A person from the Eurobodalla has been taken to hospital after a housefire near Batemans Bay this morning. Emergency Services were called the fire at Moorong Crescent in Malua Bay just after 7am today. RFS evacuated the single occupant who was treated by Paradmedics, and taken to Moruya hospital is a stable condition.

Following a number of reprieves (firstly 1 November 2018, then 1 November 2019), interim occupation certificates will now become obsolete on 1 December 2019 by virtue of the commencement of certain amendments to Part 6 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (“EPA Act”), in accordance with the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Building and Subdivision Certification) Regulation 2019 (NSW) (“Regulation”), made on 30 August 2019.

Knowing how to respond to a real estate agent’s questions can boost your chances of securing a property for a good price. In this edited extract from his book, Australia’s Home Buying Guide, real estate agent Todd Sloan shares three common questions agents ask and the best way to answer them.

A lot of the time, the first part of getting a great price is knowing that the negotiation has already started. It doesn’t start when you make your first offer – well, at least not if you want a good deal when you’re buying a property.

Owner Builder Warranty Is No Longer Available in NSW
Insurance under the Home Building Compensation Fund is no longer available for owner-builder work done by an owner-builder.

Owner-builders who sell properties built under owner-builder permits are no longer required to provide insurance to the subsequent purchaser.

Wall cracks may appear to be simple, surface blemishes, a blight on the appearance of your home and nothing more. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The near-universal use of H2 blue, green or red framing timber in construction is now a time bomb for landfill in 20-40 years’ time. It cannot be composted nor recycled, and thus is sent to landfill. In an ideal world, buildings would be carefully deconstructed and every skerrick reused, but in the Land of Oz, where labourers are paid $55 per hour, and landfill rates are less than $200 per tonne that is just a pipe dream.

“The council search was a really great extra service and something I wasn’t expecting as part of a building inspection. It turned up a few issues but enabled us to make an informed risk based decision, without having to do a full survey and building certificate at much greater expense.” Andrew, Buyer, South Coast

Fixing water leaks is always a tough job.

Getting to the root cause and then finding a solution to rectify the problem is no easy task.

Lack of understanding about structural issues as well as waterproofing methodology/technologies can lead to rectification decisions that may not actually resolve water ingress.

The Strata Building Bond and Inspections Scheme is intended to do two important things:

1. Provide a financial incentive for developers and builders to build sound residential high-rise buildings.
2. Permit owners to identify defective work and have it fixed promptly and cost-effectively.

The Property Club has banned buying into housing developments constructed from lightweight materials for the past 26 years. If local councils had also banned the construction of these lightweight buildings, then we would not have the nightmare situation where property owners are now having to spend their life savings making these buildings safe, writes Kevin Young. These […]