Big and bright ideas meet huge strata challenges

By Jimmy Thomson
and Sue Williams

Black mould built into new homes, fire safety measures ignored and undermined, real estate marketers (rather than town planners) shaping our cities – these were all issues canvassed at a conference in the Gold Coast last week.

But before you dismiss this as doom-scrolling, the Strata Impact conference also heard about radical reforms of developer and defect laws in the ACT, affordable ways of building 3D computer models for building maintenance and strategies for dealing with dysfunctional committees.

In short, there are a lot of smart people doing a lot of heavy-duty research into our strata lives and this conference highlighted as many potential solutions as it did strata problems.

Each of the presentations would be worthy of an article on their own – and we may get round to that – but a summary of the highlights of the day-and-a-half event is in order for now.

By the way, this was not one of those conferences where owners air their legitimate grievances, or where strata service providers spruik their wares while strata management giants congratulate themselves on how clever they are at building ever-increasing profits at our expense.

This was a convocation of serious academics and industry players examining what’s wrong with strata and how it could be fixed – all based on peer-reviewed research. Jimmy was there to MC the event and as you’ll hear in our podcast, was blown away by the research and its conclusions.

Build more apartments

Professor Cathy Sherry, who lectures in strata law at Macquarie University kicked of the event, by leading a deep dive into why homes have become unaffordable and apartments are still the answer to the housing crisis.

She also took a swing at negative gearing and first-home grants for adding to the problem rather than providing any solutions. The answer, she said, is for governments to build more and better homes – and that means apartments.

Later, her withering disdane for Queensland’s $5bn dollar business of pre-selling strata management rights brought the response from one of the state’s strata lawyers that it was necessary because strata owners couldn’t be trusted to run their own buildings.

Her retort: “They own the apartments so they can do what they like with them – it’s up to them.’

Dr Tim Law, an architectural scientist at Restoration Industry Consultants and an advisor to the Victorian Building Authority on defects, explained how mould spores are already present in interior wall panels before they are even slotted into place.

“Just add water”, was his mantra, a reminder if needed that water incursions are among the most damaging of all defects.

Doctor Sarah Foster, Associate Professor with the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT in Melbourne revealed statistics on how liveable apartments are depends on which state and the demographics of the area in which you live.

A panel of strata lawyers chaired by leading light in that arena, Amanda Farmer of yourstrataproperty.com.au discussed the differences and deficiencies in various state jurisdictions with strata law guru Gary Bugden of Bugden Allen Graham Lawyers, Queensland lawyer Jessica Cannon, Allison Benson from Kerin Benson Lawyers (and her popular blog at allisonbensonau.com) and Mark Atkinson from Atkinson Legal in WA.

Personal Liability

Also on the panel was Susan Proctor of Proctor Legal who drew audible gasps from the audience when she described the new laws in the ACT that has introduced a licence for developers.  Changes also mean the partners in a development company will be personally liable for defects for 10 years after construction, and they will have to prove that serious flaws aren’t defects, rather than owners proving that they are.

Rob Newman, an organisational psychologist with Change Focus Group showed us how we can be divided in four man character types – leaders, team players, influencers and persuaders – and how any of these types can de-rail discussions when things aren’t going the way they want in a committee meeting.

One major problem, he says, is that often people feel they aren’t being listened to, so the solution is to make them feel that their views are valued, even if they aren’t being accepted.

Another panel hosted by Amanda Farmer saw Queensland lawyer Michael Kleinschmidt, strata manager Nicole Wilde from the Nuu Company and insurance expert Paul Keating (not that one) discuss the ins and outs of risk transfer (e.g. insurance) and risk reduction in a lively hypothetical debate that started with a leaky garage and ended with a collapsed swimming pool.

Day two started with building consultant Bruce Mackenzie taking us on what amounted to a horror move of defects, with a special reference to fire safety and how failures represent 37 per cent of the defects in new buildings.

He also showed how new 3D imaging can make the retention of building records  more accurate and easier, especially when the builders have gone off the plan for reasons of cost and convenience, increasing the likelihood of defects.

This hi-tech theme was later taken up by Stephen Thornton of Voltin who showed how the combined use of artificial intelligence, infra-red imaging, virtual reality and augmented reality delivered a low-cost and accurate solution for automated building inspections.

It means inspectors don’t even have to leave their offices to get an accurate picture of where things may have gone wrong, rather than having someone wandering around your building with a clipboard. And the costs are comparable, with a full building composite created for around $20,000 in just a few hours.

Before that, Dr Nicole Johnston of Strata Knowledge, who organised the conference, delivered her doctorate thesis findings which were horrifying, showing how the “sealed unit” theory of fire safety is compromised time and again in new buildings.

Death traps

As she illustrated vividly, once the fire-safe walls and doors are penetrated by pipes, vents, extra access and the addition of non-compliant materials and intrusions, those previously safe sealed units can rapidly become death traps.

After that, Dr Rupa Ganguli of UNSW Department of the Built Environment showed how project marketers – glorified real estate agents, really – can influence the landscape of our cities but pushing developers towards what they think consumers will pay more for, often in competition with what town planners and architects think our cities and urban populations need.

And finally, in a related presentation, our good friend Dr Hazel Easthope, also from UNSW, showed that while in theory apartment blocks should be more environmentally friendly than houses, they’re not.

Why? Because environmental concerns aren’t as high on apartment buyers’ wish-lists as, say, apartment size and fit-outs, so developers and their architects see this as a lack of desire rather than merely a lower priority for apartment buyers.

Thus, environmentally friendly apartments tend not to be built, consumers don’t get a real opportunity to express their preferences in what they buy and so the misconceptions are consolidated.

In conclusion

Now, this was just a brief summary of what was discussed at the conference but it is encouraging to see that some serious thinking is going into our strata futures.

Nicole Johnston wants this to be an annual event and it should be: the next challenge has to be getting these important messages to the people who can make a difference – and that’s the politicians around Australia.

And for those who think the problems are too great and complicated to make any difference, take a look at the ACT and its twin thrust of making sure developers are honest and reliable people, by introducing developer licences.

Will that be enough? Probably not but, if they rip people off, they will be punished by making them personally responsible for their defects, rather than letting them hide behind off-the-shelf companies that can disappear at the first signs of trouble.

Who is going to build anything in that environment, it was asked at the conference? How about developers with integrity who want to work on a level playing fied where they aren’t being undercut and undermined by cowboys and crooks.