Lack of government strata support in Northern Territory leaves apartment owners in financial strain

ABC NEWS (Australia)

With high-density builds spruiked as a solution to Australia's housing crisis, apartment living is set to increase significantly. But in the Northern Territory, a lack of government oversight and support for strata schemes is already becoming a problem, leaving some apartment owners stuck in financial nightmares.

Transcript

00:00Phil Gallagher bought into this Darwin apartment block 15 years ago, but now has to sell for

00:09much less than he paid. The building has multiple structural defects and a $3 million bill split

00:16between 71 owners to fix them.

00:19From what we heard, there's a dodgy engineer that signed off it back in 2006, and now we're

00:26stuck with the repair bill.

00:28Bill's share of the special levy, which he had to find in just three months, amounting

00:33to $52,000.

00:35I took it out of my super fund, so that's the only way I was going to pay for it.

00:43Yeah, so out here's the disaster zone.

00:46Another owner, David Ling, agrees the structural defects need fixing as soon as possible, but

00:52is not happy with elaborate plans to reconstruct the main pool area.

00:57He says the smaller existing pool is adequate.

01:00Yes, there was stuff that needed to be done urgently to make the place compliant, but they've gone

01:06from one extreme to the other from making the place compliant to turning it into the Taj Mahal.

01:12The argument about priorities and costs have fractured relations among owners, with some of the anger

01:18that they've gone through.

01:20It was directed at the Secretary of the Owners Corporation, who lobbied for the expensive

01:23new pool option and secured majority support.

01:27We were building compliance notices.

01:28We had insurance renewal issues.

01:31We had NTCAT administration claims put in.

01:35Yeah, we really did not have a lot of options as to how to solve these problems, but we knew

01:40we had to solve them fast.

01:42Has it been difficult?

01:43Yes, it's been difficult.

01:44I think navigating any large group of people through a problem is going to be difficult because

01:49you're always going to have different agendas, different priorities, different concerns and

01:53voices and noises.

01:55It's a story not uncommon in strata blocks around Australia.

02:00Chris Irons is with the Queensland branch of the Owners Corporation Network, providing advice

02:05to unit owners in difficult situations.

02:08They have the feeling that something isn't right or that something needs to be done differently,

02:14but because strata legislation is complex and it's hard work and they don't have a lot

02:19of resources available to them, they don't actually know what they can do about it.

02:24The NT, however, has no equivalent organisation and the Territory Government does not provide

02:30a dispute resolution service.

02:33It would be the state or territory with the least amount of strata resources.

02:38There's a little bit there, but nowhere near enough and if we're going as a nation to expect

02:43people to be living in high density into the future, we've got to support them.

02:48And it might be that NT starts off with just perhaps a dedicated part of government, like

02:53a dedicated part of a department, and then maybe considers a commissioner after that.

02:59But for now, NT residents have to navigate any thorny issues on their own.

03:04I try not to stress about it because, you know, it'll lead into health issues and all that

03:09sort of stuff, but you've just got to take what it is and adjust with it.

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