Strata owner engagement is a serious problem for most strata corporations and I've blogged about the challenge before (see No Fault Strata Owner Apathy).
I feel that one of the causes is the lack of options for strata owners to express their views on issues and feel like it makes a difference. After all, usually that only occurs at a formal strata meeting where the stakes are high, every vote counts and people become polarised around outcomes -rather than the issues.
So, giving owners other forums to explore issues and information and where they can express opinions can only improve things.
Crowd Sourcing is (according to Wikipedia) a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people. This process can occur both online and offline, and the difference between crowdsourcing and ordinary outsourcing is that a task or problem is outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific body, such as paid employees. WIth a few bass modifications I think it might be an option for strata corporations to get more and better strata owner engagement.
Some explanations and examples to get you thinking about how Crowd Sourcing could work include this article from This Big City that explores the pros and cons of Crowd Sourcing for urban planning feedback and this report on a real example of using Crowd Sourcing in a development context from Washington where a developer asked the community what kind of tenants they'd like in a vacant shop.
Imagine if your strata corporation used Crowd Sourcing to canvass important issues, plans and challenges with owners (asking for them to collaborate to find the better or the best outcome) before holding formal meetings to decide things? It's not that hard to do, couldn't do any harm and would improve outcomes by engaging more opinions.
You probably know that throughout most of Australia strata buildings over 3 storeys have not had Home Warranty Insurance covering defective original construction since 2003.
That means that they can only sue the builder (and maybe the developer) for defects under the applicable home building laws (and maybe in negligence). Which is fine if the builder is still around and solvent.
She reports that since January more than 363 companies in the building industry have become insolvent (with more than 200 of them from New South Wales and 95 from Victoria). And, she says 'the trend seems to be getting worse, with 30 building companies failing in March, 33 in April, 51 in May, 63 in June and a whopping 40 collapsing in the first 10 days of July'.
Whilst that's bad news for the building industry, it's even worse news for strata owners, executives and managers of buildings they built that are over 3 storeys - since their primary targets for compensation for building defects (the builders) are disappearing fast.
So, apart from the all the adverse decisions being handed down by Courts in strata defect claim cases now there's going to be even less possibilities to sue builders due to economic factors.
It makes the decision taken about 10 years ago to exclude taller strata buildings (over 3 storeys) from home warranty insurance 'last resort' protections appear to have been overly optimistic about the financial strength and longevity of builders. And, it leaves strata owners without fair and reasonable protections over the quality of the their buildings (again).
Maybe the NSW Office of Fair Trading will take this into account in its current review of Home Building Laws (see Repairing NSW Building Laws). Or, am I just being hopelessly optimistic?
Imagine if there was a Strata Olympics. Where every 4 years the best strata people from around the world competed in contests of skill, strength, speed and stamina to test their strata ability and see who was the best in the world.
It's worth thinking about what the strata sports might be, what it would take to win and which countries would be strongest. I imagine events like these -
Speed vote tallying where the fastest at counting votes on a multi-candidate election with a poll wins
A long distance sinking or reserve fund race where strata executives tried to see how long they could make their funds last before the money runs out
Meeting notice weight lifting where competitors tried to lift increasing large (and heavy) AGM meeting notices with multiple attachments
Strata compliance gymnastics where owners, executives and strata managers contort themselves to fit through increasing small and complex gaps and channels without falling, touching the sides or hurting themselves
Water penetration polo where a slippery ball has to be kicked or passed between team members to score goals in water trodden apartments situated below leaking balconies, planter boxes and flat roofs
A 400 meter hurdle where strata managers had to run a lap of the oval and jump over or otherwise avoid strata owners trying to stop them to ask questions or get information
And, for the final event there would be a marathon strata meeting lasting 26 hours where the person most active (or awake) at the end wins
It would be a fantastic strata spectacle. And, just imagine the pageantry of the opening ceremony!
A friend of mine has a few incompatible passions - strata and pets - and is doing something about it. She's started a website called Stratapets with lots of useful information.
Like many people that love their pets and want to live in strata, my friend had to learn the hard way about the traditional incompatibility of the two and the apparent inflexible rules and policies that apply in many strata buildings. But, that dis-appointment led her to find out more and share it on the web.
So, why not do the same and learn how to bridge the gap between strata living and pet ownership to make strata life with pets possible for you too?
The NSW government is proposing widespread changes to planning laws to improve urban outcomes. The latest announcements suggest that areas will be defined as -
'enterprise zones' which are loosely regulated to encourage development,
'suburban character zones' which are heavily regulated to prohibit most forms of development
'future urban release area' which sets out areas where greenfield development is likely to occur in the future
The suburban character zones will allow council to excluding medium- or high-density development and is, apparently, in response to recent backlashes from communities, such as Ku-ring-gai, to past planning controls that allowed medium-rise and high-rise developments in established suburbs.
The idea strikes me as a trade-off: for allowing easier higher density development in some areas councils will be able to create areas where high density development is completely prohibited. A kind of strata no-go zone.
Whilst there's no doubt that the planning laws and processes need change, creating strata no-go zones is anti-strata and high density. It adds another factor to the things that tend to make strata 'second rate' real estate that people buy if they can't afford to live in real homes in suburban zones - rather than the preferred living option for the future.
We spend so much time with our houses and apartments, we depend on them for shelter, security and refuge and we use them to make money ... but do we care about their feelings?
Have you ever wondered if our homes are happy? What have you done to improve their lives? Do you care?
Here's an amusing video from Nest about happy homes. Enjoy!
Why is everyone so surprised that one judge in the NSW Supreme Court decided that builders and developers don't owe strata corporations a duty of care in negligence for the quality of construction?
Since the decision in the Star of the Sea case last month (see A Strata Corporation Win on Building Defects and More Setbacks for Strata Building Defect Claims) there's been some frantic activity by strata corporations, managers, executives and lawyers over building defect claims. For instance, Teys Lawyers issued a Bulletin telling everyone to quickly check the details, timing and status of their defect claims and others are doing the same.
But, there should be no surprises about this set back for strata defect claims. After all, this is still new legal territory in this country, there's a lot at stake and the following things are not new.
There has only ever been one Australian case (in the Northern Territory by a single judge) that decided there were such duties.
The High Court has changed the rules about negligence for this kind of damage a few times in the last 20 years and most lawyers will say that the law remains unsettled and confusing.
Builders and developers have many good commercial reasons to defend these kinds of legal claims (and are well organised and equipped to do so).
Conversely, most strata corporations are poorly organised and under resourced to run complex (and costly cases).
What's really surprising to me is that strata corporations leave their building defects unresolved to the point where they have to rely on such difficult legal principles to try to get redress. Most buildings have rights to sue builders and developers for defects and have had up to 6 or 7 years to do so without ever having to worry about common law rights, yet they ignore problems, defer investigation and action, accept compromised fixes from builders and try to save money on experts and lawyers - all of which weaken their position when things don't turn out as they had hoped.
Plus, one unfavourable decision in the ongoing strata building defect battle is not the end of the legal debate in this area - it's just the beginning of the argument.
After 25 years of specialising in high density real estate litigation, development and operations, I've seen and resolved every possible strata situation.
I created and ran Andreones Lawyers, Australia's leading strata law firm for 10 years, helped thousands of people and companies and even been responsible for changing strata laws several dozen times.
These days I blog occasionally, work with a number of universities on strata related research, privately consult to select clients with The Strata Experts and am working on innovative solutions for the provision and management of utilities for strata buildings with the Highrise Group.
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