Strata & Community Living Autumn 2023
2023 Autumn Edition
Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning
NCAT Proceedings
Protecting property from underinsurance
Easy window maintenance
Building business value
Risk and reputation with running a body corporate
Take control of combustible cladding
Cost effective methods for painting and maintenance
What is a security maintenance plan?
A new way of reporting for Strata Schemes
What are energy efficient windows?
Quarterly economic outlook
Contractors and the changing strata environment
Replacing external waterproofing
Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning
As Autumn arrives and the jumpers come out, it brings with it important considerations for homeowners, particularly when it comes to the care and maintenance of their roofs. As part of our ongoing series following the seasons, here are the key things to consider keeping your property problem free as the leaves begin to fall.
There’s no way around it, as the trees start to lose their leaves in the autumn months, it’s important to keep an eye on your roof and gutters and remove the excess. The falling leaves will clog your gutters and downpipes, leading to water damage to your roof and building, as well as damage to your gutters and downpipes. To prevent these problems, you need to be a routine gutter clean schedule.
If you just stand by and watch the NCAT Proceedings – you can’t appeal later on
The Appeal Panel in the matter of The Owners – Strata Plan 2010 v Kahn [2022] NSWCATAP 9 considered an appeal regarding an order made to appoint a strata managing agent to exercise the functions of the owners corporation. The effect of this appointment is that neither the previous members of the owners corporation, nor individual lot owners in the strata scheme can purport to represent the owners corporation of make decisions for it.
How to protect your strata property from underinsurance
Across Australia, strata insurance is mandatory for nearly all strata buildings, so while the risk of being uninsured is usually not a concern, there is a rising concern of underinsurance. Underinsured is different to ‘uninsured’.
It occurs when your insurance policy does not adequately cover the full value of your property. With rising inflation, rising costs of repair or replacement of your strata property, labour shortages, supply chain issues and the increase in frequency and severity of catastrophic weather events – CHU is urging their customers and owners of residential strata properties to take the necessary steps to ensure their property is adequately covered.
Easy window maintenance tips from the experts
Why do windows need maintenance? Consider the environment in which windows function. They’re subject to extreme weather temperatures from extreme dry to wet and humid conditions, not to mention wind, hail, ultraviolet light and more. Then there’s the regular openings and closings which overtime cause excessive wear and tear.
Building business value as operational costs rise
Australia’s strata industry is flourishing. The last two decades of growth is equivalent to the previous 40 years, with cumulative rather than cyclical growth, as each release of lots adds to dwelling stock. Yet despite industry growth, the 2023 Macquarie Strata Management benchmarking study uncovered that average profit margins have declined steadily from 33% in 2005, to 23% in 2022. So, what’s driving this, against a backdrop of consistent revenue growth?
Risk and reputation with running a body corporate
We look at my four main areas of risks associated with running a body corporate (including owners corporations, company titles schemes and community schemes) from both the Committee/Directors and the manager’s viewpoint.
Topics covered include;
- The Approval Process
- Contracts
- Licensing/legislative Responsibilities
- Exceeding authority or not following instructions
Take control of combustible cladding
Combustible cladding can cast a long shadow over the strata community when the path to remediation is unclear. Strata managers and body corporates can face the ‘triple threat’: uncertainty in the solution and associated cost, an exponential rise in insurance premiums, and the resulting risk of a building valuation decrease.
Cost effective methods for painting and maintenance
When it comes to the upkeep and remodelling of a building, a painting project can be costly and time-consuming. Consequently, the painters you engage to paint your building can stay on site for several weeks. Naturally, this can cause disruptions for your tenants as well as being costly.
To reduce the disruption to your tenants as well as the costs, one way to do this is to take a closer look at the methods used by your potential painters. It is highly recommended for large scale painting jobs such as this to opt for spraying over hand painting and rolling.
What is a security maintenance plan?
Your strata building’s electronic security system is generally comprised of three key elements: Access Control, CCTV and Intercom. Residents and visitors rely on these systems for access to the building and to help manage the common areas when no one is around. A failure in the systems can cause significant inconvenience to residents, such as being locked out of a building, vandalism & untraceable thefts.
A new way of reporting for Strata Schemes – NSW Strata Hub
Under the Strata Schemes Management Amendment Regulation 2021, strata schemes are required to report relevant information to Strata Hub to ensure compliance with housing legislation.
For security reasons, private information stored in Strata Hub is unavailable for public access and can only be used by regulators to examine data related to strata schemes.
SCA (NSW) supports the practicality of Strata Hub to improve accessibility to important information about strata schemes for service providers and the NSW Government.
Such information includes contact details of emergency services. A bulk uploading system is also in the works allowing important messages to be delivered to strata schemes from emergency services, councils, and regulators in a fast and efficient way.
