term rentals can only be fixed by independent regulation. "We would like to see a strong, effective public record of everyone participating [in the space]. To let your property, you'd need to be registered," chair of the [...]
NSW building reforms ‘step one of 100’ to restore confidence in sector
24 OCTOBER 2019 The government's latest plan to lift construction standards across NSW is a step in the right direction, but will fail to address a lack of transparency and enforcement in the sector, lawyers say. Amid rising pressure to implement large-scale reform in the home building industry, the government this week introduced the first tranche of its construction sector reforms to Parliament. Owners Corporation Network executive officer Karen Stiles [...]
‘Lifting the standards’: NSW government unveils reforms to construction industry
23 OCTOBER 2019 Homeowners who buy defective apartments will have an easier path to pursue damages under the Berejiklian government's response to widespread problems in high-rise residential buildings. The long-anticipated building reforms, released on Wednesday, will also create a new registration system for the industry, while developers will be forced to comply with "declared" building designs. But the reforms will only apply to buildings yet to be constructed. The Owners [...]
Territory apartment owners demand time limits on building caretaker contracts
20 OCTOBER 2019 Laws that allow property developers to appoint their relatives to long-term building caretaker contracts should be changed to better protect unit owners in the NT, the Owners Corporation Network says. It comes after residents in a Darwin apartment complex raised concerns that a company owned by the wife of the building's developer was contracted to oversee cleaning, maintenance and repairs for $120,000 per year for 25 years. [...]
Tenants lured with big bucks to sub-let properties on Airbnb
15 OCTOBER 2019 The prospect of six-figure earnings is being used to lure rent-investors into sub-letting multiple residential properties through holiday letting websites like Airbnb – without owning any of the homes or even, possibly, the knowledge of the property owners. “How we make a six-figure income on Airbnb using other people’s properties… and how you can too!” announces a website featuring Nicole and Aaron Byerlee, the property power couple [...]
Airbnb moguls spruik how to get around the rules
12 OCTOBER 2019 The prospect of six-figure earnings is being used to lure tenants and investors into subletting properties via websites such as Airbnb – without owning any of the homes or, in some cases, the knowledge of the property owners. The potential profits are very real. Research into Airbnb’s online listings has uncovered several “hosts” each with hundreds of properties under their management, with even greater numbers listed on [...]
Greens say ACT government should audit privately-owned buildings for flammable cladding
21 SEPTEMBER 2019 The ACT Greens say the government should consider auditing Canberra's apartment buildings for potentially dangerous flammable cladding. The government launched an audit of territory-owned buildings in July 2017, weeks after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London put the global spotlight on the use of aluminum and polyethylene cladding. But the ACT government isn't inspecting privately-owned buildings, relying instead on insurance companies to pass on information about [...]
Combustible cladding will ‘test the owners corporation model’
3 SEPTEMBER 2019 Fixing combustible cladding will require technical skills and understanding beyond some owners corporations – especially in smaller buildings – and could prompt a rethink about the best way to manage housing stock, Victoria's cladding tsar Dan O'Brien says. 40 per cent of the 406 structures deemed "high risk" to date were three storeys or below, Mr O'Brien told a property industry audience last week. The lack of sophistication [...]
Number of Airbnb listings in NSW could be slashed by proposed new fire safety rules, expert warns
3 SEPTEMBER 2019 The number of properties offered on Airbnb could be slashed thanks to a NSW government proposal to impose stringent new fire safety rules on homes being let short-term. To bring their homes up to the required level, owners and lead tenants could face bills of thousands of dollars to fit integrated smoke alarms in bedrooms and corridors, as well as heat sensors in kitchens, fire extinguishers, fire [...]
Building defects cost Aussie home owners an average $6,434
28 AUGUST 2019 Australia’s homeowners have been forced to fork out $10.5 billion in the last 10 years to address building defects, with the average apartment defect bill hitting $6,434, new research reveals. And while the average bills were less than $10,000, 4 per cent of apartment owners have had to cough up more than $50,000 to address issues. While the sum is significant, Owners Corporation Network (OCN) executive officer [...]
ACT government calls for strong federal anti-phoenixing laws
22 AUGUST 2019 The ACT government is calling for the urgent introduction of strong federal anti-phoenixing laws, arguing it cannot "adequately" punish Canberra's dodgy builders without them. But apartment owners say the territory government can do more, suggesting it could refuse to sell public land to companies with histories of poor construction work. Owners Corporation Network president Gary Petherbridge said people stung by phoenixed companies were left emotionally stressed, out [...]
NSW government’s short-term letting reforms met with mixed reception
21 AUGUST 2019 It could be at least another six months before Airbnb is regulated in NSW as the state government released its short-term letting reforms for public comment more than a year after reform was first announced. Owners Corporation Network director Jane Hearn said the policy had been watered down. “We are shocked that a loophole has already been introduced,” Ms Hearn said. “The policy has been revised … [...]
Australia’s building crisis fix will cost $6.2 billion: report
20 AUGUST 2019 The cost of fixing the unfolding national building crisis, including widespread residential apartment block defects and the use of dangerous combustible cladding, could soar past $6.2 billion, according to a new economic analysis. More than 3400 residential unit blocks across the country have potentially flammable exterior cladding, according to a report commissioned by the construction union. Those high-rise blocks take in about 170,000 apartments. In NSW, hundreds [...]
ACT Government needs to go after developers and toughen laws, say unit owners
20 AUGUST 2019 The ACT Government was on the right track by putting property developers in its sights with a potential licensing scheme but it needed to go further if it was serious about fixing the building quality issue in the ACT, according to the ACT Owners Corporation Network. President Gary Petherbridge, commenting after Tuesday night’s Four Corners report Cracking Up that highlighted Canberra’s decade-old Elara apartments debacle, said the [...]
Building Anger
12 AUGUST 2019 > Watch the full segment at abcnews.com.au Liv Casbin
NSW government scrambles for answers at building defects inquiry
12 AUGUST 2019 The pain of NSW's building crisis was captured in Mascot Towers owner Vijay Vital's testimony at the inquiry, when he broke down describing the loss of his home. Mascot Towers was evacuated on June 14 due to cracks but engineers have yet to find the cause. "I stand here as a parent and my daughter asks me "when can I go home?" he said amid tears. "I [...]
Channel 9 News – “Under Construction”
6 AUGUST 2019 In 2018 the government announced "the biggest crackdown on dodgy certifiers in our State's history". In July 2019 the opposition asked what has happened? The Minister responded that there is a raft of practitioners with their fingerprints all over building defects. That's true. But OCN pointed to all the owners who are suffering terribly while government dallies. > Watch the channel 9 news clip at youtube.com Eddy [...]
Mascot Towers Owners Hit $76,000 per Unit
4 AUGUST 2019 Owners of apartments in the evacuated Mascot Towers building in Sydney are planning to sleep on the street to protest a damages bill of at least $76,000 per unit to fix defects, as questions continue on who will ultimately have to pay. The owners face a $10 million bill – half the initial building cost of $22 million – to fix cracks in the building's primary support [...]
Building certifiers leave a trail of chaos
3 AUGUST 2019 A small group of private certifiers have signed off on 130 buildings with compliance problems, including allowing residents to move into one property that did not have toilets or taps fitted. The six offenders have been hit with 111 disciplinary actions since 2005, accounting for about a quarter of all such penalties. The Owners' Corporation Network, the peak body for apartment owners, said the repeat offending was [...]
The hidden costs of Brisbane’s apartment correction
1 AUGUST 2019 In total, Brisbane has foregone 2497 of the 4014 apartments approved in towers since 2009, said Don Smith, BCI's economics team leader. "From an 'impending oversupply' perspective out of a total of 4000 apartments that are being proposed, nearly 2500 have yet to meet appropriate technical and commercial criteria," Smith said. "There is an element of self-regulation." The figures paint a reassuring macroeconomic picture of a market correcting, [...]
Call for NSW building commissioner to enact acute 30-day plan
1 AUGUST 2019 New NSW building commissioner David Chandler should strike an acute 30-day plan to help beleaguered homeowners who have been evacuated from their defective homes, ahead of larger plans to overhaul the industry, industry groups say. NSW appointed Mr Chandler, a building and construction expert and University of Western Sydney adjunct professor, as the state's first building commissioner on Thursday in an effort to rehabilitate the state's ailing [...]
Opal Tower residents to sue NSW government
30 JULY 2019 Owners of units in Sydney’s troubled Opal Tower are suing the NSW government for compensation, the Premier has this morning confirmed. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she doesn’t “blame anybody” for taking legal action after a building flaw resulting in a large crack saw residents of the tower evacuated on Christmas Eve last year. "This is an unfortunate set of circumstances. We inherited the system we have today [...]
NSW Government Reforms Not Sufficient: Industry
29 JULY 2019 The NSW government's reform plans for the state's failing building and construction industry are not enough to fix it, industry groups warn. Consultations on the state's planned reforms – which involve the adoption of the recommendations from the Shergold-Weir report ahead of new legislation – have closed, drawing strong responses from the public. The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) submission to the government says the current reforms merely [...]
What to do about defective buildings
23 JULY 2019 Jimmy Thomson from flat-chat.com.au and Stephen Goddard, OCN spokesperson talk about what to do if you live in a building that requires remediation. > Listen to the full interview at abc.net.au James Valentine
State and territory building ministers agree on national approach to industry reform
18 JULY 2019 The Federal Government says it has brokered an agreement with the states and territories to create a "nationally consistent approach" to reforming the building industry. Speaking during an emergency meeting of state building ministers and industry stakeholders in Sydney today, national Industry Minister Karen Andrews said all parties had "brokered an agreement" to centralise the response to a wave of problems across the country. The nationally consistent [...]
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