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Not only is it a great idea, it’s an idea whose time has come, and if you don’t do it — someone else will — so it’s an inevitable idea.
Don’t be dissuaded by people telling you that you will be sued by lawyers for defamation. You won’t. But you will be annoying a lot of vested interests, and they may seek to bully and intimidate you. If that happens, you are actually proving the value of the forum you will create. Freedom of speech is being degraded on a daily basis by our government in Australia, but it’s still there.
You will, of course, want to inspect and assess posts before they are published on the website.
You’ll obviously want to mandate very rigorous and explicit rules and guidelines for what may be posted — and what kind of content will be deleted.
We are owners-occupiers in an apartment and own another apartment. We would be happy to post reviews. Happily, I think our reviews would mainly be constructive and positive.
Renters could post reviews of the complex they live in. Noise, maintenance, rubbish collection, leaks, etc.
Owners could post reviews of the same — they could also post assessments of the performance of the owners corporation executive committee, and the strata title management company used to manage the facility.
You may need to decide whether you want real estate agents posting reviews.
You may want to decide whether you want to allow ‘replies’ to review posts. Those tend to get a bit out of hand, but it’s social media, so not allowing replies reduces engagement value.
Good luck.
Sounds like developers arguing for their right to higher project profit yield. The more units, and the smaller, presumably generates higher profit margins.
Developers only have a duty to make the highest profit possible and highest dividends to shareholders. Nothing more. Councils have broader duties to the community.
My interests – as a member of the community where I live – are being ignored in favour of the interests of overseas investors looking for a safe place to launder large amounts of cash.
Poor councils.
@VicRes said:
“…documentation from the installer that it does comply with the by-law.”
This could be a statement from the installer that “the work complies with ABC building codes” Nothing more. Effectively meaningless, as the ABC codes are (as I understand) non-binding suggestions of good practice. And mostly refer to build-time design rather than renovation. They don’t say much about replacing carpet with timber flooring.
What would work for me would be
“We propose to use 12mm Dunlop AcoustiCushion sound insulation underlay under the timber flooring”
or
“We propose to use 10mm Regupol 6010 sound insulation underlay under the timber flooring”
Or similar.
Why would this not work, one wonders?
One would think the SC would be able to require that the renovating owner notify the SC and other owners of the planned renovation – giving the owners of apartments that may be impacted by the renovation an opportunity to understand the nature of the renovation. “Before the fact”
Also:
If a carpet is to be replaced with timber or tile flooring, the SC should be able to establish fairly specific guidelines to the renovating owner regarding the need for sound insulation underlay. And the renovating owner should be required to provide to the SC evidence that the work proposed will comply with the SC’s guidelines.
Our SC is dominated by lawyers. They prefer to cite legal precedents when a dispute has arisen than establish guidelines that would help prevent disputes.
We’ve renovated our bathroom, laundry, and kitchen. We replaced old carpet with new. We discovered that the original construction and materials were clearly inadequate – or non-existent – in terms of water sealing and sound insulation.
Our experience is that builders, tilers, carpet installers seem happy to do work that would not comply with any building standard, or that would be clearly illegal.
Owners are also inclined to DIY a renovation – and are often happy to ignore SC requirements to seek permission before undertaking a renovation, or comply with any building standards.
And the ABC “standards” are not binding. They’re merely “recommendations” that are not enforceable.
As a member of an SC – I’m wondering if all SCs are just plain lazy – or is it only the SC of the apartment complex where I have purchased?