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Advocacy wrap-up

  • May 18, 2017

Advocacy wrap-up

 

Th Property Council has stepped up its advocacy work across a variety of sectors in recent weeks with a focus on strata reform, Retirement Living and building permit applications.

Strata Title Amendment Bill 2017 Seller Disclosure

The Property Council has provided comment on the draft legislation concerning strata management, staged strata and dispute resolution and most recently seller disclosure.

If you want to find out more about what feedback has been taken on board please see attached Position Papers which provide a summary of the draft amendments relating to Management of Schemes and Dispute resolution and have been updated to reflect Landgate’s position after taking into account feedback received from key stakeholders on the Consultation draft portions of the Bill relating to Management of Schemes and Dispute resolution.

Calls for Partial Lifting of Memorial from the Retirement Living Act

The Property Council has written to all the relevant Ministers and Shadow Ministers calling for the partial lifting of memorials from the Retirement Village Act.

Some of the major issues arising from the requirement to place the ‘Memorial’ includes:

  • The Act does not permit a Memorial to be lodged over part of the land in a certificate of title.  This creates difficulties where a retirement village operator/developer intends to develop a retirement village on a parcel of land alongside other uses such as an aged care facility and other commercial/retail premises (e.g. medical centre). 
  • The Act does not permit a Memorial to be removed from part of the land in a certificate of title.  This creates problems for redeveloping parcels of land that are no longer being used as a retirement village as it is difficult to obtain investment because financial institutions are reluctant to fund a development where there is uncertainty as to the priority of charges on the land.  Also, there is a loss in commercial value as it may not be possible to dispose of or subdivide land that is encumbered with a memorial.

The Property Council is calling for solutions to these issues by amending the Act to permit:

  • a memorial to be removed from land no longer used or never used for the purposes of a retirement village;
  • a Memorial to be lodged over part of the land in a title where not all the land in the title is to be used for a retirement village;
  • that the Memorial must be lodged before the commencement/settlement of a residence contract (rather than as currently drafted – before entering into a residence contract);
  • a Memorial to be removed and replaced with a new Memorial where Land is added to a retirement village.

 Full Private Certification of Building Permit Applications

The Property Council are continuing to push forward with our campaign for Full Private Certification of Building Permit Applications.

There is a renewed interest, brought about by the need for new reform and that State’s current economic climate.

The Property Council has written to the Hon. Bill Johnston, Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Commerce and Industrial Relations, Electoral Affairs and Asian Engagement, the Hon. David Templeman, the Minister for Local Government, Heritage, Culture and The Arts as well as recently contacting Peter Gow, the Building Commissioner about a potential pilot of the reform across local government.