Pub­li­ca­tions

Jul 21, 2021

Deal­ing with the NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try shut down — man­ag­ing exist­ing works

On 17 July 2021, the NSW Gov­ern­ment amend­ed the Pub­lic Health (Covid-19 Tem­po­rary Move­ment and Gath­er­ing Restric­tions) Order 2021 (the Orders) to deal with the ongo­ing out­break of the Covid-19 Delta vari­ant in the Greater Syd­ney area. The net impact of the inser­tion of claus­es 22(4A) and 24AB is that the…

Feb 22, 2021

Helen Kowal’s arti­cle pub­lished in Source​able​.net | Final­ly, Bet­ter Build­ing Prac­tices are Being Enforced

Back in 2019, frus­trat­ed in my pro­fes­sion as to how many build­ing defects appear in mul­ti-storey res­i­den­tial build­ings short­ly after con­struc­tion lead­ing to mul­ti-mil­lions of dol­lars being spent on reme­di­al repairs, I spent the year inter­view­ing expert build­ing con­sul­tants as to their views on the state of play in con­struc­tion and…

Nov 26, 2020

Our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing 2020

We are almost at the end of 2020, and with the end of a year comes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing the year: 1. COVID-19 Ten­an­cy Update by Mary Digiglio & Tony D’Agosti­no | Prop­er­ty, Plan­ning & Projects | 24 Sep­tem­ber 2020 2. COVID-19 | Redun­dan­cy pay­ments dur­ing the…

Sep 1, 2020

Can we build bet­ter build­ings in NSW?

The con­struc­tion indus­try in New South Wales is in cri­sis and has been at an impasse for a pro­longed peri­od of time. The ques­tion as to why we have so many build­ing defects, par­tic­u­lar­ly in mul­ti-storey res­i­den­tial apart­ment build­ings, was being asked long before the Opal and Mas­cot tow­er dis­as­ters and…

Aug 31, 2020

NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try Reform

The NSW Build­ing Com­mis­sion­er, David Chan­dler OAM, is at the ready with ​‘boots on the ground’, to ​‘rid the indus­try of dan­ger­ous builders, devel­op­ers and cer­ti­fiers’ and improve con­sumer con­fi­dence in the buy­ing of res­i­den­tial apart­ments in NSW with the com­mence­ment on 1 Sep­tem­ber 2020 of the Res­i­den­tial Apart­ment Build­ings (Com­pli­ance…

Aug 3, 2020

Address­ing Build­ing Defects in Stra­ta Schemes

Leg­isla­tive oblig­a­tions and func­tions for a stra­ta scheme can be over­whelm­ing in the first few years and it may take time to estab­lish a func­tion­ing stra­ta com­mit­tee. Obvi­ous­ly, the thought of defects in a stra­ta scheme are not what is on a lot own­er’s mind hav­ing just pur­chased a new unit. How­ev­er, with strict time…

Jun 24, 2020

The NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try – where are we at in 2020?

No-one could have antic­i­pat­ed the impact that so many unre­lat­ed, but col­lid­ing events, has had on all indus­try sec­tors through­out Aus­tralia in 2020. Whilst the long-term eco­nom­ic impact of these events on the con­struc­tion indus­try is unknown, this indus­try is one sec­tor which has been able to con­tin­ue work­ing, even…

May 15, 2020

Stra­ta Schemes Gen­er­al Meet­ings in light of COVID-19

It has just been announced that the NSW Par­lia­ment is con­sid­er­ing reforms to the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (SSMA) to remove the need for face-to-face meet­ings and allow own­ers cor­po­ra­tions to oper­ate elec­tron­i­cal­ly. In the mean­time, own­ers cor­po­ra­tions are still required com­ply with their oblig­a­tions to hold meet­ings in…

May 14, 2020

Is your stra­ta scheme functioning?

We recent­ly act­ed for a lot owner/​building man­ag­er in a Stra­ta Appli­ca­tion to the NSW Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Tri­bunal (NCAT) suc­cess­ful­ly seek­ing orders for the removal of the exist­ing stra­ta com­mit­tee and the com­pul­so­ry appoint­ment of a stra­ta man­ag­er to the scheme under s237 of the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (SSMA 2015)…

May 13, 2020

COVID-19 | Con­struc­tion Works With­in Stra­ta Schemes

With the intro­duc­tion of the Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment (COVID-19 Devel­op­ment – Con­struc­tion Work Days) Order 2020 on 31 March 2020 (the Order), stra­ta schemes may be faced with deci­sions to make regard­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion or com­mence­ment of build­ing works dur­ing the Gov­ern­ment imposed restric­tions and social dis­tanc­ing guidelines.  Impact of…