Strata Workshops - lawyers come to you

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Strata Workshops in Australia

We would normally put a link like this one at our Worldwide Condos forum, but we want to make sure visitors looking for help with legal issues have a chance to see what's on offer in other jurisdictions. Check out these can-do Aussies at http://www.andreones.com/astrataw.htm. Fully 32 workshops to choose from, some of them 90-minute in-house presentations.

Why don't any of the local law firms offer similar programs?

Ed.

[Guest]

From: editor [mailto:editor@bccondos.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 11:44 AM
To: 'sydney@andreones.com'
Cc: 'editor@bccondos.ca'
Subject: Strata workshops and leaky buildings

Hello Andreones,

We’re a leaky condo consumer advocacy website from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at http://www.bccondos.ca and we couldn’t help admiring your strata workshops as we trawled the Internet for advice and ideas. In fact, we were so impressed with the workshops, we give them a plug at our Condo Law FAQs forum. We’d like to know what kind of attendance you’re getting at these workshops, which ones are most popular and what your plans are, if any, to add more. We’d also like to know whether New Zealand’s leaky building crisis has spilled over, so to speak, to Australia and how your Royal Commission into building trade practices has resolved. Last we heard, charges for criminal fraud were being considered.

In our cursory examination of Aussie land law, we were perplexed as to how you know where to bring an action for defective construction? We found about three tribunals each with decisions concerning latent defects and so on.

Editor@bccondos.ca

[Guest]

From: Francesco Andreone
To: editor@bccondos.ca
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 12:38 PM
Subject: Strata workshops, leaky condos, etc ...

Hi,

Sorry the delayed response to your e-mail from 30 October 2003.

Thanks for the positive feedback about some of our initiatives here. It's good to see that some people see the value and I would be interested in any feedback you received from plugging them at the Condo Law FAQs.

We run the strata workshops in 2 ways.

Mostly, we run them for association and scheme managers that instruct us at their offices for their management and other staff as a value added service and training tool. We run about 2 per week of these and attendance ranges from 10 to 30 people at each.

We also run quarterly workshops in our office with wider industry invitation and attendances range from 50 to 75 people.

In 2004 we are expanding the programme to include a more specialised workshop for members of association and scheme executives (about scheme basics, roles and responsibilities) which we will run for our scheme customers (for a fee). They will have smaller attendance (5 to 10 people) and we hope to run approximately 1 per week from Easter onwards.

The leaky building crises in New Zealand and Canada also exists in Australia and seems to be worsening. The recent Royal Commissions have been very politically influenced by insurers and are likely result in a downgrading of consumer protection for associations and schemes (particularly the larger ones). For instance, one recommended reform is to remove home warranty insurance from apartment complexes that are more than 3 storeys.

Although jurisdiction over building cases has been shared between a few tribunals in the past it has not proved too problematic. Instead, we are now facing jurisdiction issues over the identity of the proper plaintiff in building defect cases - whether it is the association/scheme or whether it should be the lot owners. This argument is likely to rage through 2004 before it is resolved in our superior courts.

It sounds like we have a lot in common.

I would like to know more about your organisation. Can you send me some information? Can you also give me some lawyer and manager contacts in Vancouver ?

I am travelling to North America in May 2004 and may be able to make a side trip to Vancouver.

Francesco Andreone
Managing Director
Andreones Pty Limited
francesco.andreone@andreones.com
www.andreones.com
T 02 8267 6120
F 02 8267 6101

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