Page 397 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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Our commitment to engagement and co-creation has been at the forefront of this project, with a consultative group convened in early 2019 to engage in focused discussions to refine the issues and help develop solutions. The group consisted of 10 key organisations and directly involved the units planning community, including the Owners Corporation Network ACT, Strata Community Australia, the ACT Law Society and the Planning Institute of Australia. That group met on a number of occasions between February and November last year to finalise these reforms. I thank all the participants for their time and dedication in progressing these much-needed reforms.
The consultation with stakeholders also highlighted the need for improvements in three key areas. I will just mention some examples of issues raised in connection with these areas. One was to address the complexities involved in today’s unit plan buildings. For example, the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 requires all proposed new units plans to adopt from inception a single, one-size-fits-all set of owners corporation rules. There is no scope in that for new unit plans to depart from the standard rules, despite modern developments having specific requirements. There is also no scope to develop particular rules or engagements for the sharing of common spaces between commercial operators and residents—entryways, for example. The Unit Title Legislation Amendment Bill addresses this by allowing the option for alternative rules to be proposed by developers up-front.
Another area of concern is in relation to governance and management. In particular the Owners Corporation Network raised the issue of fairness: fairness in the distribution of the cost of running the units plan building and in paying for water and other utility services, as well as fairness in the use of and access to common areas. Payment for costs of the running of the units plan is chiefly through the contribution of levies payable by each owner. I am confident that the proposed bill will address some of these issues. The way to address this is to allow owners corporations greater flexibility to adopt different methods of determining how they can contribute to the levies they pay.
Everybody should support the bill, and I thank everybody for their work during the process of development.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Clauses 1 to 23, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Proposed new clause 23A.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (11.42): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name, which inserts a new clause 23A [see schedule 1 at page 443]. This new section amends the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003 by adding that
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