Author: Lindsey

Essay Award winner: Frank Boross, Havencab

One of the newest categories added this year to the CHU Strata Community Awards was the Essay Award which encourages Strata Community Australia (NSW) members – strata managers, strata services and lot owners – to submit an essay of around 1,000 words on a current topical strata issue. The essay can be humorous or informative but must demonstrate an understanding of the topic and its relevance to the strata community.

The winning entry for 2017 was an essay on ethics, written by Frank Boross, Group Director of Havencab a strata integrated Facilities Company who has long campaigned for businesses in the cleaning industry to practice ethical behaviour.

“Businesses in general are unethical because they believe they have a lot to gain by acting in a certain way,” Frank says.

“In the cleaning industry this occurs every minute of every day with some companies choosing to pay less than award conditions or offering commissions to get work. This is wrong and can lead to prosecution by the Fair Work Commission.

“We don’t operate like this and my philosophy is that anyone in my company who does can immediately find themselves out of a job.”

Frank notes in his essay:

‘The latest FWO annual report … (notes) that the majority of litigations (42 per cent) concerned wages and conditions, with cleaning services featuring prominently in these cases. Such exploitation may be explained in part by tendering processes that award cleaning contracts to the lowest bidder. This is, after all, how the free market works: minimum outlay for maximum benefit. It is a reasonable business focus.

‘This is highly relevant to the strata management industry because there are 270,000 strata properties through Australia, that all need contractors. The strata manager has a lot to do with recommending contractors and issuing work orders on behalf of their Owners, and they can get caught up in Section 550 of the act.   Without any burden on strata managers and property owners to ensure the cleaning company they contracted is providing appropriate wages and conditions, workers – real human beings – end up bearing the brunt of these arrangements.

‘The fact is, these corporations are cheating the Australian public by cheating their workers. The current arrangement isn’t fair to workers or to taxpayers – nor is it equitable to employers who play by the rules, pay family-supporting wages and contribute their fair share of taxes. Clearly there’s nothing wrong with being a profitable corporation, but that success shouldn’t come at the expense of workers, communities and the economy.’

“To be successful you don’t need to be unethical,” Frank says citing the example of Lance Armstrong.

“He had the world at his feet but got there on a lie, and now all the good that he’s done through his career, charities and relationships has come crashing down. People will and do get caught.”

Having his essay highlighted is a very pleasing result for Frank as he gets to highlight an issue that he is most passionate about.

“It is important that we do the right thing in the strata industry because so many people are involved and because of the consequences can damage more than just the reputation of those directly perpetrating the action.”

“I relish the opportunity to highlight the issue around fair pay but also the need for us all to think about our actions and to do only what’s right.”

“We require that all employees disclose gifts and commissions and if they are unsure of the correct approach the doors of the senior managers and myself are always open to discuss the matter. If it’s not good behaviour we can quickly identify it with the person and take steps to ensure our integrity and honesty remain intact.”

Havencab has won the SCA (NSW) ethics award several times in the past because of the training it gives to its staff and because they lead by example with their ethics policy available through their office.

Frank’s essay will be available to read once the National competition has been awarded in mid-2018. The winning entry will be published in Inside Strata after which we will publish Frank’s essay.

All that’s left is to say congratulations Frank and good luck for the National competition. Thank you for sharing your passion in a positive and helpful way.

The SCA (NSW) Policy and Legislation Committee is advising members about the change of heart by the NSW Government regarding the collection of the Emergency Services Levy (ESL), following the re-instatement of the previous legislation. This means that the ESL will again be collected via insurance premiums. The change does, however, allow for the transfer of the ESL back to the land tax model so at present it is deferred rather than abolished.  The reversal became effective from 1st July 2017, which means that insurers are once again responsible for the funding of the NSW emergency services.

This is an important fact to remember because while the requirement has been reinstated from that date, insurers have already prepared and issued renewals for at least 8 to 12 weeks in advance, this means the commencement of the collection of the levy did not occur on that date.

In addition to this, the calculation of the levy is retrospective in that the basis of the collection is arrived at by actuarial analysis during the year of what proportion of premium needs to be collected to arrive at the correct amount by the end of the financial year. As such ESL amounts tend to vary following a quarterly review.

Therefore, as stated previously, if the insurers have not collected any levy for the first few months, it will need to be accounted for at some stage so the impact to premiums moving forward could potentially escalate significantly starting with a complete reversal of the predicted 20% to 30% discount promoted by the Emergency Service Levy Insurance Monitor. We predict that the ESL will return to the market in late August or early October depending on where insurers are in their respective renewal cycles.

It should be noted the original section 30 notice has become redundant, but the ESL Monitor remains with the role of the Monitor transitioning from a consumer advocate appointed to “protect the interests of the consumer” (that is, overseeing the insurers behaviour during the transfer) to monitoring their behaviour to adhering to the status quo.

The Monitor still has significant power and can fine insurers up to $10 million for “misleading policyholders or charging unreasonably high insurance premiums”. Whether this can be effectively translated into real-life scenarios will be a matter of some conjecture as insurers have been able to clearly demonstrate that they are not meeting shareholder expectations on returns based on rising claims costs and reinsurance costs.

At the time of writing it appears that the new section 30 notice that was issued by the Monitor on 2 June 2017 that related to showing the prior year’s premiums on renewal notices has been withdrawn. It may be something that the market eventually adopts as it has also appeared as a recommendation under the recent General Insurance Code review..

We will provide further updates as they become available on this matter.

 

John Coleman’s historical strata stories

Some of the best ideas have no doubt emerged over a lunch or a beer or two at a pub. In this case it was over lunch when industry stalwarts John Coleman and Phil Duggan hatched a plan to record the history of Strata Community Australia (NSW) and in doing do produce a book.

Most of you will know John Coleman in his role with Express Glass but he is also a former school teacher and trained historian and the idea of writing another book – he’s written a few about historical landmarks and happenings around Sydney’s inner west – ignited his imagination. This time it will be about strata.

“I developed a passion for history while at school and now that I’m semi-retired from Express Glass I have time to do the research and talk to people,” John said.

“I especially love Ancient and Roman history and have completed my Masters in this area. More recently though I have been writing about locals from the inner west and their involvement and experiences during World War I.”

The Institute of Strata Title Management (ISTM) started in 1980 becoming SCA (NSW) in 2011 to align with the national and other state organisations. The NSW organisation will turn 40 in 2020 around about the same time the book will be published.

John realised it was time to do this while people in the industry still remember the stories. He’s been combing through the ISTM Minute books, old newspaper archives and talking to various people.

“The archives are great because the record keeping was kept so well. Strata managers are very good at keeping minutes and they like to have a good yarn. I have a long list of people to interview over the next year or so including Richard Holloway who also knows the history of strata in NSW.”

“I’ve already caught up with Gary Bugden, Peter Clisdell, Maria Linders and Judith Ferguson. While the book will document the chronological history of the organisation, I have already decided that there will be some break out stories about the families of strata. We have quite a number – the Duggans, Fergusons, Linders, Vumbacas to name a few – and it will be fascinating to hear their stories over a couple of generations.”

John will also be calling on ISTM’s first CEO, Bruce Wheeler, former and first Vice President Ken Gresham, Muriel Baraso and Wally Paterson.

Those who have provided services to the industry will also be included, people like Bill Coles, CHU’s founders Rod James and Tony Maxwell, David Le Page and others will also have great stories to tell about their experiences in the early days of strata.

John says it’s a three-year project and currently has the working title “From the ground up” which describes the revolutionary idea that today we know as strata title.

The book is wholeheartedly supported not just by Chris Duggan in his capacity as SCA (NSW) President, but also by Express Glass which has been enthusiastically supporting the research through its platinum sponsorship.

SCA (NSW) will design and print the book and arrange distribution. No doubt the book launch party will be one to remember (and record for the next book).

If you have stories or documents please contact John Coleman at john@expressglass.com.au

Amberly Keating, Port Stephens Strata

The 2017 CHU Strata Community Awards have been handed out for another year but this time there are new categories with some winners going on as finalists to the SCA Australasian Awards and some to other awards including the NSW Business Chamber Awards.

Congratulations then to Amberly Keating winner of the new for 2017 Support Team Member Award who is now the NSW finalist for the SCA national awards.

Amberly is Operations Manager at Port Stephens Strata, which is part of the Strata Plus group. She is a highly-valued and dedicated team member who started working part-time for the company located at Nelson Bay in 2001 while still at school.

“Working in the office was my after-school job until 2003, then a part-time job from 2003 until 2005 when I was asked to work full-time in the receptionist position. Over that time, I’ve worked and learned along the way and am now the Operations Manager,” Amberly explains.

“I work in the background on the management system and supervise the administration team located across the offices in Nelson Bay and Newcastle. Most recently I’ve been running a major project to integrate the old system into the new. This is where my experience and in-depth knowledge of the business has been invaluable.”

Amberly enjoys learning and taking on new challenges which is one of the factors about her that resonated with the judges. She says she enjoys helping the team with whatever is given to her, and trying to do it in the most efficient way possible.

“I’m the team’s go-to person whenever they have an issue they can’t resolve on their own. I step in and assist in all situations from internal IT problems, to client and account queries that the team may be unfamiliar with.”

Amberly has also put time and effort into her education, completing the Certificate of Registration in September 2016. She also has plans to do more study.

“I’m currently considering options for further study to support my career goals and hope to start a Diploma of Business Administration later this year. As an alternative, I am also looking at the training options that have become or are becoming available through SCA.”

Around this Amberly fits in time to get involved with sport and is the President of the Nelson Bay Netball Association as well as sharing her life with her partner and three step children.

The win however was unexpected and the first people she shared it with were her staff who were all waiting on Facebook or wanting SMS messages.

“I was shocked and felt humbled. I don’t do my work for recognition but it was appreciated and it reflects on the staff and colleagues right up to Olivera Ferguson who support me, and in this case had a hand in my nomination.”

Amberly said the process of writing about herself for the award submission was a learning curve about herself and a realisation of how much she had achieved.

“I was surprised to learn what people think and say about me which is that I always support them and drop what I’m doing to help others. I guess that’s who I am.”

 

If you want to glimpse an insight into what the future of the industry holds, look no further than Andrew Terrell – a young strata professional with experience, ideas and a positive attitude.

Like many in the strata industry, Andrew came to strata management after starting another career and finding it was not for him.

“I was an undergraduate Auditor working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and saw what my future would be if I stayed within that role and organisation,” he says.

“It was pretty clear this was not what I was cut out to do but it had given me some great skills and a view that I wanted to work in property, after spending time auditing property funds.”

In 2008 Andrew started applying for property related jobs while studying to be a property valuer. One of the jobs he applied for was as a trainee strata manager and that was the start of his strata career.

“I worked for a few strata managing agents and enjoyed the opportunities to get to know the industry. The best move of my career was moving into a business development role. That’s where I found my passion.”

Now with Wellman Strata, Andrew recently facilitated the opening of a new office in Newcastle, which he says is currently small scale but there are good opportunities to be had. He is quick to attribute the success he’s having to David Wellman, his boss, and mentor.

“I like drumming up business and being trusted by David to open up a new office is a fantastic next step. The changes happening in Newcastle being brought about by residential and commercial development, the removal of the train line between Wickham and Newcastle and the University moving parts of its campus to the city centre are reshaping the city, which is positive for the strata management sector and Newcastle.”

Andrew’s approach to business development draws on his experience as a strata manager, referrals from owners and developers and good account management practices.

“Word of mouth is very important and has provided more than a few referrals. Property developers are now more reliant on the advice that a knowledgeable strata manager can provide to them and some good partnerships are evolving.”

Andrew is also the Chair of the new Young Strata Network, which was started this year with the support of the SCA (NSW) Board.

“Chris Duggan (SCA (NSW) President) was very on board and supportive of this happening. I knew what had happened in Victoria, where their network didn’t have the support and went it alone, so I was pleased to have the organisation on board.”

The YSN has so far had two highly successful events this year and more are planned.

“Having the SCA (NSW) Board support the YSN initiative means that we can offer young entrants into the industry mentorship, leadership and the chance to be involved in policy development. This is really a natural progression for an industry that is becoming more and more professional.”

Andrew says there are just a few things that need changing to really get the industry to that professional level.

“We need higher barriers entry to the industry which SCA (NSW) can be at the forefront of through supporting better education and stronger licensing requirements. The issues arising from trust funds disappearing is a nightmare and erodes any positive moves towards being a respected profession.”

Andrew does believe that change in the industry is picking up speed. He is possibly one of the drivers of it and if you don’t believe he is now, you can bet he soon will be.

 

If you’ve been to an event in the past few years then no doubt you know Bill Coles (Collaros). He is the longest ever serving Director having contributed to both the current SCA (NSW) and former ISTM Boards. Not only is he Vice President on the NSW Board but he was also appointed to the SCA National Board and has served on it for 18 months.

It’s in the events space that Bill is in his element having overseen most annual conventions, Christmas parties and pub nights over the past 15 years or so in his role as Chair of the Events Committee as well as the Services Committee. Bill prides himself on bringing a balanced and fair view to the Board and is a solid conduit between strata managers and service providers. He also understands strata owners as he has invested in strata titled property and Chairs a few executive committees.

When he’s not got his Director or Chair hat on, Bill is the Managing Director of Cleaning and Caretaking Corporation Pty Ltd which provides cleaning and caretaking services to the strata industry and has done so for the past 35 years.

Bill has been recognised for his hard work having won the President’s Award, Max Dunn Award and Business Person of the Year Award. He says that the highlight of his career to date was being awarded the SCA (NSW) Presidents award. A close second is making the 35-year mark with his business which is clearly a market leader.

Bill’s career passion is based on good old-fashioned values along with the ability to evolve in business and create new trends. He also believes on encouraging those new to the industry to get involved and be active through the education and networking opportunities SCA (NSW) offers.

He says that now is a great time to be involved in the industry as it goes through a long-awaited revolution. For Bill as a strata owner, the new laws will enable better and more sustainable strata living, while from his business perspective they provide some much-needed powers for caretakers to address one of the main issues in strata – illegally parked cars.

Bill also somehow manages to have a work/life balance and in his spare time he has captained the Australian Rimfire and Air Rifle Shooting Teams to three World Championships having won team gold medals in many events. Bill’s latest passion is riding his Harley Davidson and spending weekends at his “shack” in the Southern Highlands with his wife and family.

When asked where he wants to be in 10 years’ time. Bill was very clear that he wanted to be semi-retired but still working remotely, probably from the shack.

Knowing Bill though and his passion for the strata industry, it is likely he will be still be involved in strata, giving up his time to see another generation through.

SCA (NSW) has a new special interest group, the Young Strata Network, which aims to provide support and events for young people in the strata industry in NSW. Started at the beginning of this year, the Young Strata Network has now had two very successful events which each featured guest speakers on subjects that are high profile in the strata industry.

Andrew Terrell from Wellman Strata, has been a driving force in seeing this group form and become active and has the full support of the SCA (NSW) Board. He says there are exciting speakers and events coming up. This includes great opportunities to assist young strata managers with their career progression, which will be announced soon.

The most recent event, held at NSW Parliament, featured Matt Kean, MP, who we all know as the Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation. He spoke to members and then undertook a lengthy Q&A session which was welcomed by the audience.

SCA (NSW) President Chris Duggan also sat in on the Q&A session and provided comments from the SCA (NSW)’s perspective.

Both the Minister and SCA (NSW) answered several questions including deregulating licensing, the new limited contract terms, creating harmonious communities and strata owner education.

On the question of the government’s focus on deregulating licensing and how this would affect professional standards within the strata industry, the Minister said the market and more flexibility in choice of strata manager would potentially weed out the bad eggs.

The changes to the laws around contract terms, is according to the SCA (NSW) President, a good opportunity for strata managers to re-engage with their strata owner committees. He said that SCA (NSW) members are in a better position because of the education they access and were better able to equip themselves to meet this challenge. This includes reviewing the Code of Conduct.

As champion of the consumer, the Minister said that the government made no apologies for taking the side of the consumer and giving them better choices. He acknowledged that this would mean strata managers would have to work harder, establish trust and help raise the bar.

Both acknowledged the challenges that strata managers and the government face with more people moving into apartments and therefore community living having no experience or understanding of what this means. SCA (NSW) says that it applauds NSW Fair Trading for its recent road shows designed to assist strata owners with the new laws.

The Minister said that one of the challenges of community living came from the sharing economy and how the rights of owners corporations could be balanced with the rights of the individual and the interests that came from the tourism sector. He acknowledged there needs to be protections for the rights of strata owners but also that the sharing platform economy needs to thrive.

Interestingly when asked about the community title law reforms, the Minister did reveal that these were still under consideration but changes are not expected in the immediate future. SCA (NSW)’s President did however encourage the Minister to move this up the agenda.

If you’re a strata manager under 35 please join us for the next event – Speed Networking – scheduled for 21 September 2017. Put it in your diaries and look out for more information to come soon.

If anyone knows a thing or two about the inner workings of NSW Fair Trading it’s SCA (NSW) Director Colin Grace. Colin is a much-liked and respected lawyer and partner in Grace Lawyers and has been on the SCA (NSW) Board since 2012. He was also elected to the Board from 2004-2006.

Colin worked for the NSW Government for around 20 years. His experience includes work at the former Bureau of Consumer Affairs (now NSW Fair Trading) as a clerk in the Fair Rents and Strata Titles Board and eventually he became the Registrar of the Strata Titles Board and manager of the Strata Titles Office.

Since 2007 Colin has been a part-time member of the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) and is a qualified level 4 educator and LEADR Mediator.

In 1998, Colin decided it was time to work in the private sector and so began his experience in private practice providing strata and community title legal services to owners, owners corporations, developers and government. He formed Grace Lawyers in 2005.

Colin says that his career passion is to create a legacy in Grace Lawyers to be a leading firm and well respected by both peers and clients. To date the highlight of his career has been seeing people within the practice reach senior positions including three becoming partners since the business began.

As Chair of the SCA (NSW) Policy Committee, Colin was instrumental in directing the organisations submissions and participating in various meetings with the NSW Government on the development of the new strata laws. He is now providing training to the industry on implementing the new laws and wants to give the strata management industry some advice on what it needs to do from here. In his direct way, Colin says it’s time to grow up and move forward into the new legal regime, update systems and procedures and that it’s time to charge properly and be transparent.

Colin does have some wise words of advice to anyone new to the strata industry and that is, get involved, it’s not just a job. You can make it fun and enjoyable, meet some of the best people ever and make great friendships. Colin is a keen motorcycle rider and he and several strata managers and industry service providers regularly get together at weekends and ride the open roads forming friendships along the way.

So where to from here? Colin says in 10 years’ time he will be the old wise one sitting in the corner helping his team increase their knowledge and take Grace Lawyers further than he ever could. He also says he’ll be taking lots of holidays.

 

 

Hugh McCormack discovered early on there are no free rides in strata even when your family owns the business. He started in the strata industry right at the junior end, licking envelopes, and could not be prouder of his humble strata beginnings.

His real beginnings happened however in that time-honoured tradition of bartending – a job a lot of young people do when they leave school as it can take you around the world. Hugh was no exception and worked for a few years as a bartender, concierge and hotel manager both here and overseas. In between times he undertook his strata training but worked instead for a real estate-based strata managing agent.

In 2002, Hugh joined the family business, McCormacks Strata Management, where he started as a junior and worked his way to Managing Director. He says that there were no free handouts despite it being a family business and this is what makes him especially proud of his career achievements to date.

Hugh has not only completed his strata qualifications but has a Bachelor of Business majoring in sustainable development. This perfectly complements his work experience and makes him a well-rounded managing director and strata manager. The sustainable development major gave Hugh an appreciation for the importance of good design for the full lifecycle of a building.

His approach is to push boundaries and to think differently so that he can help people solve problems and make their lives living and working in strata much easier. Hugh wants to change the perception the public has of strata managers, which is not always complimentary, to one where they are respected for the professionals they are.

Hugh sees the new legislative changes as positive overall as they give the industry the go ahead to catch up using technology but points out that it is strata managers who really need to drive this change. From his role on the SCA (NSW) Board, he is in a great position to influence this change.

To anyone seeking a career in strata he says go for it. He says it’s an amazing industry with some great people and advises to be professional always, don’t take it too seriously and have fun. This is a philosophy that Hugh also subscribes to. When asked what he wants to be in 10 years’ time his response was ‘world domination’ but he also hinted at an enjoyment of surfing and travelling so it may be that he dominates the world from afar. That sums up Hugh in a way, aim high but never forget your humble beginnings.

 

Being offered an opportunity to work in the United Kingdom in the residential block management sector (strata management equivalent) doesn’t happen everyday. Offered the chance of a lifetime, Andrew Darby jumped at the chance with the blessing of his family and colleagues.

Last August Andrew, a strata manager in his family run business in Wollongong, Chris Darby Strata, packed his bags and headed to London for two months following an offer from a UK business associate, to get some international experience.

“I hesitated initially as I needed to be able to do some work for my clients here in Wollongong but the whole office pitched in and were able to help out, making the trip possible,” Andrew explained.

“I also had the support from my bosses and parents Chris and Jenni, to experience what happens in another part of the world. I had a laptop and after work in London I would log in and catch up on my work in Australia.”

Andrew worked for a business leader in the UK, Premier Estates, gaining both insight into their operations and an understanding of the basics of the UK leasehold – freehold system.

Premier Estates employs about 120 people plus on-site staff and manages around 30,000 properties. Head office is in Macclesfield south of Manchester with another office in London.

“Although I spent some time in Macclesfield, most of the work I did was based in London so I lived in Notting Hill in west London”

“The transport in the UK was terrific and while it could take two hours to travel to a meeting, in that time you could be halfway to Scotland which was hard for this Aussie to get his head around.’’

Some time ago, the UK Government introduced the concept of commonhold, a title system like strata title. It failed to be adopted by property developers. Instead most flats in England and Wales are subject to a long-term lease and pay a small ground rent to the freeholder who owns the land and physical buildings.

In many instances the freeholder controls the management company to whom lessees pay service charges (levies) and in these circumstances the freeholder appoints the managing agent.

Andrew noted that property managers in the UK have a lot more physical contact with the block which are in many ways like NSW practices in strata and building management.

“There’s a team of people who pitch for new business, both for new developments and taking over from an existing manager.”

“New business is initially managed by a specialist ‘on-boarding team’ (a process that lasts for around a year) and is then handed over for regular day-to-day management.”

“The on-boarding process is intense and might be viewed as over-servicing but seems to work well and there is an almost zero business attrition rate.”

Andrew was also interested in the approach some of the people he met in Britain take when approaching the work/life balance conundrum.

“Everyone at Premier Estates works really hard and puts in long hours but the nature of the work meant that some of my colleagues were able to live in Spain and commute to London to work for two days a week. The rest of the time they can remotely log in and manage everything from where ever they happened to be.”

Andrew came home with some big ideas and has set some goals but mainly he said the best thing was enjoying the journey he undertook to work in another country. The trip home via Spain was also a pretty sweet deal.

“All of it was 100 percent worthwhile,” he concluded.

Sometimes there are events that at the time seem rather insignificant but can lead to life changing opportunities. For example, a power outage – a good old fashioned blackout. How many people have changed their lives because of a blackout?

At least one, probably more, but this story is about Brent Clark, Co-founder of Wattblock and his life changing opportunity. Wattblock assists owners corporations to reduce energy consumption on common property saving owners corporations hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year.

“Electricity costs are high and gas prices are about to double. We need to be finding alternative ways to cut energy consumption to reduce the costs. In existing buildings around Australia a staggering 45 percent could be saved on gas and electricity costs – that’s $2 billion on gas and $3.6 billion on electricity,” Brent explained.

It all started in 2011 when Brent was an owner/occupier in an apartment in Chatswood. The strata committee was Chaired by an owner/investor who was not keen on communicating with the other owners or tenants. Ausgrid arranged with the Chair to do some electrical works on the apartment block’s power supply necessitating a complete three-day power shutdown. The Chair failed to tell anyone.

“You can imagine how underprepared anyone was for this. People began to temporarily move out, they had to throw out food. It was a disaster.”

“There was a revolt, the Chairperson made a quick exit and reluctantly I was elected as Chair. I didn’t realise it at the time but it was the beginning of a very exciting journey.”

One of the first things that Brent did was review the electricity costs to see if the fault that lead to the power outage was costing the building. He noticed an increase in energy prices over six years and realised they weren’t due to any fault. Everyone else was suffering the same increases across NSW.

Hearing about Willoughby Council’s Climate Clever Apartments program, Brent arranged for a free energy audit. Something he says can be expensive. The audit lead him to make 13 changes resulting in a remarkable 77 percent reduction in the building’s gas and electricity costs over the past six years.

It was the cost of the energy audit that prompted Brent, together with school friend and co-founder Ross McIntyre, to start Wattblock.

“We wanted to reduce the costs of the reports and assist other strata schemes find ways of saving on their energy consumption costs.”

The business has grown since starting in late 2014 and in 2016 won the SCA (NSW) Innovation of the Year award – a great achievement for a young business.

It’s not hard to see why when you look at what they have done. Since starting, Wattblock has completed 1,000 energy reports, managed retro fits for 25 buildings, opened an office in Brisbane and received grants for innovation from the NSW Government and City of Sydney.

“We recently received an Environmental Innovation Grant to look at electrical vehicle charging stations in strata.”

“We visited San Francisco to see how this could work. One particular building, now completed, was being marketed off the plan with 25 electrical vehicle charging stations. The developers were flooded with people wanting to purchase an apartment because of the charging stations so they changed the plans and installed 45 stations.”

Brent wants property developers to take note that there are opportunities to rethink their buildings so they operate efficiently for the people who will eventually live in them.

“The demand is there but developers never operate properties, they just build them. I’m looking forward to the new NABERS scheme for residential apartments starting as this may assist changing developers’ mindsets for the better.”

No one could have predicted one power outage could lead to so much innovation and positive change.