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Limits on NCAT’s power to order re-instatement
A recent NCAT Appeal Panel decision indicates the limitations on orders NCAT can make for re-instatement of common property after unauthorized works have occurred to it. The case concerned a 2 lot strata scheme that had one water meter servicing both lots. The respondent lot owner arranged for the local council to install a metre […]
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NCAT orders balustrade upgrade
A recent NCAT Appeal Panel decision means an owners corporation may sometimes have to upgrade common property to carry out its obligation to repair and maintain common property. In The Owners – Strata Plan No. 36613 v Doherty; Doherty v The Owners – Strata Plan No. 36613 [2021] NSWCATAP 285, the owners corporation’s balustrade complied […]
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NCAT awards damages for failure to repair common property
In a recent case, NCAT ordered an owners corporation to pay damages of $7,730 to lot owners because they suffered a loss of rent when the owners corporation failed to rectify water ingress into the lot. In Huang & Giang vThe Owners Strata Plan No. 65865 [2021] NSWCATCD 15, the lot owners suffered water ingress […]
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Development Disaster!
It’s not The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure. It’s a real-life planning and development disaster that’s been unfolding in Sydney for the last 5 years. It’s the disaster development story that has the lot: poor planning approval and no enforcement or oversight by the local council, a private certifier who was struck off for […]
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NCAT confirms $97,000 damages award
NCAT’s Appeal Panel has confirmed a $97,000 damages award in favour of a lot owner against an owners corporation that failed to repair common property. The case is The Owners – Strata Plan No 80412 v Vickery [2021] NSWCATAP 98, which had previously been to the NSW Court of Appeal. In 2020, the Court of […]
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Renovations approval: what is required?
In a recent LookUp Strata article, “Can the owners corporation make verbal approvals of the major work by-law?” principal lawyer Carlo Fini explains what approval is required for a renovation in a strata building.
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Pets in strata: more confusion from NCAT
In a high-profile decision in March 2021, NCAT upheld a by-law in a community management statement that banned dogs in a community association. The case highlights that the recent developments in the law on pet by-laws in strata schemes may not apply to community associations or the by-laws contained in a community management statement. In […]
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Strata law reform marches on and makes life easier
After much debate, the Strata Schemes Management Amendment (Sustainability Infrastructure) Act 2021 is now the law of the land in New South Wales and making life easier in strata. While the Act is mostly about sustainability issues, the most talked about amendments in it are to make keeping pets in apartment buildings easier. These amendments […]
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Are NSW planning laws “fit for purpose”?
A Sydney Morning Herald/Domain article looks at a development in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs that has residents up in arms.
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Pets in strata gets the ok
The NSW Court of Appeal has now confirmed that a by-law containing a blanket prohibition on the keeping of pets in a strata scheme is invalid because it is harsh, unconscionable or oppressive.
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No privacy in strata
NCAT’s Appeal Panel has recently confirmed there is no privacy in the strata records an owners corporation must keep.
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