Liabilities for strata units cost owners dearly
Our professional lives after the G20 Summit should get a lot more interesting and busy as it is forecast that our economy will benefit greatly with more tourism expected as well as population growth.
Without a doubt we are noticing a significant influx in strata community scheme developments – take for example the proposed 90-storey Skytower in the Brisbane CBD and the new investments in development in Townsville. Not only are 43.3 per cent of new housing schemes expected to be in strata communities, there have in fact been 933 new schemes registered in the first nine months of this year alone. Ten of 354 schemes registered between 30 June and 30 September feature more than 100 lots. Quarter on quarter we now have 3 per cent new bodies corporate coming onto the market and the role of the body corporate manager is more and more important to people living in these communities as the legislation governing them is complex.
These numbers are not surprising for us at SCA (Qld). On the contrary we are engaging with a range of stakeholders to ensure we stay relevant to the sector. Most importantly, our work is to educate the public on how strata community living works and besides all the perks of living in a scheme, what they must be aware of.
Schoolies is one of those events that can leave owners, resident managers and body corporate managers with a sour taste in their mouths. Too often do we see damaged common property and silly thoughtless acts such as the planking that occurred last year. Reckless behaviour too often demonstrated includes wilful damage to property, illegal drinking and drug use, brawling and overcrowding.
Schoolies know what is right and what is wrong and at the end of the day it is up to them to act appropriately. Body corporate managers would benefit greatly if bodies corporate assist the situation by providing clear guidelines for short-term accommodation as to what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour on their property and let schoolies know at check in that it will be their wallets getting lighter, not the owners, if they choose to undertake in unsociable behaviour.
There’s also been a new trend reported in the media of high rise “selfies” where people are breaking into high rise apartment buildings, climbing off balconies or scaling the extremities of the building and taking “selfies” from incredibly dangerous heights in order to share these on social media. Many buildings have swipe cards to prevent strangers from getting onto roofs and for those that don’t, we recommend they consider allowing for it in the budget to ensure a safer scheme.
Bodies corporate undoubtedly have a responsibility to ensure roof tops are locked off and are only accessible by authorised personnel. At the end of schoolies the bill that has to be paid in order to conduct repairs and replace broken or missing items isn’t covered by the bond that school leavers are putting down. From an industry perspective, we are calling for new policies that will ensure that apartment owners and managers aren’t slapped with a hefty bill as a result of renting out their apartments. Local events like schoolies are a commonality throughout the state and owners shouldn’t be out of pocket for damage caused by tenants. Maybe we can see a change in the insurance sector, especially considering the government is getting involved with engineering assessments in North Queensland. While they are speaking to the insurance providers, why not address more key issues for strata unit owners?
