Page 3013 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 August 2008
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A draft bill incorporating those submissions was released for public consultation earlier this year, in May, for a three-week period. The Planning and Land Authority collated the public comments and submissions and held further discussions with industry bodies and individuals before a final bill was prepared for consideration by the Assembly.
I now turn to the operative provisions in this bill.
New section 31A requires greater developer disclosure. Under this section, developers must disclose additional information to buyers of those units. This must be done for a contract of sale of a unit in a unit plan before the units plan is registered—that is, where the developer is the seller. Additional information that developers must disclose includes:
• the proposed articles of the owners corporation of that units plan;
• details of any contract that the developer has entered into;
• the developer’s estimate of the buyer’s contribution to the owners corporation’s general funds for the first two years after the units plan is registered at the Registrar-General’s Office;
• if a right to the keeping of animals has been reserved by the developer, details of the reservation, including the kind and number of animals;
• if a staged development of the units is proposed, details of the proposed development statement; and
• any amendment to that statement.
In addition, the developer is obliged to provide a warranty that the information so provided is accurate. For example, the buyer may, under these provisions, cancel the contract for sale if the developer’s disclosure is incomplete or inaccurate and the buyer is significantly prejudiced because of this.
This is a very concrete example of how this legislation operates to provide greater consumer protection for buyers of units before a units plan is registered.
This legislation also protects consumers after a units plan is registered. Starting from the day the units plan is registered and ending on the day that more than one-third of the unit entitlements of the units plan are held by persons other than the developer, there are controls on what the owners corporation can do. That period is defined as the developer control period. During this period, an owners corporation cannot enter into a contract unless that contract is disclosed in a contract for sale of a unit in the units plan.
Substantial changes have been made in relation to the appointment of an owners corporation manager, conditions of their appointment, and the manager’s obligation to comply with a code of conduct and to take out and maintain public liability insurance.
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