Finally, after five years of submissions, consultation and countless meetings, the NSW Government passed the new strata laws, drafted and finalised the regulations and announced a commencement date of 30 November 2016.
To assist SCA (NSW) with negotiating the government processes in the past year, we engaged a lobbyist to assist us to put our members views forward to the government. After all, who knows how the strata laws can and should work if not strata managers? We hope that as a result of our efforts we end up with better laws than those we have now and that the new ones stand the test of time.
One area that we were keen to change was the requirement that 100 percent of owners agree on matters such as the termination of their strata scheme. You would terminate a scheme in instances where the owners had decided to sell for redevelopment. In the past, one owner could destroy the hopes and dreams of others if they disagreed to terminate the scheme.
Under the new laws the requirement is now 75 percent in agreement. This means that dozens of strata schemes that have reached, or in a lot of cases, passed their use-by date can now be wound up, demolished and replaced. Across NSW those old eyesores could become modern, energy efficient homes for the current owners and new ones yet to realise their dreams of apartment living.
We have heard the argument about people being forced from their homes. This is unlikely to happen as the NSW Government has put in a series of checks and balances to give people the opportunity to be given a fair hearing. Most of this structure comes from SCA (NSW) policy which we developed around six years ago and is based on the Singapore model, which works well.
Under the new draft Regulations owners also have an opportunity to enact a new set of model by-laws which provide owners and tenants with new rules for apartment living. The new model by-laws aim to address issues such as parking by allowing owners corporations to seek local council assistance in monitoring parking on common property and issuing fines where necessary.
These are exciting times for SCA (NSW) and it has been my pleasure to play a part in all of this as NSW President.
But we haven’t just been focussed on the new laws one of the most significant changes for the organisation has been the new membership model for the strata manager chapter, which has been very successful.
Under the new membership model, I am pleased to state that we have had a dramatic increase of 314 new strata manager members. Individuals receive complimentary membership under their corporate strata membership. This opens up opportunities for individual strata managers who are now members to climb the accreditation pathway. As members they can now enter the annual strata community awards, attend the many events and educational seminars as well as the Annual Convention at member rates.
This increase in membership ensures that as an industry body we have a larger voice when lobbying government. It also enables us to educate our members to lift the professionalism in our industry and promotes awareness of strata management as a career.
While the next 12 months will be busier than ever, now is a great time to be involved in the strata industry.