Developers - Love or Hate Them?

Most people in strata have (or should have) a love-hate relationship with developers.

You gotta love them because they take on the commercial risks to develop and build strata buildings and if they do it right we get great high density living for many people.  They make the (strata) magic happen.

But, there's many reasons to hate them too because of complaints that strata buildings are not built properly, they don't provide the new strata owners with the documents and information they need, strata levies are set too low, unreasonable and unfair long term contract get imposed and they sometimes try to interfere with strata corporation decisions.

So, many people like Michael Teys in his recent blog, think that the developers hang around too long and should be sent packing firmly and quickly.  He's not the only one - with people telling me over many years that the sooner the developer is out of the picture the better.

But I have a different view.  I think that developers should be forced to stay involved in the strata buildings they develop for longer and have responsibilities during that time.  

It's precisely because developers take a short term interest in the buildings they develop and leave almost as soon they're finished that strata owners get poor outcomes.  All of the developer's knowledge and understanding of the building structure and construction, operational plans and issues, their supplier arrangements and connections and their resources are lost.  Plus, they more easily avoid the consequences of inadequate budgeting, compliance or planning and have no responsibility for bad decisions that might be made by the new owners which they could have helped avoid.

I'd rather see developers being forced to have one (and only one) position on the committee, a requirement to provide a 'free' person to assist the committee, positive obligations to provide relevant information on financial, compliance, construction and certification matters for committee decisions and liabilities for the consequences of not doing so - for a few years after the strata corporation begins.  That would change things dramatically for everyone and help ensure better handover of new strata buildings.

Sometimes the counter-intuitive ideas are the best.


Francesco ...