Bryan is an academic and consultant to Australia’s high rise residential housing sector, focusing on the structural health of buildings and the challenges faced by lot owners. He recently completed a PhD at Bond University titled Preserving Structural Health in Residential Community Title Schemes Above Three Storeys in Queensland.
His research examines structural health, risk management and governance within residential strata schemes in Australia.
Are there limitations and/or restrictions for both time and cost for strata levy increases, or are they purely at the discretion of strata management?
An owner's timber decking was damaged following the failure of a common property water main pipe. However, an expert report obtained by the insurer found that the deck was already in a poor and unsafe condition due to long-term timber decay, consistent with prolonged exposure and a lack of maintenance. Is the body corporate solely responsible for the deck damage?
I'm looking at a 7-level residential building format plan in QLD with a fire panel in reception and a direct alarm to Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. The pre-purchase inspection contractor advised that the smoke detector isn't independent of the panel.
The pre-purchase body corporate search stated no fire safety certificate was available, and enquiries with the building's fire safety provider revealed no assets are recorded for the apartment.
Our committee is appointed to act on behalf of owners, and it's required to report decisions back to them. However, VOCs incur an admin cost.
Wouldn't it make sense to streamline the whole process by not being required to report expenditure decisions under a figure of, say, $500? Matters above that still trigger the "red tape".
Are there guidelines as to when owners need to be notified about a VOC? Most owners aren't interested in the really minor stuff, so why bother?
Our building is under the Accommodation Module of Queensland's Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 framework.
We suspect our building manager rents common property car parks to short-term tenants as part of their short-term accommodation (STA) offering, without body corporate approval.
Is this legal? If a short-term rental (STR) tenant's car is damaged while parked, who's responsible for covering the cost of repairs? Will the body corporate's insurance policy cover the damaged vehicle?
Is the committee required to make provision (an estimate) in the budget pursuant to section 150 to cover the cost of building insurance for the coming year, rather than just helping itself to meet the cost of insurance premiums?
I am chairman of our committee. Recently, while a unit was being renovated, we discovered by chance that several units have fire dampers installed.
A specialist company inspected the units and found that the fire dampers in each one had been sealed up, either by owners, previous owners, or at the time of construction.
Our caretaking agreement states the caretaker is to keep possession of all keys to the common property. It does not state that any committee member must hold a copy. The body corporate passed a motion requesting the caretaker provide copies of all common property keys to one appointed committee member.
