Latest articles by Tom Bacon
Communicating to your communities during COVID-19
Right now, there are a lot of question marks as to when and if, it will ever be possible to get back to “normal” following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MorePerformance-based alternative solutions the key to cheaper cladding replacement costs
Owners’ corporations (OC) need not despair when served with an Order or Notice from the Municipal Building Surveyor or from the Victorian Building Authority (VBA).
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Social distancing in apartment blocks is hard to do, but necessary right now
For the good of all persons’ health and wellbeing, we are socially distancing ourselves from each other.
Read MoreVCAT rules termination payment was unlawful
In an order published by VCAT at the end of 2019, Your Body Corporate Pty Ltd (YBC) and its directors, were ordered to repay the sum of $192,465 plus interest for fees it unlawfully deducted from an owners’ corporation’s (OC) account upon termination as OC manager.
Read MoreRed tape and further delays to amendments
In December 2013, Consumer Affairs Victoria completed its review into a more robust licensing and certification system for the training and conduct of owners’ corporation (OC) managers.
Read MoreEmbedded electricity networks are ripping off consumers
A new study by the Victoria Energy Policy Centre has found that customers in apartment buildings in Victoria on embedded networks are paying up to $439 a year more than the best deal they could get if they were able to access the free market.
Read MoreHats off to you, Premier, but remember, we’ll all be watching …
Credit where credit’s due, I say. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews deserves the plaudits this month for Labor’s stunning announcement that it will pursue dodgy building practitioners on behalf of owners of apartments covered in combustible cladding.
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Refund stamp duty to those affected by flammable cladding
Barely a fortnight passes in Melbourne these days without word that another residential building with dangerous cladding is evacuated by the Victorian Building Authority (VBA).
Read More10-year caretakers’ agreements
Joint owners’ voting rights have been put under the microscope by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
Read MoreTake more care with your insurance
Either confess your sins to the insurer, or risk your policy being rendered as “junk insurance”.
Read MoreOC chair wins $120k defamation payout
A court in Sydney has awarded damages of $120,000 to the elderly chairperson of a Manly apartment block, after a female tenant sent an email to him and the other owners in which she asked him to stop emailing her about locking her mailbox.
Read MoreBill fails to protect residents
New “draft” owners’ corporation (OC) legislation still protects builders and developers, shuts out owners.
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Boom, boom, bust and out
More builders and developers will choose to “go bust” instead of being held accountable to owners’ corporations (OCs) for dodgy building defects
Read MoreOpal Tower warning
A downturn in consumer confidence about building standards is the last thing that developers and builders of residential apartment buildings need right now.
Read MoreHappy with your OC manager? Most are
The owners’ corporation (OC) management industry is well overdue for a shake-up
Read MoreThere is something rotten in the State of Victoria
There is something rotten in the State of Victoria
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Electric vehicle charging and the rise of the machines
Australia lags behind the rest of the world in the uptake of new electric vehicles. We even lag behind our southern cousins in New Zealand, who now boast more electric vehicles per capita than Australia, despite having only a fifth of the population base.
Read MoreOCs will be forced to fix dodgy cladding
The Minister for Planning Richard Wynne, announced late last month new reforms to reduce the cost of removing dangerous combustible cladding from buildings, noted as “the first of their kind anywhere in the world”
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OC discriminated against a disabled owner
Last month, a residential owners’ corporation (OC) in Travancore was found by the Supreme Court to be discriminating against a disabled owner by refusing to carry out modifications to its building to accommodate her wheelchair access
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