Senior Lawyer, Adrian Mueller reminisces…

“In 1980 my parents took me to the Gold Coast for a holiday. It was my first adventure in Queensland. I was 2 years old. We stayed at the (in)famous Iluka hotel.

The Iluka was built in the 1970’s. It was an iconic building – one of the Gold Coast’s first high rises. It had 72 luxury apartments and was a stone’s throw from Cavill Avenue.

It held fond memories for me and, I imagine, many families who enjoyed wonderful times together at the Iluka.

You can imagine my horror when I recently discovered that the Iluka has been demolished. Why? Because of concrete cancer.

You see the owner of the building was faced with a dilemma. Repair the concrete spalling which had been left untreated for decades at exorbitant cost or demolish the building. The owner chose to demolish.

A leading architect Professor Holden, Head of Architecture at the Griffith University in Qld, has said that high rises built in the 1970’s have an average lifespan of 40 years.

That is a sobering thought for apartment owners many of whom cannot afford special levies to repair widespread concrete spalling.

So what is the solution? For some buildings, it may simply be too late. The Iluka is a case in point.

For other buildings, the key is preventative maintenance. As unpalatable as it might be, apartment owners need to realise that spending a little to detect and treat concrete spalling at an early stage saves money in the long run.”

Adrian Mueller also acknowledges that the challenge for strata managers and other stakeholders is to convince owners to invest in proactive maintenance to protect their investment by spending a little in the short term to save big money down the track.

Says  Adrian “Convincing owners to spend now to save later is no mean feat. But it is achievable. And doing so can avoid potential disasters.

I will miss the Iluka.”

Adrian specialises in strata law and those areas of the law that particularly deal with building defects.

“An apartment is someone’s home and most valuable asset. That is something worth protecting and knowing where you stand is vital” says Adrian.

For more information on concrete cancer, visit the following websites – Concrete Cancer or Remedia Structural Repairs

For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.

The Supreme Court found that any objection to a payment claim coming under the provisions of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 must be put into a payment schedule under that Act and served on the party making the payment claim.

To download the full article please click here Building and Security Payment Plan Objections

For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.

The Building and Construction Industry Security Of Payment Amendment Act 2013 is proclaimed to commence on 21 April 2014.

The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 was amended by the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Amendment Act 2013. The amendments will not apply to construction contracts entered into before 21 April 2014. The Act applies to all construction contracts entered into by owners corporations for work on the common property.

The principal changes which affect owners corporations are as follows:

• Owners corporations will now be a principal under the main contract with the head contractor.
  A progress payment is to be made by a principal to a head contractor 15 business days after a payment claim is made or such earlier date as may be provided by the contract.
• It is no longer possible to contractually extend the period for the making of the payment.
  The contractor is no longer required to endorse a payment claim made under the Act in any way. This means that you must treat every invoice or payment claim under a construction contract or any construction arrangement as being subject to the Act.
• You will need to immediately enquire from your principal on receipt of any invoice for construction work, whether there is a dispute in relation to payment and, if there is, ensure that a payment schedule is prepared and served on the contractor within 15 business days of receipt of the invoice. Failure to do so will remove any right to withhold any part of the payment claim.
• Head contractors must now serve a supporting statutory statement with a payment claim which must include a declaration to the effect that all subcontractors have been paid.
• Failure to serve a supporting statement leaves the head contractor liable to a fine up to $22,000.00 but does not invalidate the payment claim.

For NSW strata legal or levy collection advice please contact us here or call 02 9562 1266, we’re happy to assist.