There is a NSW strata law revolution quietly going on.
New by-laws allowing pets in units, curbing smoking on apartment balconies and preventing the installation of noisy timber and tiled floors are among the changes in the biggest overhaul of strata laws in more than 50 years.
Announcing the long-awaited reforms, Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts noted that 30 per cent of people in NSW either live or work in strata and there are now more than 72,000 strata plans – ranging from two-unit duplexes to massive mixed residential and commercial blocks. In 20 years, half the state’s population will live in apartments or townhouses.
“These laws were devised when a typical apartment block was a 12-unit, two-storey walk-up,” Mr Roberts said. “We need to change them to reflect the way we live now.”
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.
“In the old days, the block was managed by Madge on the ground floor, who collected the levies, paid the bills and made sure the recycling was done.”
On pets, smoking and timber floors, Mr Roberts said that although owners can choose their own bylaws, 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. However, once they are in place, they are very hard to change.
I recommend to keep reading, it’s really interesting and some good wins for consumers.
One thought on “NSW Strata Law Revolution”
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