Strata Law Articles

In Keeping With The Rest of the Building In the recent NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision of The Owners – Strata Plan 30198 v Barnes [2018] NSWCATCD 8 the Tribunal was required to determine the meaning of the words "in keeping with the rest of the...

Introduction With the increasing number of people living in strata schemes, many owners are trying to find ways to add more value to their unit, townhouse or villa by way of renovations and/or obtaining exclusive use rights over valuable areas of common property...

Introduction In this article I propose to address the not uncommon situation of where a party to legal proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal objects to another party being legally represented by a particular lawyer or a particular law firm on the...

On 8 January 2018, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal's Appeal Panel handed down the long awaited decision in The Owners Strata Plan No 30521 v Shum [2018] NSWCATAP 15.  The Tribunal Proceedings before the Appeal  By way of background, in the original Tribunal...

What are Common Property Rights By-laws? A Common Property Rights By-law is one which confers on the owner or owners of a specified lot or lots in the strata scheme: a right of exclusive use and enjoyment of the whole or any specified part of the common property; or...

Lot Owner's Claim in Nuisance against Owners Corporation The NSW Court of Appeal in McElwaine v The Owners – Strata Plan No. 75975 [2017] NSWCA 2 (20 September 2017) has held that a lot owner has the right to claim damages against an owners corporation in nuisance. ...

Tribunal Awards Lot Owner Damages for Breach of Owners Corporation's Duty to Maintain and Repair Common Property under Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. The Applicant, the owner of a lot in a strata scheme, sought substantive orders pursuant to...

Tribunal Awards Lot Owner Damages for Breach of Owners Corporation's Duty to Maintain and Repair Common Property under Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 In this case the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal held that it had jurisdiction to award...

Wrigley, is the owner of a lot in Strata Plan 53413. The Respondent is the Owners Corporation. The Owners Corporation made an application for an order from a Strata Adjudicator, under section 150 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 (“SSMA1996”) that Mr Wrigley’s...

Pobi Lawyers is continuing to grow with the appointment of Special Counsel Iain Fairholm. Iain joined Pobi Lawyers in 2016 and brings with him significant experience in commercial litigation and dispute resolution, building and construction law, building defects...

Bylaw Consolidation Under clause 4 of Schedule 3 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) ("the 2015 Act"), an owners corporation of an existing strata scheme is required to review the by-laws for their strata scheme not later than 12 months after 30 November...

When a fire sensor is activated a fire alarm is triggered and Fire and Rescue NSW will attend the owners corporation's building. On each occasion Fire and Rescue NSW attends the owners corporation's building to respond to a fire alarm that is afterwards discovered to...