For The Scrap Heap This Week – By-laws For Lot Owner Works And Alterations To Common Property

Requiring by-laws for lot owner renovations affecting common property adds unnecessary complexity and costs. Standardized strata regulations and approval registers could offer a more efficient and transparent solution.

By
Michael Teys
on
March 8, 2025
Category:
Compliance

The requirement for a by-law for a lot owner who undertakes renovations that affect common property should be repealed. Lawyers and committees can overcomplicate and overreach their involvement in these matters. The cost of by-laws prepared by lawyers can be disproportionate to most of the work requiring the by-law. Calling extra meetings takes time. This burdens owners and adds work for strata managers. 

Building construction, design, and environmental laws should protect building standards. Strata management regulations, not bespoke solutions, could provide other standard terms and conditions for building renovation work impacting owners. This could include lot owner liability for future repairs and maintenance. 

Strata laws could require a register of approvals for such work. This would give future owners and committees the rights and duties of those approvals. 

Do we scrap it, or does it stay?

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Michael Teys

Michael Teys is the Founder and Chairman of The Strata Professionals Australia. He brings together more than 30 years of specialist strata law practice, a decade of strata business ownership, and an active programme of academic research into multi-owned property governance.