Puddle sets off epic dog fight
22 AUGUST 2020 The day her miniature schnauzer urinated in the lobby of her luxury Sydney apartment block is one of the most traumatic of Jo Cooper’s 30-plus years. There is never a good time for a dog to wee in a lavish foyer, although Cooper insists it’s not much different to the coffee and salad spillages she has witnessed over five years of living in the award-winning, officially pet-free [...]
Making a Building “Trustworthy” And How to Deliver One
16 AUGUST 2020 “Trustworthy buildings” are a goal the entire construction industry needs to achieve, according to NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler. There are several aspects to this, and major payoffs to be had in terms of productivity, accountability and building your own reputation. Awards, online product reviews and your own marketing might not be the best way to assure buyers you build trustworthy buildings. According to Karen Stiles, Executive [...]
Why some strata services are essentially a rip-off
13 AUGUST 2020 With all the horror stories of what goes wrong when an apartment catches fire, you would never want to skimp on safety. But what if you were paying over the odds for safety inspections that were followed by upgrades that you didn’t really need but were recommended by the same people who did the inspection? Oh, and the inspection was compulsory. A year ago this column exposed [...]
60 Minutes – Buyer Beware Part 1
9 AUGUST 2020 Here's an incredible, not to mention shameful, statistic about Australia's building industry. 85% of new high-rise apartment towers are defective. The rate of shoddy workmanship has increased dramatically as governments around the country have encouraged more developers to build more high-density housing as a way of containing urban sprawl. As a result, many unsuspecting buyers, trying to put a roof over their heads, are learning a painful [...]
Apartment owners win legal victory over combustible cladding
6 AUGUST 2020 A group of apartment owners battling to have combustible cladding replaced on their buildings have won a landmark legal victory – giving hope to the thousands more facing similar dangers. In an Australian first, a major building company which installed timber-PVC Biowood cladding on four multi-storey apartment blocks in Ryde has lost its appeal against being forced to rectify the work. Further, if it doesn’t reach an [...]
Back to the future: unit owners hail return of public certifiers
22 JULY 2020 Unit owners have welcomed moves for the return of public certifiers to improve building quality in the ACT, but say architects and engineers also need to be involved in project delivery from start to finish. Owners Corporation Network ACT president Gary Petherbridge said Mr Ramsay was on the right track with public certifiers for multi-unit developments and developers having to be fit and proper persons to be [...]
2GB – Calls for government to help pay for flammable cladding removal
13 JULY 2020 Michael McLaren, 2GB Overnight Program host, is joined by Karen Stiles, Executive Officer of the Owners Corporation Network, a not-for-profit body representing apartment owners, who claims the federal government’s $25,000 Home Builder grants would have been better spent fixing apartment buildings cloaked in flammable cladding which posed a risk to lives. > Full interview at 2GB.com Michael McLaren
‘They should help’: Sydney cladding crisis leaves big bills for owners
13 JULY 2020 The large yellow cladding on the side of the 19-storey Distillery apartment tower in Pyrmont has made it one of the most recognisable residential high rises in the inner Sydney suburb. Yet the flammable nature of the cladding has also made it an expensive problem for its owners, who are finally nearing the end of a three-year saga to remove it that has cost them more than [...]
The Office of Building Commissioner’s Director, Matt Press is now hiring a program manager and project officer
28 JUNE 2020 The Office of the Building Commissioner (OBC) has just finished the initial appointments to commence the Occupation Certificate Audits from 1 September 2020. The talent pool of applicants was very impressive. Experienced Designers, Contractors and Certifiers with 15-years experience will soon be in the field to work with the Building Commissioner. A powerful new tool is being built inside BRD to provide a single view of all [...]
NSW opens door to thousands of defect claims
15 JUNE 2020 Thousands of apartment owners in NSW now have a way to launch claims over cladding, water proofing and fire safety defects after a new law created a duty of care for builders, consultants and developers to end users in the construction chain, even without a contractual relationship linking them. The Design & Building Practitioners Bill 2020, which came into effect last week, gives the state's apartment owners [...]
Building watchdog warns he will clamp down on ‘shameful’ developers
3 JUNE 2020 The NSW Building Commissioner has warned unscrupulous builders and developers responsible for major defects in apartments that he will not hesitate to use his new powers to bring them to account, after key legislation to clean up the construction industry became law. Heralding it a "red-letter day", David Chandler said his immediate focus would be on developers, builders and certifiers "who have form" in turning out shoddy [...]
Building watchdog’s powers to be bolstered in bid to clean up industry
1 JUNE 2020 The NSW building commissioner is set to gain strong powers to stop builders from forcing off-the-plan sales of apartments with defects after Labor signalled it would support a proposed shake-up of the construction industry. After abandoning attempts late last year to pass key legislation, the Berejiklian government will reintroduce an amended bill to the upper house on Tuesday, and introduce another to the lower house which will, [...]
Sydney apartment buildings win the fight against pets on appeal
27 May 2020 Two of Sydney’s biggest apartment towers have won their battle to ban owners’ pets from their buildings in a verdict that will have far-reaching repercussions for NSW strata residents. The 260-apartment Horizon in Darlinghurst and the 280-unit Elan in Kings Cross had lost the right in previous cases before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to enforce their bylaws to keep their premises animal free. But, [...]
Owners unite … by Zoom
26 MAY 2020 We talk to Karen Stiles, the energetic executive officer of the Owners Corporation Network about how that key organisation is coping with the challenge of building a community of communities when coronavirus is trying to keep us all at home. The answer lies in technology, she says, and to prove it, they had a very successful seminar on how to keep the short-term letting wolves from the [...]
Debt crisis looms for renters and landlords
24 May 2020 An increasing number of renters are at risk of accruing high levels of debt to landlords if the ACT Government fails to implement a repayment framework for rental arrears, according to a parliamentary committee inquiring into the ACT Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pause on evictions is in place until 27 July and there is no framework or government-provided structure for how accrued rental debts [...]
Get ready for the great Airbnb rebound
13 MAY 2020 There’s no doubt that Airbnb will make a comeback after the pandemic. So where are we at, as a nation, with holiday lets? The online holiday letting agency has apparently suffered an 85 per cent downturn in global business, knocking an estimated $30 billion off its value as it heads for a long-delayed float on the sharemarket. For those who bought or sub-let multiple properties to run [...]
Charting a new course under lockdown in Sydney
8 MAY 2020 New data has offered a snapshot of life in lockdown revealing what isolating Sydneysiders are doing behind closed doors. In a little over six weeks, as public health orders and restrictions have taken hold, the habits of Sydneysiders have become largely unrecognisable. Everyday activities like going to the gym, movies, after-work drinks and the footy have all disappeared. And exclusive data can reveal those pastimes have given [...]
‘We’ve never had it this busy’: Home isolation drives renovation boom
21 APRIL 2020 Builder Paul Rice is accustomed to constructing new houses and restoring old ones. But while some of his bigger projects have dried up due to the coronavirus crisis, demand for small jobs and maintenance - such as repairing dodgy door hinges - from homeowners in isolation has gone through the roof. "I've had a lot of people coming to me wanting to fix all the stuff that's been [...]
ABC 702 Interviews OCN re COVID-19 & Short Term Letting
07 APRIL 2020 Wendy Harmer Interviews OCN Director Jane Hearn on COVID-19 & Strata > Listen to Interview
Airbnbs declared ‘illegal’ as NSW government cracks down on holidaymakers
6 April 2020 It is now illegal for anyone in NSW to stay in an Airbnb or similar short-term letting agency accommodation, a government spokesman has declared. Under the new coronavirus regulations, no one should be staying anywhere other than their own permanent home, and they could be fined or imprisoned if they were found to be breaking emergency rules. “There’s zero reason for someone to stay in an Airbnb,” [...]
Disrupting the disruptors: how COVID-19 will shake up Airbnb
6 April 2020 Airbnb was built on the premise of bringing the world closer together. Tourists could travel like locals, while locals could cash in on their desirable neighbourhood properties by letting those visitors in. Last year the company was estimated to be worth more than US$30bn. It is scheduled to go public in 2020. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Stephen Colman, who was an Airbnb host and ran [...]
Bad news for Airbnb could be blessed relief for renters
4 APRIL 2020 It seems oddly appropriate, if not ironic, that a business that effectively grew virally on the internet should have suffered more than most because of COVID-19. Those who watched with dismay while short-term holiday lets moved into apartment blocks where they weren’t welcome or, in some cases, legally permitted, may have witnessed the current collapse of the holiday-letting industry with a certain grim satisfaction. These days the [...]
Airbnb packages risk creating viral hot-spots in apartments
20 MARCH 2020 Apartment residents across Australia are angry that their buildings could be turned into high-risk viral hot-spots, as Airbnb hosts offer self-isolation packages to returned overseas travellers. Airbnb hosts globally are reeling after a dramatic downturn in visitors due to travel restrictions and an Airbnb decision to waive cancellation fees for stays booked up to April 14 and possibly beyond. As a result, some hosts are compensating by offering [...]
NSW plans ratings tool for developers, builder and certifiers
30 JANUARY 2020 Developers, builders and certifiers will be rated on their record of building failures, finances, complaints, insurance claims and other such factors under a new tool being developed by NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler and data company Equifax. "This will start to join up the players," Mr Chandler told The Australian Financial Review. "When you look into a project that is about to be developed, it’s useful to people [...]
Unit buyers to pay for ratings check on dodgy apartments under reforms
23 January 2020 Having grappled for more than 12 months with the fallout from three evacuated buildings and abandoned apartments that have trashed confidence in the industry, the Berejiklian government announced on Monday new powers for the Building Commissioner to use the rating tool to select sites to audit and halt dodgy apartment projects. In a blog post last week, Building Commissioner David Chandler said: "By 2025, it should be [...]
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