Owners, investors, or consumers?

Property is wealth. Large or complex properties are usually owned by individuals or businesses with organisational and financial capacity to deal with the risks and costs of ownership. The sale of units in multi-storey, multi-owned apartment buildings to mum-and-dad investors and occupiers has placed ownership risk in these complex buildings in the hands of people who may not have capacity to manage them. The transfer of ownership on completion and the statutory obligations of owner corporations to manage defects undermine quality control provisions in commercial construction contracts and obscure responsibility, leading to lack of confidence in building professions dealing with the design, construction, sales, and management of buildings. This chapter looks at the complex interaction between traditional property laws and management obligations, multi-ownership, investment laws, investor sophistication, consumer laws, and buyer expectations. It addresses the role of the property owner in managing property risks, including quality control and contract management during construction, and explores how this changes when ownership passes to individual unit owners and the owner corporation. It highlights the critical role of the developer in managing design and construction quality and opportunities for developers to demonstrate best practice. This chapter also discusses the critical role of contracts and the productivity improvements possible from developing standard-form contracts for the apartment sector that clarify the roles of the various parties, leading to greater understanding of, and confidence in, the professions involved.