NSW New Strata Scheme Changes Announced
Monday 4 November 2013 @ 11.50 a.m. | Legal Research
Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts has announced today that with the review of strata and community title in New South Wales now complete, new strata by-laws and other changes to current legislation will be introduced shortly.
The Strata law review commenced in December 2011 and on 15 September 2012, a discussion paper was released outlining a range of issues and inviting comment on possible options to reform the laws. The closing date for comments and submissions in response to the discussion paper was 22 November 2012 and the final discussion paper is yet to be released.
The size of buildings, electronic communications, lifestyle changes and the fact that increasing numbers of people choose to rent all their lives, rather than as a transition towards home ownership, needed to be addressed, Mr Roberts said.
On pets, smoking and timber floors, Mr Roberts said that although owners can choose their own by-laws, many unit blocks adopt the government's model by-laws by default and it's only after people move in that they find they don't reflect the way they want to live.
With that in mind, he said, the new model bylaws will, for the first time, cover smoke drift and allow pets by default, rather than banning them as is now the case. The issue of noisy timber and tiled floors will be addressed before the floors are laid, rather than after they become a problem, as happens now.
Obligations of owners corporations, executive committees and owners and occupiers of lots, procedures for meetings and the finances of strata schemes has also been addressed in the new model by-laws.
Some issues have not been addressed as they are considered too difficult for immediate solution and will instead be addressed in a second set of laws due out after the mid 2014 release of the new model by-laws. These issues include extinguishment of strata title, short term or holiday letting and rogue parking.
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Sources:
Strata Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 - still in draft format in TimeBase Lawone
