This week’s Strata Development Application being reviewed is the six lot strata subdivision of 86 Heathcote Road Moorebank NSW 2170.
Listen to the podcast:
Where is Moorebank
Moorebank is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales. Moorebank is located 27 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Liverpool. Moorebank features a mix of residential and industrial areas.
The Development
This development application is for an existing building, built in approximately 2001. 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. As of recording this podcast, none of the industrial blocks could be seen on the market, so it appears this has been subdivided to create increased equity.
To see all the detail of the application visit, http://eplanning.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/Pages/XC.Track/SearchApplication.aspx?id=363188, and search for DA-508/2018.
How to keep the Levies Low
Our top 3 recommendations for keeping the levies low on this industrial strata development are:
Roller Doors – Exclusive use by-law
If you do nothing about roller doors in the by-laws, 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.
Signage – Exclusive use by-law & guidelines
Almost every business needs signage, and if you don’t define the signage rules you will have problems. There are a few specifics you need to consider and include when setting your signage rules
- How is it approved? Do you want the Committee to approve? I recommend setting the rules for where signage can be added, and allow people to install signage within those rules, without approval.
- Where is it allowed? Super important to define where people can install and what the maximum size can be. If your industrial building has a signage board on the street, make each of the signage areas exclusive-use and allocate them to each Lot, this means you will never have people fighting over signage space.
Parking – Allocations and Restrictions
To avoid fighting and issues onsite between, owners, tenants and customers allocate some of the parking to each lot. You may have restrictions due to your DA, but where possible allocate the parking.
It is also good to define the signage that people can install on their car park, eg painted on the floor, sign in front, ect. You can also define if bollards are permitted and how they should be installed and style to be used.
The management of parking is a preventative action that will dramatically reduce the number of disagreements within a development.
For more details on each of these recommendations and how they can fit your development, contact us.