This week’s Strata Development Application being reviewed is the 3 lot strata subdivision of 5 Norman Street, Umina Beach NSW 2257.
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Where is Umina beach
Umina Beach is a suburb within the Central Coast of New South Wales. By road, it is 85 kilometres north of the Sydney CBD and 111 kilometres south of the Newcastle CBD.
The Development
This development application is for an existing building, built several years ago. It is not uncommon to see subdivision application for existing buildings where people have built an investment property with several apartments, shops or industrial warehouses, and due to the sale of the single site or change in circumstances, it is beneficial to subdivide the property.
This typically brings higher sales values and increased equity for those seeking to use the asset to fund future and other projects.
How to keep the Levies Low
When we are subdividing existing buildings there are limitations in how you can keep the levies cost low, but it is still possible.
Roller Doors – Exclusive use by-law
This development has 3 individual lockup garages that are part of the lot. If you do nothing about roller doors in the by-laws, or make a note on the strata plan, the roller doors will be common property, meaning that every owner will share the costs of repairing and maintaining each other’s roller doors. This is unfair because everyone uses their roller door differently.
To make this fair you just need an exclusive use by-law making each owner responsible for their own roller door, this doesn’t disadvantage anyone. It only benefits those who maintain and care for their roller door. You can also achieve the same result by putting a note on the strata plan about roller doors not being common property.
Common Area Finishes
Fortunately, this building has good low-cost finishes to the common property with concrete, pebblecrete and brick finishes. This will enable the common area cleaning to be minimum, and maybe something that the owners can do on a weekly or monthly basis.
Waterproof Membranes
Due to the ages of this building the failure of the waterproof membranes is a possibility in the near future. Waterproof membranes in bathrooms and other areas are actually common property and strata cost. Therefore it would be of benefit to create an exclusive use by-law that makes the tiles, and membranes within each apartment the responsibility of that lot owner.
Admin – Strata Management
This building would be best positioned for either self-managed or assisted self-managed, see stratasavings.com.au for more details. As it is only 3 lots will no major infrastructure this can be easily organised and run by an apartment owner with a little guidance and support. If a full-service manager is engaged the running costs would be $500-$700 per year, just for the admin costs.
By using an assisted self-management solution the owner will get the benefit of their strata documents stored in a central location that is accessible by all owners, the right insurance policies and multiple quotes obtained, a system to deal with any owners not paying levies, at a cost of around $50-70 per year.