Community title has existed in NSW since 1990 but there are a relatively small number of these developments (compared to strata title buildings) and their peculiarities mean that most strata stakeholders don’t know much about them. You’ll see them in larger estate-style developments or what used to be called flat strata subdivisions for villas and some townhouses.

Even though strata buildings are full of good, smart and well-intentioned people, they don’t always make great decisions. And sometimes strata buildings delay important decisions or, worse still, actually make really bad decisions. Why is that and what dynamics create those kinds of counterinitiative outcomes? The many potential reasons for the phenomenon should be studied by experts.

GoStrata’s Case Watch offers concise, clear, and easy-to-understand reviews of important and interesting Court and Tribunal decisions affecting Australian strata title stakeholders.

Bevan Shields, Editorial for the Sydney Morning Herald

Part strata schemes [or BMCs] are increasingly common place in NSW. Yet, whilst they look like strata title corporations, they are completely different; being instead a strange kind of property partnership between the owners of different parts of a building. So, BMCs are challenging but will be an increasingly important part of our high-density future.

Since it’s racing carnival season, I wondered whether managers might be better considered to be the jockey or the racehorse in the strata title derby. There are pluses and minus either way. So, what do you think?

We’re hearing a lot more about developers stitching up new strata buildings by locking them into long-term, expensive and unfair contracts without proper disclosure. It’s wrong and shouldn’t happen. And, there’s a 15 year old Supreme Court decision that says so and helps strata buildings tear up those contracts.

Many strata owners want to make changes to their properties, which is fair enough. But, getting strata building approval is confusing, complicated, slow, and uncertain; often leading to refusals or disputes. Conversely, when works happen they’re often inadequately documented or covered. So, why don’t strata owners’ works, work so well?

Apart from the topical and ongoing personal, societal, and legal debates about controls on pets in strata buildings, there’s a group of animals that are always exempt from any strata by-laws or rules. So, who are they, how do the exemptions work, and how should they be handled?

We regularly hear horror stories about dysfunctional, collapsing, and/or worn-out strata buildings that are in chaos and have ruined the lives and asset bases of their strata owners. And we think that’s something new or novel. But predictions of a dystopian strata title future have been around for a long long time. So, let me tell you a story from the 1970s …

Many strata owners want to make changes to their properties, which is fair enough. But, getting strata building approval is confusing, complicated, slow, and uncertain; often leading to refusals or disputes. Conversely, when works happen they’re often inadequately documented or covered. So, why don’t strata owners’ works, work so well?

In today’s guest-writer article by lawyers, Christopher Kerin & Mia Haas, they explain the results and impacts on strata title stakeholders of a recent NSW Court of Appeal decision on our old favourites: strata building defects, combustible cladding, and Toplace. It’s a timely reminder that hard legal cases sometimes need to be pursued properly and completely to get the right results, as this strata building successfully demonstrates.

The overuse and misuse of pithy catchphrases is commonplace and annoying. So, when strata stakeholders glibly refer to the tragedy of the commons in thier buildings what are they saying and what do they really mean? It’s probably not what you [or they] think, and it may in fact be the exact opposite.

In 2015, the NSW strata law changes introduced a short-form way of trying to clarify who’s responsible for different parts of a strata building: the strata corporation or strata owners. But, like so many tempting shortcuts, it’s poorly considered and done, it doesn’t work, it’s very messy, and, it should be abolished …

Even though strata buildings must fix everything completely, without exceptions and immediately, and, they are liable to strata owners and others for not doings so, most of the time repair and maintenance happens quite lethargically. So, there’s a disconnect between strata laws, reality, perceptions, expectations and outcomes that creates a lot of disappointing artificiality. It’s time to grow up and stop playing strata Lego.

In today’s guest-writer article by Chris Irons, he argues that applying ‘professionalism’ to all strata stakeholder groups to improve their awareness, knowledge, and competence is the solution to better strata outcomes to meet the increasingly complex and multi-dimensional challenges facing the sector.

Since many strata buildings suffer from long-standing leaks and other faults, strata committees take a long to time fix them, and half of strata apartments are tenanted, there’s always been a lot of exposure to the adverse consequential impacts on strata owners. But, the new and easy ways for NSW strata to recover losses means they’re in a strata damages gold rush ….

There’s a medium to long-term trend towards increasingly large strata buildings across Australia and internationally that is welcomed and championed by many strata stakeholders. And, with that trend come assumptions that bigger is better. But, whilst there are advantages to bigger strata buildings, there are also some drawbacks to consider …

Andy Warhol was famously quoted as saying ‘in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes’. But, when its strata title’s turn in the media limelight, is it more like fame or infamy …

Given that what is lot property and what is common property really matters in strata buildings, there would be a higher understanding of that, better controls on changes to the buildings affecting those things, and, fairer mechanisms for the shared use of those areas. But, that’s not typically the case and we can do a lot better …