A Doctorate Researcher's Thoughts on Strata Governance for Developers

Strata title developers have enormous influence on the future of a strata building and, as a result, the experience of all stakeholders involved in it; owners, residents, financiers, managers, service providers and regulators.

After all, we don’t need to look far to find some worst case examples like Mascot Towers and Skyview in NSW and Shenton Quarter in Western Australia.

So, to what extent should developers be responsible for good governance outcomes, and, what should they do about it?

Dr Nicole Johnston is a researcher, lecturer, writer, speaker and consultant and has published a short thought piece on the topic Strata Governance Responsibilities where she makes the point that a developer effectively imprints governance arrangements in strata buildings that, in many instances, are difficult to change.

So, she says that if governance ‘is about systems for directing and controlling more or less formally structured groupings of people, be they states, communities, companies or whatever’ and responsibility is ‘a concept, responsibility is related to the concepts of control and accountability’ then, to achieve effective strata building outcomes: developers need to be aware of their governance responsibility, developers need to understand their fiduciary duties, developers need to avoid conflict of interest situations, and good governance standards need to be imposed and met.

It’s an excellent analysis of the issues and starting point for this critical and challenging strata issue.

You can read Strata Governance Responsibilities here.