States clamour for strata law changes
Changes to Western Australia’s strata laws could be next on the list following announcements in South Australia and NSW.
NSW legislation is being reformed to allow pets in units as of right, no smoking on balconies and a ban on “noisy” flooring.
Similar changes would have merit in the west, advocacy groups say.
“These are very sensible initiatives and it would be very worthwhile for the West Australian government to have a look at these,” Real Estate Institute of WA president David Airey said.
“Pets are a very common issue, floorboard noise, smoking – not only internally but smoking in common areas – parking – or lack of parking – and maintenance. Someone’s always blaming the strata company.”
The WA Strata Titles Act 1985 sets out standard bylaws, but as long as the group of owners in a strata arrangement agree, a strata council can put bylaws in place for “just about anything”, Strata Communities Australia (WA) president Andrew Chambers said. “The act in place at the moment was really designed for residential schemes and of course now you’ve got thing like mixed schemes where you’ve got commercial offices, retail and residential all in one,” Mr Chambers said. “And the act just doesn’t cope with that.
There are close to 70,000 strata schemes registered in WA.
WA minister for lands Brendon Grylls said with 400,000 strata properties in the state – 37% of all titles – modernising and streamlining the act was a “key priority”.
“I anticipate amendments will be introduced to parliament next year.”
Meanwhile in South Australia the Statutes Amendment (Community and Strata Titles) Act, 2012 (SA) that was passed in April partially came into force on 18 July with the remainder beginning on 28 October.
The amendments impose greater pre-contractual and contractual disclosure obligations for body corporate management contracts, restrictions on the duration of those contracts, better disclosure of conflicts of interest and commissions and a penalty notice system for by-laws and articles breaches.
One of the most significant amendments is that a developer must now not act in conflict of interest and make secret profits.
Bodies corporate will now be required to obtain professional indemnity insurance.
Queensland is currently in the process of reviewing the BCCM Act.
In NSW the wrangle over insurance commissions has delayed the official release of the Fair Trading strata law review position paper.
Unit owners want commissions banned but the insurance industry and strata managers warn that levies will rise if they are.
Fair Trading had been poised to ban commissions in the revamp of strata laws, details of which were due to be released in a position paper that has now been delayed for several weeks. It now seems the NSW government will demand transparency in contracts while giving the industry time to come up with a new business model.
The position paper is due to be released in the next two weeks.
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