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Hynes Legal

In: General Interest, Legal

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

Three takeaways: Hills to die on in management rights We often talk about the ‘hills to die on’ in management rights. And while that’s obviously colloquial, sometimes in management rights relationships there are times when you have to take a stand — and there are other times when you should roll over because it’s not worth the grief.  Reimbursement of expenses is one of those things.  Spinning out over spending Resident Managers often look at their agreements and argue they’ve got spending authority for $500 or $1000 per item or month; yet the body corporate is saying they can’t spend that money.  The reality isRead More →

In: Body Corporate

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the strata sector is facing some big issues. Perhaps the biggest challenge (this week at least) is how to manage body corporate levies and other financial issues at a time when people are under all sorts of financial pressure. It can be hard enough to get people to pay strata levies when they have the money, let alone when they do not. We think it is essential to identify the pain points for everyone in the sector when it comes to levies and then identify what can be done about it. There are a few points to make,Read More →

In: Body Corporate, Legal

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

I want to give people some insight as to my reasons for joining Hynes Legal and in particular, why I strongly believe the strata industry needs a mediation offering to help reduce the instance of strata disputes in the Commissioner’s Office and QCAT. I’ll begin with a question I’ve been asked a few times since starting with Hynes in February 2020: why would someone pay you to do something that you previously did for free? It’s because of cases like this one. In summary, it’s a dispute heard in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal about management rights. In total, both sides – the bodyRead More →

In: General Interest

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

Yes – that’s right.  Chris Irons is starting with us, as reported in the Courier Mail. As the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management for the past five years, Chris has been at the centre of the strata industry in Queensland. Every major issue at the core of strata in Queensland has been across his desk. His move to join Hynes Legal has been gestating for some time because it is a serious step for all concerned. It is not something that has been undertaken without a lot of planning and thought.  The community around strata (and in that we include everyone from lot owners, committees, strata managers andRead More →

In: Legal, Uncategorized

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

The background Law can be a very dry occupation. As long as you are not on the receiving end of them, some of the lines in legal judgments can be somewhat amusing. One of the best judgments in recent times was the striking out of the bulk of Mark Latham’s defamation defence, but the judgment in this decision started with: ‘In his notes for a law lecture dated 1 July 1850, Abraham Lincoln wrote: Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser – in fees, expenses, and waste of time.’ If you were inRead More →

In: Accounting and Finance, Body Corporate, Legal, The Management Rights Market

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

Back when real estate wasn’t as expensive, multipliers weren’t as high and banks didn’t care as much about serviceability as they did security, buying a lot with a business all worked without much of an issue. That has changed (noticeably for high value real estate with shorter term management rights agreements), which has led to us receiving lots of requests from clients about separating their lot from their management rights business.  Every management rights business is different. There are no hard and fast rules, but in general terms, these are the issues that come if you want to consider doing breaking that link. Let’s startRead More →

In: Body Corporate, Legal

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

The question about how to adjust contribution schedule lot entitlements (‘the CSLE’) that has been kicking around strataland since September 2012 has finally been put to rest. The complete article we wrote on the issue at the time is here. In practical terms, no one will be able to adjust the CSLE unless there is a resolution without dissent at a general meeting. This is a resolution which no one votes against (as opposed to one which everyone votes for). Any CLSE adjustment means that some levies will go up and others will go down because the body corporate budget never changes. What adjusting lot entitlementsRead More →

In: Legal

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

Governments create laws.  Courts and tribunals interpret those laws when they make decisions on disputes.  We all then rely on those interpretations as gospel in terms of what the legislation actually means. Industry always holds its breath when what has been a long-standing practice or assumption is appealed. Higher authorities can overturn the decisions of lower ones. Take the deck dispute that went all the way to the High Court, with opposing decisions along the way. The other recent example was the decision on the timing for commencement of proceedings for recovery of body corporate debts.  A lower court interpreted a time frame that no one had operatedRead More →

In: Body Corporate, Facilities Management, Legal

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

If you don’t know whether the cladding on your building is combustible (or to use the less scary word – non-conforming), you are soon going to be forced to find out. The issue over what cladding has been used on buildings crystallised after the Grenfell Tower fire in the UK in 2017.  Australia’s equivalent (without the horrific loss of life in Grenfell) was the Lacrosse Tower fire in Melbourne in 2014. The ABC’s Four Corners covered the issue in this excellent episode. Since then the wheels of respective state governments have turned very slowly.  Victoria has their cladding task force and has now come up with a rectification solution that will allow lot ownersRead More →

In: Facilities Management, Legal

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

We first wrote about bullying in strata more than two years ago. We have been waiting for a while, but we finally have a decision from the Fair Work Commission (FWC) that gives some guidance about whether the sort of conduct we regularly see in terms of committee and resident manager communications constitutes bullying. And if we are going to gloat just a little bit, it played out the way we predicted it would. Every other day we deal with business relationship breakdowns in strata. Tit gets exchanged for tat. Petty email wars ensue. Mud gets thrown and names called. A committee/management rights relationship is a special one. IfRead More →

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