I was up on The Gold Coast yesterday at a conference and wandered past this building. It's a big building and they are doing a huge concrete cancer job. This is the side that faces the ocean. So they are at the stage where they have dug out the concrete to expose the steel. They need to deal with that and then patch and paint. Just imagine the size of the Special Levy. And there would have been people who bought into that building recently who would not have read the strata minutes and would have been taken by surprise. They won't be able to claim that work as a repair. Scott
Wow big job! Will insurance cover some of the bill? I was hoping for some more exciting photos. The abseiling dudes that do those repair jobs have an interesting office. Dangling around with a bucket and some tools
It's a good thing most apartment builders now leave the tips of the reo exposed on balconies so you don't have to go through the pain of scabbling the concrete down the track...Think of the dripping rust stains as a feature... #DodgyBrosBuildingPTYLTD
Focus Apartments? Wow blast from the past - stayed there decades ago.... BTW if anyone found a pair of sunny's I left on the car roof as dad drove off in the carpark, please return it . The Y-man
That's the Focus building. They've been at that for a couple of years. There is a certain shelf life for these structures that are literally beach side. The old Iluka complex has been torn down on the corner of Hanlan. I think they are building over 80 stories there. The old building was probably 40-50 years old.
Only made more difficult when it's strata and you require 100% of people on board to sell for redevelopment. I am an advocate for reducing the % required to vote for winding up a strata.
Always ask to see the last 2 years strata AGM minutes and financials as this would have been all over it.
Or do it the way Raptis did for Iluka and slowly buy the entire block through four different companies as trustee of the same trust, transfer the legal interest to one entity (without duty issues) and then amalgamate/extinguish the strata scheme. Obviously not an easy task but they achieved it (unfortunately with bad timing given the GFC and the outcome). As mentioned, that would be one big special levy! Then again the building is quite old so hopefully the sinking fund was looking healthy and this issue was foreseen a long time ago.
A friend used to own a unit in a 33 unit block. When she bought (about 23 years ago) she was hit with a large (from memory maybe $10K?) special levy to treat concrete cancer. The units sit on a huge block of land that could take more units now and she told me just this week that she has heard that if 75% of the owners decide to sell to a developer, the others have no choice. She was not happy with this, but she is a bit tetchy about many things, and this is just one more on a looooong list of things she thinks is unfair. I asked her if her unit was worth $500k and she was offered $700k by a developer, wouldn't she be happy? She said she wouldn't be, but then she is not happy about many things . I would hate to see people forced to move but if you don't want to be governed by a body corporate, don't buy into one. The same can happen if your house is resumed I know but that is a different risk again.
Assuming Queensland to sell would require a resolution without dissent (no votes against) rather than a special resolution (2/3rds in favour) and even then they could only force the sale of the common property and not the individual's unit. The other approach would be for each individual owner to sell and then for the new owner to extinguish the scheme.
Indeed. I've seen it in a unit we were renting, was a big job when they replaced the railing. Also got a little in a footing in one IP - not as big a job as that obviously, but will need attention soon.
One of the proposals for the next QLD body corporate legislation is to reduce the threshold for demolishing gradually as the building ages. So a new building would require 100% agreement; 20+ years down to 90%; 30+ years down to 80% etc. I look after buildings that really need to be demolished. They simply were not engineered to last forever. Matt
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