Skip to content Skip to footer

Wild Weather and Damage: The Owners Corporation’s Duty to Maintain and Repair the Common Property

With the gale force winds and torrential rain that has been hitting our shores in recent times, this is a quick refresher for owners corporation’s and lot owners on what their respective duties are when common property is damaged. Owners Corporations An owners corporation has a strict duty to maintain and repair the common property.…

Read More

Drips, Drizzle or Deluge? Powers of an Owners Corporation to Enter Lot Property (incl. Emergency Powers)

What many lot owners don’t realise when they buy into a strata scheme is that in some situations, including in an emergency, an Owners Corporation, can force entry. What does this mean? It means that even though you (or your tenant) may not be home or, if access to your lot is refused, the Owners…

Read More

Case Note: Expert Evidence: Can an expert make a compromise?

The Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) authorise the referral of certain matters in litigated proceedings to an independent referee. The referee’s determination of the referred matters can then be adopted or rejected by the court. The importance of expert evidence and, in particular, the joint report prepared by the experts for the referee, is…

Read More

Building certifier liability after Brookfield: Where to now?

Background 1. On 8 October 2014, the High Court handed down its decision in Brookfield Multiplex Ltd v Owners Corporation Strata Plan 61288 & Anor [2014] HCA 36 which curtails the rights of apartment owners to sue builders in negligence. 2. The case involved a long-running dispute between the builder, Brookfield Multiplex, and the owners…

Read More