Show me your stars: Apartment buyers start pulling deposits after new rating system
3 JULY 2022 Apartment hunters have pulled deposits and are switching to builders and developers who have earned gold star ratings on a new ratings platform, says NSW building commissioner David Chandler. Since the Independent Construction Industry Rating Tool (iCIRT) register was launched in May, including the first 19 companies rated as trustworthy, four families told Chandler they had withdrawn deposits from unrated builders and developers and taken their business [...]
NSW State Government launches inquiry into Embedded Networks
27 JUNE 2022 State Government launches inquiry into Embedded Networks in apartments in NSW and their effect on residents and businesses. OCN encouraged owners with a poor experience in terms of lock in or expensive contracts to have their say. Watch clip from Channel 10 News
Out of Court Settlement Reached Over Opal Towers
21 May 2021 According to Karen Stiles, executive director of apartment owners peak group Owners Corporation Network, the long-running case had exposed more than the cracks in the Opal Tower. “It was really the start of the turning point where the government had to admit we had a problem with rampant building defects in residential towers and actually had to do something to address it,” she said. Read more:> HERE
Charger guide helps NSW buildings get electric vehicle ready
More electric vehicle drivers can soon charge up at home and work, with a step-by-step guide released by the NSW Government, and a pilot site providing proof of concept for EV-ready buildings. The EV Ready Buildings materials and webinar registration details are available on the Drive electric NSW EV ready buildings webinar webpage. Speakers at the webinar include the EV Council Head of Energy and Infrastructure, Ross de Rango, and Owners [...]
Hundreds of buildings with cladding deemed low priority despite possible ‘unacceptable fire risk’
The state government taskforce into dangerous flammable cladding has deemed more than 500 buildings a low priority, despite their facades potentially posing unacceptable fire risks. NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford made the finding in a review of reforms targeting unsafe cladding since the material supercharged London’s deadly Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in 2017. Crawford said identification of buildings in the immediate aftermath was hampered by a lack of building records, but [...]
Sydney Apartment Investors Fear Debt Trap As Levies Skyrocket
Investors from retirees to single mothers on low incomes fear losing their properties after their strata levies jumped from under $2000 per quarter to more than $10,000 for building repairs they had no say in approving. Bright and Duggan told the Herald it was appointed to do work that the owners’ corporation had “failed to undertake over many years with the highest priority of ensuring the building can be safely occupied”. Executive [...]
Smoking on the balcony of an apartment declared a ‘hazard’
A Queensland regulator has banned a Surfers Paradise woman from smoking on her apartment balcony after a neighbour’s complaint, declaring it to be a “hazard” rather than a “nuisance”, in a move that could allow bodies corporate to outlaw smoking completely. “If you live with the urban myth that strata title is like a title to land, you are only encouraging ongoing conflict,” Mr Goddard, a spokesman for the Owners [...]
Queensland unit dwellers could be barred from smoking on balconies after landmark decision
20 JANUARY 2022 OCN talks to Dee Dee at 3AW about the news that Queenslanders living in apartments could be prevented from smoking on their balconies after a "game changing" decision to ban one unit owner from doing so after a complaint from an upstairs neighbour. The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management's adjudicator ordered that the eighth-floor owner must no longer smoke tobacco products on [...]
Sydney Apartment Building Under Stop Work Order Due to Safety Concerns – Channel 7 News
18 December 2021 Owners of a landmark apartment block in Sydney’s eastern suburbs face a long wait before they can move in after the NSW building watchdog ordered an immediate halt to their almost complete $50 million redevelopment. The watchdog has handed the owners of Skye, which overlooks Tamarama Beach, a stop-work notice and an order preventing them from moving in because fire sprinklers were not installed in seven of [...]
Interview on Ratings Tool – Channel 9 news with OCN
10 December 2021 - OCN discusses new iCIRT ratings tool on Channel 9 News. Watch clip (2min 36secs) : https://vimeo.com/668793752
NSW apartments: New defects insurance scheme to protect off-the-plan buyers
23 October 2021 Dodgy developers and bad builders who construct shoddy apartment towers that can lead to heartbreak and financial ruin for home-buyers are set to be driven out of NSW with a ground-breaking new defects insurance scheme. The DLI advisory panel comprises insurance experts, developers, financiers, strata bodies and the apartments consumer representative, the Owners Corporation Network (OCN). OCN executive officer Karen Stiles said members were excited by the [...]
NSW a trailblazer in ‘outing’ apartment defects
22 October 2021 You’d be forgiven for thinking high-rise apartment blocks are crumbling like soggy Tim Tams all over NSW while the rest of Australia’s unit blocks are pristine monuments to better building practises. But, bad as things are in Sydney, it may look worse there than anywhere else because issues have been exposed and are being addressed. In NSW, the Owners Corporation Network has plugged away on the defects front for [...]
The property developer being sued over alleged apartment defects – A Current Affair
20 October 2021 Property developer insists his apartments are safe. But try telling that to angry owners who are suing him over alleged defects. > Link to the full story A Current Affair Channel 9
Building defects in strata units robbing buyer’s future
17 October 2021 Stephen Goddard, spokesperson for the Owners Corporation Network, discuss his recent SMH opinion piece about the dangers of building defects in residential strata schemes with Michael McLaren on Overnight with Michael McLaren. Mr Goddard wrote, ‘For some time now it has been a self-evident truth that new residential strata schemes can be plagued with building defects which are left for a new owners’ corporation to fix.’ ‘The [...]
Building defects in strata units: unstoppable force meets immovable object
15 October 2021 An owner in a new apartment tower at Canterbury said yesterday: “We took a risk buying into a new apartment, but we didn’t realise it would be this kind of risk.” The alleged risk in question is the possible need to evacuate due to structural instability. For some time now it has been a self-evident truth that new residential strata schemes can be plagued with building defects [...]
Four in 10 new apartment buildings have major defects: NSW Building Commissioner
11 October 2021 Almost four in 10 new apartment buildings in NSW have serious defects, costing an average $331,829 per building to fix, a new survey has found, although resolutions are rare. The Owners Corporation Network, which represents apartment owners, welcomed the survey results. “As the peak body for residential strata owners, the Owners Corporation Network strongly supports research into the incidence and impacts of serious defects,” said chief executive [...]
Star Ratings System to Shine a Light on Dodgy Developers
5 August 2021 It has a whiff of narcissism about it – “go on, tell me how great I am” – but NSW is about to introduce a voluntary star rating system for new apartment building projects. It’s a slow-burn strategy to eventually freeze the worst players out of the market, but it has been welcomed by owner advocates such as Karen Stiles, executive officer at the Owners Corporation Network (OCN), who [...]
Meet the man on a mission to restore buyers’ trust in off-the-plan homes
24 September 2021 To some, he’s a knight in shining armour. To others, he’s the devil incarnate. But wherever anyone stands on the rampaging NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, cleaning up the mess of shoddy apartment construction breaking buyers’ hearts and their bank balances, absolutely no one is indifferent. .. At the peak body of apartment-owners, the Owners Corporation Network (OCN), executive officer Karen Stiles says nipping these problems in [...]
COVID secrecy could spell disaster for apartment residents
19 September 2021 The coronavirus pandemic is revealing just how deadly the NSW government’s attitude towards high-density apartment communities could be. It is a simple fact that strata living presents a higher risk of COVID-19 transmission than in freestanding homes. Yet, despite calls from independent experts and building managers for pandemic planning and clear rules, the strata sector has not only been ignored, worse, it is being resisted. This is [...]
Strata owners wrestle with vax-passes for gyms
7 September 2021 Should strata facilities like gyms and swimming pools be restricted to vaccinated residents? Would “vax-passes” for apartment block communal areas be reasonable, especially if state and federal Governments ever introduce vaccine passports for overseas travel or even to restrict access to bars and restaurants? These are questions currently confronting strata schemes across NSW and Victoria, especially, as those states come to terms with the high probability that [...]
NSW Government has power to lock down entire unit blocks with one positive case
7 September 2021 Apartment residents could be hit by the most draconian COVID-19 laws ever produced by the NSW Government, which is able to lock down entire unit blocks when just one person tests positive to the virus. The police also now have new powers to patrol buildings, quiz everyone living in – and visiting – apartments for their names and phone numbers, and order them all to take COVID [...]
Developer Loses Unit Defect Fight
27 August 2021 Residents of a prestigious Strathfield apartment block built by companies associated with husband and wife developers Antoine and Georgette Bechara are the latest unit owners fighting to fix defects including in waterproofing and flammable cladding. NSW Supreme Court documents show the Becharas’ companies tried to pass the blame onto the designers, the architects and the private certifiers Essential Certifiers, whose owner Bernard Cohen had 28 disciplinary findings [...]
Shonky block shock – Defects in a third of apartments
28 August 2021 STRESSED unit owners are reportedly being driven to the brink of suicide by home repair bills reaching up to $50,000, with more than a third of apartments built in NSW in the past six years being listed as having “a serious defect of some kind”. Lachlan Leeming Daily Telegraph Read full article here
Strata owners slam NSW Health ‘confused mess’
21 August 2021 With yet another “tightening” of lockdown restrictions for greater Sydney, and once again the specific needs of apartment residents being ignored, the peak group for apartment owners in NSW has come out swinging. The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) has accused the NSW Health depart of creating a “confused mess” by trying to treat 40-storey high apartment blocks the same as stand-alone houses, and explaining that strata committees [...]
Channel 10 News – Your right to know if a resident is Covid-19 positive
20 August 2021 Karen Stiles, OCN Executive Officer, interviewed by Channel 10 News on why residents need to know if someone in their building is Covid-19 positive. Watch the clip:
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