hey guys, I've had a consistent message from apartment owners (as well as direct experience) of dodgy practice/corruption of apartment developments in Melbourne. for example:
my building's design lists a bunch of common areas that are only accessible from one or another apartment (so were never gonna be a common area). then on exploration turns out they've been licensed for $10 99 year leases issued to and accepted by the same people on body corp, with connections to developers. so these guys have significant additional sqm effectively on their lots, that aren't included in lot fee calculations.
these licenses were also not listed on the section 12 for apartments on the block for at least ten years.
also had these guys owning premium apartments and stacking body corp for first ten years, collecting only lot fees no maintenance fund, then selling out when builders warranty expires leaving no budget and full liability for repairs.
legal advice I've had to date is - not worth it.
I'm keen to try get a sense of whether this is widespread, what people have done about it, possibly invest some in collating specific examples/evidence and see if media be interested.
anyone else got stories?