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Strata Year in Review

We are pleased to welcome you back and hope you had a safe and happy festive season. Before we launch into 2018, we think it’s important to look back on some of the key moments of 2017.

Strata law reform and the Smart Strata Seminars

In May and October of 2017 we had our free Smart Strata seminars on strata law reform, which achieved widespread media coverage. Our team – together with Frank Higginson from Hynes Legal, Juliette Nairn from OMB Solicitors and Chris Irons the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management – travelled across Queensland from the Gold Coast all the way up to Port Douglas. The seminars were very well attended, with the Gold Coast seminar booked out in the lead-up to the October event.

Our team spoke to ABC Radio at the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Far North Queensland about how the law reforms may affect local strata owners. We also were published on Residential Property Manager – with Frank Hynes, from Hynes Legal, and Chris Irons, the Body Corporate Commissioner – highlighting key issues. These included pets, smoking and overstaying in visitor car parks.

Legislative reform was cast into doubt with the October announcement of Queensland’s State Election because it became unclear whether the political parties would make strata law reform an election priority. Director, Andrew Staehr, spoke to Kevin Turner on 4BC’s Real Estate Talk about the importance of legislative change, we also secured further coverage of our pursuit of legislative clarity on Real Estate Business.

Cladding issues

This past year saw the UK’s Grenfell Tower tragedy, where 79 people lost their lives due to the complex’s cladding. This deadly inferno brought building cladding and fire safety into question in countries across the world and we used the incident as a wakeup call for strata owners to inspect their own properties for fire hazards. This also highlighted how some bodies corporate, may “just not want to know” about potential cladding safety issues in buildings because they could be costly to fix. Chairman, Colin Archer stressed the importance of having fire and evacuation audits, emergency plans and clear signage in strata buildings and he welcomed the Senate inquiry into dangerous building products.

In the news!

Throughout the year, we covered the major moments of 2017 in the media, which include our partner Wayne Hewitt, who spoke to Sky News Real Estate about the rules and regulations of bringing in another tenant to a property. It was great to see Wayne on television and the Facebook clip has been viewed more than 2000 times! It can be viewed here.

You may have also seen our piece on “Keeping your tenants happy or risk losing them in droves” which published on Domain, and was syndicated by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Director, Andrew Staehr, urged unit owners, investors and property professionals to place as much attention on tenant retention as attracting new renters.

Most recently, we achieved national coverage about the best ways to avoid annoying your strata neighbours over the festive season. If you haven’t already, it is worth sharing some of this content because this got some fantastic coverage on News.com and on Domain!

So, all in all, 2017 was an exciting year for us at Archers the Strata Professionals and we look forward to what 2018 has to offer.

 

This Article was contributed by Grant Mifsud – Partner, Archers the Strata Professionals.

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