Strata Improvements 08: We Need a Strata Renovation Toolkit

or, let’s get strata owner’s works fixed up …

Because strata owners’ works can create complex challenges in strata title buildings and the legal requirements are confusing, the approval process leaves many stakeholders unhappy.  But, it shouldn’t be that way for most of the typical things strata owners want to do.  We need clear approval pathways and useful tools that cover things properly, predictability, and fairly. A strata renovation toolkit.

[7:00 minutes estimated reading time, 1395 words]

Introduction

Today’s article in the Strata Improvements series cover my suggestions for better ways to handle strata owners’ works.

It follows last week’s article Strata Improvements 07: Strata Owners' Works which covers how strata owners’ works are handled now and why that’s problematic.

Both key stakeholders [strata owners and the strata corporation] have legitimate expectations:

• Strata owners [quite rightly] want to improve their apartments, shops, and offices with minor and major works adapting it to suit their changing needs, tastes and desires [and sometimes incorporate common property building structure changes].

• Strata buildings should [and must] protect the building structures, work quality and compliance, amenity [and appearance ??], and the collective interests of all the strata owners when things get changed.

But it’s not easy under the existing complicated, overlapping and fragmented systems that exist in most parts of Australia.

What’s needed is a single, simpler, better graduated, and more flexible system of controls on strata owners’ works and approvals.  Here are my suggestions.

A simpler & better regime for strata owners’ works

Strata stakeholders need a simpler [less layers], less complex [less processes], and, more predictable [consistent] system to stop, approve and control strata owners’ works.

So, here are my suggestions about better ways to think about, approach, and manage strata owner’s works covering 7 key areas summarised here and detailed below. 

1.     The Works

2.     Strata Building Impacts

3.     Approval Requirements Internal

4.     External Compliance Requirements

5.     Timings

6.     Conditions

7.     Post Works Matters

Each area and the issues are discrete, but together they form of matrix [or analysis tool] that can guide the strata owners’ work approval process.

1:  The Works

Strata owners’ proposed works must be assessed properly including for these are a few obvious issues. 

The Work Details:  What’s being done, in appropriate detail for the scale and type of the works.  And is that work routine, generally or for the strata building?

The Affected Building Structures: Do the works affect lot structures only, or common property as well?  And, if common property is affected, are the common property impacts limited or extensive, visible, structural, and/or do the works occupy common property?

Special Issues:  Are there any special issues applying to the works that are unique to the strata building, the strata owner or something else?  And what are they?  [For example: the reflectivity of strata apartment windows in Sydney’s Toaster building facing the harbour is controlled by a state government consent condition so changes to those windows are impossible].

2:  Strata Building Impacts

How strata owners’ works will affect the strata building must be considered against at least the following criteria.

Permanence: Will, or should, the works be permanent or temporary?  And, if temporary, for how long?

Utilities: Are utilities [power, water, HVAC, telecoms/data, etc] involved in the works? If so, how?

Structural: Do the works have structural impacts?  Where and how?

Appearance: How visible are the works and how does their appearance:

Size: How big [or small] are the works generally, or relative to the lot and building?

Ongoing maintenance:  Do the works have any special ongoing maintenance, repair and replacement needs? What are they?

Other impacts:  Are there other works related impacts on other strata owners or residents?  What are they?

3:  Approval Requirements Internal

An assessment of the internal strata approval options should be made to determine which can and cannot apply.  And, where than one option is available, which is preferable and why?

In some cases, the nature, scope or impact of the works may also warrant approval at a strata owners’ meeting even if it’s not strictly required in the interest of transparency and giving strata owners a say in their building.

4:  External Compliance Requirements

An assessment of what external approval and compliance requirements apply to the works.

They will include planning or local council approval, environmental requirements, building code requirements, contractor licensing, design certification, insurance coverage for construction, public and worker risks, etc.

Once identified these external requirements become pre-conditions for strata building consideration and approval.

5:  Timing Matters

When is it proposed that the works are to be performed?  If now or in the future, when is best for the strata owners and the strata building?  Sometimes, there are practical limits on when strata owners’ works can be performed because of other works being undertaken in the building [by the strata corporation or other owners] or limits on access, parking and storage areas.

If the works have already been performed, that needs to be considered as it will affect both the kind of approval that can or should be given, and, how to regularise the works with appropriate documentation, compliance, and conditions.

In some states, there is some legal doubt about the ability to give retrospective approval.

6:   Conditions

Strata owners’ works approval should contain sensible conditions covering pre work issues, the performance of the works, post completion matters, and, what happens when things don’t happen as they should or go wrong.

Plus, of course, the conditions should specify who [the strata owner or the strata corporation] is responsible for future maintenance of the works and the affected common property.

Standard conditions about these matters [as part of best practice guidelines] can be utilised so they are consistent, easily understood, and, easy to apply and enforce.

7:  Post Works Matters

But it’s not over when strata owners’ works are completed.

There’ll be ongoing maintenance, repair and replacement obligations that are covered by approval conditions.

But, there should also be mechanisms to cover what happens if the works cause other problems in the building such as leaks, cracks, noise, or worse to ensure those impacts are identified and the strata owner is responsible for them.  That includes ensuring the strata corporation has the right to inspect things, do work and recover its costs of doing so.

And finally, there should be mechanisms to cover the situation where the strata owners’ works may be removed and the strata building is restored to its original condition.

A strata renovation toolkit

I realise my suggested strata work matrix of issues seems complicated because there are so many things to know, understand, and consider. 

But it’s important to remember that in most cases, strata owners’ works are not unique, have been done many times by others in similar if not identical ways, and, will be done in the future many more times.  And it’s usually only the more significant strata owners’ works that are unique and complex.

So, what’s really needed are strata owners’ work pathways and tools that guide strata owners, strata buildings and committees through the typical application, consideration, approval and performance processes based on experience, best practice, and fair balancing of competing interests that look something like this.

Information about strata owners’ works outlining key information.

Those pathways and tools can be created for standard kinds of owners’ works [air conditioning, kitchen remodelling, bathroom renovations, hard flooring, etc] which allows for better tailoring or for more generalised strata owners’ works which permits more flexibility but with stop points for some issues.  And, they can be presented in diagrams, text, audio, and video formats.

Individual strata buildings could add stages or requirements to the pathways to reflect the special requirements of their building or their member strata owners’ preferences.

Standardised conditions would be included covering the application, work performance, and post work issues.

Where appropriate, the requirements for external approvals and supporting documentation would also be detailed.  Think  … a strata renovation toolkit.

This kind of strata renovation toolkit could handle a significant majority of strata owners’ works and offer predictability to the process for all stakeholders most of the time.

And, if it were electronically based, the whole strata owners’ works processes would be digitised and available forever too.

November 02, 2023

Francesco ...