Travels etc.

While reading some paperwork regarding International Tax Law subject following statement drew my attention: "The complexity of the international tax rules makes it nearly impossible to diffuse the public sensibility about the issues." It is from the speech "Sense and Sensibility: The Policy and Politics of BEPS" by Manal S. Corwin.  The full text can be found here: https://www.kpmg-institutes.com/content/dam/kpmg/taxwatch/pdf/2014/beps-corwin-tillinghast-tn-100614.pdf That thought is not unique to tax law. In my experience of more than 3 years doing what I call “applied dispute resolution” which correlates with law research and paralegal activities I see that in any area of law, social matters, environmental, humanities, economics and others we can witness increasing level of challenges that our society face. Let’s take as an example The Law. Carefully crafted legal framework is one of the essentials of contemporary society. However ...

If you talk to people who own apartments/units in NSW 99% of them will say something like "our strata is totally dysfunctional" and some of them might say "our strata management is quite good". Below I will explain what they mean by saying that, because what they are referring to may be quite different from what they say. Term "strata" is used by majority as something that relevant to ownership, management and ongoing maintenance of a block of units. The concept of strata title was introduced in 1961 in Australia to deal with property rights of apartment blocks. Strata title allows individual ownership of "a lot" which is part of the building (apartment, unit, townhouse) together with shared ownership in the "Common Property" which is the remainder of the building that is not included in the individual lots (i.e. walls, roofs, foyers, planters, pathways, parking etc.). This is a type of communal ownership and living. The keyword...

Home Building Legislation Amendments - Customer: Dear Mr Builder, would it be possible to rectify the outstanding defects 1)..., 2)..., etc.? - Builder: You have been pain in the backside. Stop whining. We bent over backwards to help with your problems! Don’t contact me anymore. This is a type of conversation that happens from time to time when dealing with builders 2-3 years into the defect rectification process. Why it may take so long? Many factors affect the process. This morning a couple of my friends have shared the article " Home Building Amendment Act: Sydney apartment owners say law changes are 'draconian' ", knowing my interest in those matters. I indeed have some relevant experience . The publication by Sydney Morning Herald above has got a couple of interesting items. First, it is vivid that comments to the post contradict whatever is said by Department of Fair Trading (authority) representative and chief executive from Urban Development Insti...

Have just completed a very interesting online course about US constitutional concepts, how it has been developed and different perspectives of its content and interpretations in regards to law. Professor Kermit Roosevelt provides several controversial points of view on constitutional topics with judges decisions and history in regards to it. In the context of contemporary chatter about freedom, democracy etc. this course should be able to help making an informed opinion based on existing knowledge and research up to date. The course is provided by University of Pennsylvania , in my opinion it's one of the best universities in the area of free online (MOOC) education so far. Course info .

This post is a follow up on the earlier article  Development Application for Strata Common Wall . Residential owners corporation reached out to surveyor and found out deposited plans that show the boundary is face of the wall on the commercial strata side. That means the applicant (commercial strata) submitted development application without consent from the owners of the wall. This was pointed out to the Council and the applicant as follows: " Section 78A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) provides for the making of a development application (DA) subject to compliance with the requirements of the regulation.  Clause 49 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 (NSW) (regulation) mandates that a DA needs to be either made by the ‘owner’ of the land affected by the DA or any other person so long as the owner has provided consent in writing. DA Number was made by Applicant_Name and the owner specified is Proprietors of St...

Yet another important milestone in the long process of fixing the building defects in the strata block - Fair Trading came out for second inspection last Wednesday 30/07/2014. New defects and old defects that were not yet fixed have been on the list. Major defect types are: - Water leakage in bathrooms/showers into bedrooms in 100% of reported units; - Cheap material used for tiling in bathrooms/showers that last only for 6 months and then require re-sealing; - Flooring issues - timber/bamboo laid out incorrectly, color mismatch; - Water leakage from the outside into units; - Efflorescence in tiling work in courtyards and pathways; - Negligent manner of work and absence of quality material and control of work - many defects have been somehow addressed by the sub-contractors sent by the builder, but without proper result. Some units have got tenants so it was not easy to organise for an inspection for them. Here I'd suggest to identify and report all the defects befo...

Here's some interesting passage regarding law and justice: "Upon the authority which the great proprietors necessarily had, in such a state of things, over their tenants and retainers, was founded the power of the ancient barons. They necessarily became the judges in peace, and the leaders in war, of all who dwelt upon their estates. They could maintain order, and execute the law, within their respective demesnes, because each of them could there turn the whole force of all the inhabitants against the injustice of anyone. No other person had sufficient authority to do this. The king, in particular, had not. In those ancient times, he was little more than the greatest proprietor in his dominions, to whom, for the sake of common defence against their common enemies, the other great proprietors paid certain respects. To have enforced payment of a small debt within the lands of a great proprietor, where all the inhabitants were armed, and accustomed to stand by one another, w...

Getting closer to the defects rectification, but not quite there yet. There are three major outcomes achieved: 1. Fair Trading has sent a report regarding the work that has not been completed by the builder. 2. The builder left one defect undone, but has been forced by Fair Trading to fix it. 3. The builder started begging for money from the owner for the work that has been done in accordance with Fair Trading rectification order. So they ask for money to be paid for the work they had an obligation to do to repair the defective work they did earlier. Though at the moment the issue remaining is not very critical, however it affects the quality of living in the purchased property. The builder sent people to fix the defect. The fixing is to reapply the silicon. The root cause of the issue has never been investigated properly. It is 1 year and 11 months since the time the defects were reported to the builder! It would take possibly the same time to build a new apartment from...

In today’s life very often we may catch ourselves on a thought that legal matters are usually very expensive, unpredictable and confusing. Legal system doesn't establish or execute Justice – it is subjective and depends on many factors. Some of them are: current geopolitical situation, location, nationality, social position, weather conditions, emotions etc. Therefore legal system is guided by the communal utilitarianism principle. Decisions based on that principle could go very often perpendicular with the perception of justice of individuals or even peoples. There is an opinion that justice and legal system is based on ethic and moral. This is a chicken and egg challenge to prove. All of it is basically rules of communal living and transactions among humans who inhabit certain area, i.e. a suburb, a town, a state, a country. So the law and legislation is an attempt to codify the rules of mutual existence for further enforcement and ease of transactions. Ethic is almost the...

Today is exactly 2 months since the Department of Fair Trading inspected the unit for defects and reported to the builder to fix the issues before 18/05/2013. Majority of the work has been finished only 12/06/2013. However the builder replaced only 2/3 of the floor in the living room and said than the remaining part has got a different cause. During the rectification process they said they will replace the entire floor, because it was apparently damaged. They used a couple of tricks as they went through the "rectification" process: 1. They were very slow and said that they were waiting for proper rain to test the waterproofing. The floor in the unit was removed in half for more than a month! When the deadline was about to hit, they called the owner and said that they are ready to replace the floor, but the owner has to use home contents insurance for that. The owner refused that "offer", so the builder started yelling. However they continued with floor...

Major building defects are still not resolved and the owners of most of the units didn't even bother to follow up. However some units are eager to finalise the process and fix the defects. One member of executive committee has built an online application on the Internet to get the response from the interested units what defects have been fixed and what are outstanding. With the results of that report owners corporation lodged a complaint with Fair Trading against the builder on the outstanding defects. The complaint was lodged on 16/01/2013. A week later, on 23/01/2013 Fair Trading called the owners corporation to confirm the details of the complaint. Same day they called the builder. Builder contacted owners corporation on 29/01/2013 to advise that they are coming to inspect the defects again! They explained it as they want to confirm what defects they are responsible for and that they are going to contact Fair Trading after the inspection. The builder advised they ar...

In the earlier post I described the timeline of the intriguing case of construction issues/defects resolution. What's obvious: Nobody is rushing to fix the earlier reported issues Vendors don't do anything to fix the issues Strata management doesn't assist in fixing the issues, but forward messages to the executive committee of the owners corporation Treasurer of the owners corporation Executive Committee is somehow involved in the process and communicates directly to vendor, strata manager and the builder. No visible results though, but just promises of better future. Research The owner initiated the following research: Strata rules to see who is responsible for what in terms of building defects Seeking legal advice to set up a plan for further actions against the Vendor and/or the Builder Requesting strata scheme account statement Outcomes There is no law for breach of contract. So legally there is no obligation to act as per contract of sale even ...

Situation Vendor has sold the property and signed the contract. As per contract of sale the vendor at their own expense needs to rectify defects within 6 months after settlement. Vendor engages their builder to rectify the defects. The Builder doesn't provide any reasonable notice, doesn't want to rectify some of the defects, doesn't have any quality assurance in place. Both Vendor and Builder doesn't communicate any certain dates, Vendor says to do whatever the owner of the property wants, Builder doesn't respond in writing. Resolution Stage 1.   Beginning of December 2011 - just after settlement. Owner sent defects list to the Vendor as per contract of sale. Vendor forwarded the list to the builder. Builder sends people to the property. They didn't provide any notification in writing, fixed some of the defects quickly and din't rectify majority of them, left the mess after themselves. Stage 2.   Mid January 2012. Owner sent the list of outst...