Old Strata News, Ain’t So Old Anymore

I don’t like recycling old articles, stories and news, but it seems timely to do so now.

Just over 32 years ago, in August 1992, there was some very dramatic news in the Australian strata sector.  So, dramatic that it made the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald as you can see in the SMH masthead from 12 August 1992 below, the headline and the article.

The SMH news article EXPOSED: Strata Industry Kickbacks by Ben Hills was a story about how the then largest strata manager in Australia, Alliance Strata Management, was being accused by the Real Estate Services Council [RESC], the NSW regulator, of breaching licensing laws, strata title laws and common laws in relation to strata insurance commissions and its business arrangements.

Sound a bit familiar?

It was a big deal then … just like it is now.

And, the news, the subsequent RESC prosecutions, the flow on legal actions, and the impacts on Alliance Strata Management, its strata buildings, strata managers everywhere and the strata sector dragged on over many years in good, bad and unexpected ways.

I was there and heavily involved as I represented Alliance Strata Management and became part of the solution/s to the problems the crisis created.  But, that’s another much longer and interesting story that I’ll write about soon.

For today, I’m merely reminding everyone about the strata past and suggesting that this old news may not be so old or irrelevant, and probably provides some useful insights and lessons for today’s strata stakeholders dealing with the current similar crisis.