Residents of a defect-plagued South Yarra apartment block face a $24 million repair bill and fear similar shoddy construction will undermine a push for more high-rise living in Melbourne. Read more here.
Property owners at a Darwin apartment complex are paying more than $50,000 each towards a strata special levy, leaving many in financial difficulty. The $3 million special levy is being split between 71 apartments, and will see the main pool area at the complex reconstructed. Chris Irons (Queensland's former body corporate commissioner and Joint managing director of OCN) said OCN planned to establish an NT chapter, due to a current lack [...]
NSW has a new Building Commissioner, and he’s promising a different approach to his predecessor, David Chandler, the scourge of dodgy developers and bodgy builders. Mr Sherrard’s challenge is to maintain wavering public confidence in apartment construction, so that people still buy off the plan which is necessary to fulfil the state’s need for hundreds of thousands of new apartments. Owners’representatives have welcomed the appointment, albeit with a level of caution. [...]
A Melbourne woman living in an apartment, who was terrified that the building would collapse, has been forced to stay as she watches the place crumble around her with repairs to the building estimated to cost a whopping $1.5 million. Chunks of plaster have come crashing down from the wall and wind blows through gaping holes in Serena’s* apartment but she said she is trapped – with no way to fix [...]
Investor Arthur Panos learned in September that he, along with other owners of the four apartments in a building in Sydney’s inner west, would have to fix the waterproofing of the largely problem-free property. The bill? $500,000. The NSW Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 imposes obligations on apartment owners to follow tougher repair requirements, such as appointing a licensed practitioner for repairs that cost more than $5000. But Owners Corporation Network executive [...]
Speaking at a Public Forum last night on Strata Matters organised by the Strata Community Association ACT and the Owners Corporation Network, Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said that under a Liberal Government a Strata & Building Commissioner will be established. The Commissioner would be a single point of contact for people living in apartment and townhouse complexes and assist people facing challenges and issues in strata living, including defects and building [...]
OCN made yet another submission on the ongoing building law reforms. Read submission:> OCN Submission - Building Reforms September 2024
OCN contributed to a 2 part Money Magazine September issue look at strata owning. In 9 Strata Myths Busted by Tom Watson, OCN talked about the pros and cons of being on a strata committee. We 'busted' the myths that by-laws are set in stone, and that you have to attend a general meeting in person to vote. And we debunked the myth that tenants have no say, explaining that in [...]
Karen Stiles, OCN Executive Director, shared her thoughts why she's "fed up" during a recent interview with Amanda Farmer's "Your Strata Property" podcast. Hear what she had to say on: how strata owners are being overlooked in today’s conversations about the strata industry, the astonishing lack of consumer protections for those buying apartments, the owners who ARE willing to pay more for good strata management, and why Fair Trading needs to [...]
Sydney strata manager Whitney Wang has been banned from practising for 10 years and his company has been stripped of its licence. Mr Wang was the strata manager at the centre of an explosive meeting at the embattled Vicinity apartment complex in Canterbury in 2021 that became so hostile the police were called. He has also been ousted as strata manager twice in the past two years after owners at separate [...]
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To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
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Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to enquiries@ocn.org.au
