Online Strata Defect Claim Information & Guides Reviewed

How much strata defect claim help can you get for free [and is it worth what you paid] …

In the modern world there’s a webpage, online tutorial or app for almost everything you can think of. So, what exists for strata building defects? Where can you go online to get help with your strata defects? And, is the online information, and are online tools for strata building defect claims actually useful?

[9.5 minutes estimated reading time, 1840 words]

Introduction

Everyone wants and need help and guidance on things that are new to them, that they don’t understand and/or that are complex or specialised.  That’s appropriate and normal.

It’s also commonplace for businesses providing goods and services to provide free information and help to raise awareness, demonstrate their product or skills, attract customers for paying business, and, sometimes as a loss leader.

But, there are patterns in the strata title sector that lead to some bad patterns arising from the intersection of customer enquiries and supplier marketing where the desire for free strata solutions, the temptation to standardise things, and, the inherent frugality of strata owners means the ‘free’ stuff becomes the final product.

But, copying one strata building’s solution to other buildings doesn’t always work.  After all, all buildings are physically different and their circumstances and strata owners’ preferences vary considerably.  That’s especially so in relation to how they are built, who built them, quality control processes and how they are affected by environmental issues, use and maintenance.

So, let’s look at a range of ‘free’ stuff I’ve found about strata building defect claims to see how useful it is, why, and where it gets strata buildings.

7 examples of ‘free’ strata defects guides

I’ve found 7 different online sources of information and action on strata building defect claims which I’ll highlight and comment on below. 

Please bear in mind that my comments are made in the context of identifying the purpose of and the usefulness of the information to strata stakeholders.  They are not criticisms, as each source has a different objective and serve different purposes.

1.     NSW Fair Trading’s website

In New South Wales, the NSW Fair Trading website contains some basic information about handling building defects using the legal mechanisms they are responsible to administer.

The information is accurate but limited to ‘safe’ restatements of the legislation including:

• complaints to NSW Fair Trading,

• time limits,

• major defect differences,

• statutory warranties,

• the new laws for strata building registration & the NSW Building Commissioner, and

• NCAT actions.

But, the website either assumes existing knowledge about the defects in a strata building or doesn’t provide practical guidance about what to do before, during and after a strata building defect claim starts.

I’d say that an uninformed viewer would almost certainly think that they should start with a complaint to NSW Fair Trading which is just the tip of the strata defect claim iceberg and could end up causing them to lose precious time on legal actions and insurance claims.

2.     UNSW City Futures Research Centre’s Defect Rectification Tool

The UNSW City Futures Research Centre [in conjunction with Strata Community Association (NSW), Strata Community Insurance, Australian College of Strata Lawyers (special thanks to Allison Benson), Lannock Strata Finance, Ross Taylor & Associates and the Owners Corporation Network of Australia] has published an online tool called ‘Navigating defects in strata’ focused on helping strata owners.

It’s an interactive tool that takes users through a series of questions that qualifies them and their status in a strata building defect claim and highlights to them each main stage in the process including:

• getting defect reports,

• if defects exist,

• whether the common property is affected,

• major vs general defects,

• communicating with stakeholders,

• paying for things,

• legal and expert advice,

• works scopes and quotes, and

• undertaking and managing rectification works.

And, where a stage has not occurred it prompts the user to do something by providing some further ‘what to do’ information.

I like that this is interactive since it’s engaging and forces the user to respond before moving forwards.  And, I like that it prompts actions where the user says they have not occurred yet [or does not know] so it operates as a call to action.

But, like so many of these online resources, it has to follow a very conventional and standardised approach to strata building defect claims since it needs to be universally applicable to a wide audience.  Plus, given the organisations involved in its creation it is designed to suit the needs and preferences of those groups [managers, insurers, lawyers and funders] over the handling of strata building defect claims.

3.   Smart Strata’s Guide for Managing Body Corporate Building Defects

Smart Strata, the online strata information publication, published this article with a link to Mahoneys Lawyers Guide to managing body corporate building defects which accurately covers the following areas for Queensland strata buildings in relation to their strata building defect claims:

• defect identification,

• the developer’s role,

• action against builders,

• claims to QBCC [Queensland Building and Construction Commission],

• legal actions,

• strata and building manager roles, and

• settlements.

My comments about this information are that it’s fairly simple [sitting between basic guidance and some detailed analysis] that neither helps readers decide what do to next [except call the authors for more advice] and doesn’t really showcase Mahoney’s expertise on strata building defect claims much.

I’d say that’s the result of this being a free information site that relies on volunteered materials from hopeful service providers which reveals the limitations on these kinds of strata information sources.

4.   Hynes Legal’s Building Defects Guide

Hynes Legal, publishes a downloadable Building Defects Guide, that covers:

• laws in Queensland regarding building defects in the context of community title schemes,

• types of building defects claims that can be made by bodies corporate,

• steps that need to be taken in order to make a building defects claim, and

• strategies that can be implemented in order to limit the risk of building defects.

Its accurate, detailed and useful to a more sophisticated strata stakeholder.  Plus, I think it showcases Hynes Legal well.  In fact, it reminds me of a paper or detailed slide deck from a conference presentation or even some preliminary legal advice.

But, perhaps it’s too detailed and gives away too much information that really needs a conversation about the information’s application to a strata building’s circumstances which may or may not happen.  Some strata stakeholders might just use it as their answer or solution or just copy it to stakeholders as a way of dealing with strata building defect challenges.

So, it highlights the countervailing problem of providing too much detailed information in complex factual and legal situations.

5.  Fix my Strata guide

Fix my Strata, run by Michael Teys, publishes a downloadable booklet which you can get by subscribing which approaches handling strata building defects in a more practical linear way by describing the process in steps:

Step 1 – Accept responsibility

Step 2 – Gather the documents

Step 3 - Assess your legal options

Step 4 – Get expert advice

Step 5 – Develop a funding plan

Step 6 – Oversee the remediation works

Step 7 – Plan for the future

It’s a more sophisticated explanation of the strata building defect claims process as you’d expect from someone with Michael’s experience and expertise and I like how it contemplates a range of differing approaches by buildings based on their unique circumstances.

I’d say it more useful to experienced strata committee members and strata managers, rather than strata owners, as it takes things from basics to medium level action. 

So, unless you’re pretty capable of doing a range of semi-legal and semi-expert work, you’ll need to engage someone to assist in following the suggested plan of action.  And, Michael hopes that will be him which is fair enough.

6.  The Knight’s Defect Management webpage

The Knight, Victorian owners corporation managers, have a webpage and matching downloadable Fact Sheet.

The information accurately identifies the legal bases for strata defect claims as well as:

• identifying that common property and lot property defects need to be handled differently,

• explaining how home building and strata insurance works,

• information about complaints to DBDRV and claims to VCAT,

• the need to engage experts and lawyers, and

• the higher strata law requirements about approving legal actions.

The information is a useful and well presented overview and the only comments I’d make are that:

• it palms off lot defects to strata owners which could inadvertently cause real common property defects to be missed as strata owner don’t’ know the difference between lots and common property and may never act on them, and

• it’s designed to simplify the owners corporation’s manager’s work to explain these processes to strata owners [which makes sense] and effectively operates to shift strata building defect claims to lawyers and experts if the building want’s to pursue them.

7.   NSW mandatory agenda items

In New South Wales the strata laws require strata buildings to include on their annual meeting agendas until the end of warranty periods for applicable statutory warranties under the Home Building Act 1989 an item to consider building defects and rectification [see Schedule 1, Clause 6 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015].

It’s not an online guide or information, but it prompts strata buildings and strata owners to consider and/or do something about building defects.

I can’t say if it’s useful or not and whether it’s prompted increased awareness and action by strata buildings and strata owners over building defects.  So, I’d like to get any feedback readers may have about it.

An alternative view about strata building defect information

This analysis also highlights to me the timing issue with the information available for strata stakeholders about building defect issues. 

In many ways, all this information about identifying building defects and acting to get them fixed is like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.  It’s a bit late to actually fix the problem and is really about making the most of a bad situation.

This article by The Conversation called ‘Lack of information on apartment defects leaves the whole market on shaky footings’ covers this well and makes the very poignant comments that:

‘sellers are not rewarded for delivering information to buyers or cannot disclose it effectively’

and

‘buyers cannot discriminate between the quality of different products, as is often the case in apartment developments’.

This article, correctly in my view, suggests by the time the strata building is operating it’s too late to give strata owners information about their building defects as they really needed it when buying the building [not later].

Conclusions

It’s important that there’s information to increase strata owners’ awareness of strata building defect issues and what to do about them since strata owners are often ignorant and there are drop-dead time limits before which significant actions are required

And it’s important that information is useful. 

But, this article highlights to me that it’s not easy to get that right as the balance between basic and complex, generality and specificity, and, legalistic and practical right.

And, in most cases, the online resources available are not tools as they don’t generate anything actionable, assume existing knowledge and they need more things done afterwards that strata buildings are typically slow to action and implement

So, the hard work on strata building defect claims remains to be done for most, if not all, strata buildings despite all the useful information available online.

June 01, 2021

Francesco …