CRUNCH time has arrived for proposed new laws that will enable ageing home unit blocks to be sold for redevelopment if 75 percent of owners agree.
At present, every owner in a strata scheme has to approve the sale.
The legislation, which has been discussed for two years, is due to go to a vote in the NSW upper house this week after Labor Party amendments were defeated in the lower house.
The government claims there is majority community support for the change and the legislation provides a range of safeguards for owners, and says similar systems have operated successfully in other countries, including New Zealand, where it has been working for four years ago with the support of all major parties.
The legislation potentially affects many thousands of residents in older unit blocks and villas in Sutherland Shire and St George.
Lesley O’Brien lives in a 1970s block of units in an attractive part of Brighton-Le-Sands, which is ripe for development. But she never wants to leave the unit she bought in 1975.
‘‘This is my home and I love it because it is close to the shops and the beach and I have nice neighbours,’’ she said.
‘‘I don’t agree with what they are doing; I think 100 percent of owners should have to agree.’’
Under the proposed change, Ms O’Brien’s building, which has 12 units, could be sold if nine owners agreed.
Five of the units in her block are owner-occupied. The remainder are owned by investors, who would need the support of only two other owners to sell the block.
In another ageing block of units nearby, investors own 21 of the 33 units. A couple who owns a unit in the block said they had lived there for 32 years and wouldn’t want to move.
Another man, whose elderly parents own a unit in the block, said his main concern was whether they received a fair price if the building was sold.
Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation Victor Dominello said the legislation empowered owners to make a collective decision about the most important problem confronting all strata buildings at some point — what to do with the building as it aged.
He said small strata schemes, with two or three lots, made up 37 percent of strata schemes in NSW and would continue to require unanimous agreement before they could be terminated.
LABOR REVOLTS
Labor MPs condemned the retrospective nature of the legislation. Opposition spokesman Guy Zangari said it would ‘‘pull the rug’’ from under many elderly owners.
‘‘The government wants to ram this legislation through the house to ensure any campaigns to fight it will not get off the ground, which is coincidentally where 25 percent of strata home owners may end up,’’ he said.
‘‘It is deplorable that those opposite would consider destroying the security measures that have been put in place to protect those who would otherwise be rendered vulnerable, but it is another scenario all together to go ahead and do it while trying to sell it as a good thing.’’
RIGHTS STRIPPED
Rockdale MP Steve Kamper told Parliament the legislation had ‘‘disastrous ramifications for some of the most vulnerable in our community’’.
‘‘I cannot stomach, and I cannot see how members opposite can stomach, the idea that with the impending passage of this legislation we will see the rights of many hundreds of thousands of homeowners stripped away retrospectively,’’ he said.
Mr Kamper said there were ‘‘plenty of operators out there who would be quite willing to engage in unscrupulous conduct to secure a sale agreement’’.
‘‘It will not take long before good, honest traders are undercut by the shonks who are only concerned with making a quick buck,’’ he said.
■ Do you agree with the proposed change to strata laws?
