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Strata Law can be complicated, but ensuring that your owners corporation is compliant is a critical part of any strata living arrangements. That’s why having practical input from expert strata lawyers like PBL can tip the odds in your favour so that things turn out the way you hope.
Whether you’re preparing or revising your by-laws, wondering how to interpret the latest developments, or seeking compensation for building defects, PBL can help you across the board with your strata law needs.
Setting up a new owners corporation? We can help you with:
If you have an existing owners corporation, we can assist you to:
For disputes involving owners corporations and Strata Law, we have expertise in:
All participants in an owners corporation, whether committee members or not, benefit from a basic understanding of the role of strata law in their living environment.
At PBL, we regularly act for owners corporations and individual lot owners to help them understand and operate in a way that complies with both State government laws and regulations, and the by-laws that govern the owners’ relationships.
In many cases, this involves helping to draft, review or revise the relevant by-laws for the owners corporation. This is the foundation of the legal relationships inside the strata complex, and getting it right for each case is an important step.
Once that is done, our role might be to help interpret or implement steps to comply with those by-laws.
That could include, for example, helping owners understand the rules about pets, common property, individual renovations or changes, or running a business from inside your apartment.
We can also assist committees in ensuring that meetings are called property, the correct resolutions are passed, in the right way, and that the functions of the committee don’t get frustrated by inadvertently taking a wrong turn in the process.
And finally, to ensure that the owners corporation has good relationships with its third party contractors, we can help draft, negotiate and enforce (if needed) agreements with caretakers, management agents, and third party contractors who might be used to keep the building and the owners corporation running smoothly.
By-laws are one of the main foundations for running a successful owners corporation. Getting the by-laws right can make the difference between good owner relationships and bad ones.
For that reason, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to by-laws. Of course there are some standard provisions and issues that must be dealt with in all circumstances. There are also regulatory and compliance issues that your by-laws should cover off. For that reason, it can be tempting to adopt the “model by-laws”.However, there are also many subtle and unique situations that owners corporations will want to deal with in their own particular way. Usually the best solution is a properly drawn, bespoke set of by-laws that are catered to the needs of your community.
For that reason, PBL strata lawyers take the time to understand the particular needs of your owners corporation. That might include views about pets, running home businesses from the building, renovations or changes to individual lots, or ways to deal with disagreements between neighbours (amongst many more).
Once we understand your specific needs we can prepare a set of by-laws that will work well for your area. This will include agreements and procedures to cover off on most necessary situations without the owners feeling like they are too restrained in their freedom.
It’s also important to ensure that your by-laws are reviewed regularly, so that you remain compliant with any recent developments in strata law that might affect your owners corporation.
If your by-laws need an update or you need a new set drawn up for your most recent development, then get in touch and we’d be happy to help.
Building a large project like a multi-purpose apartment building can be a significant job for any developer or contractor.
Because of the size and complexity of the project, sometimes things go wrong and there are defects in the building or individual lots.
These defects don’t always become apparent until after the owners move in. Finding out the source of the problems and who is responsible for fixing them can cause significant disruption.
PBL are experienced at helping owners corporations through the process of investigating building defects, understanding who might be liable to repair them, and enforcing the Owners’ rights in Court. We help ensure that your building meets the standard you expected.
Our first step is to work with you and any necessary experts to ensure that we have an accurate understanding of where the defects are and how they might be fixed.
We also have to investigate the relevant documents – plans, building contracts, specifications and scope documents – to ensure that we can identify who might be responsible for the defects. We will also consider any insurance policies that might apply to help reduce your costs.
At this point we will contact the responsible parties – often the developer or the head contractor (or both) – to begin a discussion about how to resolve the defects quickly and cost effectively. This might involve several meetings on site, or having our experts meet with them to discuss things further.
Finally, if the matter isn’t resolved to your satisfaction, we can lodge the necessary Court documents in order to seek orders either compelling the work to be done, or compensating you for the losses that you have suffered.
This can be a challenging process, so you want to have trusted lawyers on your side along the way.
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