Wake Up!!! Sleepy Strata Buildings
When tech and tragedies converge to create better options if we can be bothered ...
Do Australian strata buildings need to wake up from their slumber to address long-standing building maintenance issues? Do recent events plus new technologies provide the opportunity? Or, will the strata sleeping beauties just keep dreaming …
[6.00 minutes estimated reading time, 1134 words]
Introduction
Sometimes things converge into better options, solutions, and outcomes in unexpected ways. If only we can wake up and see what’s happening and possible.
I’ve written before about the possibility of digitisting strata buildings a few times in ‘BIM & the next stage of digitalised buildings ..’ and in ‘Strata Building Defects Typologies Overviewed’.
Plus, I’ve highlighted how technology might lead to digitalised property titles and more in ‘Strata Tecno 001: Future Technology Based Property Subdivisions’.
And, I’ve started to identify some of the lessons to be learned from the tragic collapse of Champlain Towers South in ‘7 Lessons from Florida for Australian Strata’.
It now seems that these unrelated issues might actually fit together for strata stakeholders.
A convergence of issues and events
This article by Poppy Johnston in The Fifth Estate ‘Digital technologies and avoiding complacency: Warnings Australia should heed from the Miami building collapse’ is another in the long series of articles we’ll see about that event.
Without lecturing, the article neatly identifies and packages up the following challenges and opportunities facing strata buildings and strata stakeholders in connection with ongoing maintenance and the structural integrity of buildings:
the lack of information and data [in any form] about the construction and structural features of older strata buildings,
the independent and largely un-enforced obligations on strata committees and strata owners to maintain their strata buildings,
the impact of ageing, lack of maintenance and climate on strata building structures [including safety, amenity, and structural integrity],
the unwillingness of strata owners [and others] to spend money unless and until it’s essential and the consequent delay in repair and maintenance works,
the disparate location of newer information about strata building structures [including analyses, reports, works, fundings, etc],
the availability of BIM and other digital tools to capture, analyse and generate structured information about strata building structures, and
the need for and desirability of using modern tools to address these challenges to avoid more Surfside like events.
Poppy Johnston describes this as a ‘Wake up call for owner’s corporations’.
Will strata buildings wake up?
It’s hard to believe that as terrible as the collapse of Champlain Towers South was that it will prompt a rush of old and new strata buildings to investigate their structural integrity, do long outstanding work [structural or otherwise], and/or, suddenly have a change of heart about routine maintenance, repair, and funding.
A bit like Sleeping Beauty, Australian strata buildings are in blissful slumber, unaware of the spell or spells they’re under because of the following delusions, illusions, and circumstances.
Australian strata buildings are beautiful since they look good [at least from a distance], are located in beautiful locations with excellent vistas [especially when looking out the window], and, many have wonderful gardens, pools, gyms, libraries, etc.
So, this makes everyone feel good about their strata building.
If strata buildings don’t look and don’t ask about their building structures, then they’ll never know that anything’s wrong. In fact, how often do strata committees or strata managers actually inspect their buildings [even superficially] to understand the state they are in, let alone investigate things at a deeper level.
So, ignorance is bliss.
If the only advice strata buildings get is from people they pay [and have an interest in continuing to get paid], is it truly independent when it comes to unwanted news?
So, strata buildings are often surrounded by YES people.
Almost universally across strata building operations, the only goal is compliance with applicable laws rather than good or appropriate building management. So, strata buildings get an annual fire safety certificate or a valuation because there’s a law that expressly tells them to do so and not because it’s necessary or desirable. It’s not the best way to maintain a building
So, strata buildings aim for the low bar of compliance and are deluded that’s enough.
There’s a culture of secrecy about bad or difficult news in many strata buildings that hides reality from the strata owners and other stakeholders. The NSW Building Commissioner has been complaining about that in connection with original building defects but it’s arguably worse in relation to ongoing repair and maintenance issues where blame may attach to strata committees, strata managers, and service providers.
So, strata building stakeholders don’t find out even what’s known about building structure issues.
Majority power [even if small majorities] and strata owner apathy and disengagement mean that internal [and sometimes external] complaints about building structure issues often get stifled, delayed, blocked, or overruled. And, the complainer gets criticised, steamrolled, or even attacked as troublemakers or just difficult.
So, strata buildings’ majorities end up believing their own rhetoric.
The practical uselessness of specialist strata enforcement mechanisms via VCAT [and all the other CATs] means that despite the strict obligations under all Australian strata laws to maintain and repair the building structure, it’s very hard to get orders for strata buildings to do so. And, even with orders, it’s hard to get the work done.
So, strata buildings don’t have to worry about being forced to do anything much.
No one ever gets sued at all or successfully over failures or delays over strata building structure investigations, repair, and maintenance. Not strata committee members, strata managers, building managers, service providers for things like lifts, fire equipment, HVAC, etc or anyone else. Whether they are diligent or not, it makes no difference
So, strata buildings enjoy [???] the benefit of largely unaccountable internal and external managers, advisors, and service providers.
And, finally, the never-ending and steady increase in Australian property values buries the true cost of deteriorated and under-maintained strata buildings under the capital gains being made by strata owners. If you can sell your strata apartment for more than you paid without properly maintaining the building structure, why do it?
So, strata buildings and strata owners are rewarded for doing very little or nothing.
If we care about the ongoing quality, integrity, and safety of Australian strata buildings, we need a reality check on these issues and improvements to each of these factors. Even small improvements will have significant impacts.
Conclusions
Let’s not wait for a prince or princess to come and wake us up from our strata slumber over important and necessary strata building structure investigation, maintenance and repairs until it’s too late.
And let’s use technology to make that happen in ways that cover information capture and analysis, measuring the true impact of unmaintained buildings on values and rents, diagnosing necessary works, managing funding, managing works, communicating information to stakeholders, and documenting outcomes.
July 23, 2021
Francesco …