Hopes Raised for Water Fireworks by Shane Scanlan
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MARCH 2019 ISSUE 150 PRICELESS WWW.DOCKLANDSNEWS.COM.AU : Docklands_News EBR EL AT C IN G 2003 2019 A 1E N D 50IT Y N IONS R IVERSA ■ Towers targeted ■ Smoke and mirrors clouds for takeovers cladding issue Page 3 Page 6 ■ Community picks up the slack ■ Table is tops at the Nolan Page 5 Page 9 Hopes raised for water fireworks By Shane Scanlan Many Docklanders were delighted in February to see fireworks and dragon boat racing back where they belong – on the water in Victoria Harbour. On February 4, a spectacular fireworks display was shot off a barge in Victoria Harbour, just as it used to be on New Year’s Eves before the City of Melbourne stopped the practice in 2016. An interesting aspect of this event was that it was a private show for Chinese New Year and it came as a surprise to most people. The City of Melbourne (CoM) had been advised but appears to have played no role and a council permit was not required because it was not a land-based event. Parks Victoria issued a Recreation Activity Event (Bays and Waterways) permit to the fireworks company ShowFX Australia and supervised the event, including providing three boats to enforce an exclusion zone. The Docklands Chamber of Commerce was The February 4 event. particularly delighted with the event as it has consistently maintained that Docklands safer than shooting from rooftops. fireworks should be launched from the water. “I mean, if they fall on buildings with Chamber president Johanna Maxwell cladding, what’s going to happen,” he asked. believes the February 4 event has set a “The council is scared someone is going precedent and makes it more difficult for to fall in the water, but look what happens the city to continue to refuse to return the in Sydney Harbour when they have half a Flipping out in Docklands fireworks to the water. million people lining the harbour.” “This leaves the door open,” Mrs Maxwell Mr Speigel said a firework mishap had Isaac James loves to flip out in Docklands to practise parkour. said. “It shows that there is no particular resulted in a 1.5 metre hole being blown in danger associated with waterborne the Marvel Stadium roof. pyrotechnics.” Parkour is described as an attitude and training method to allow you to move through any With the council effectively sidelined from environment at speed. The 17-year-old from Frankston and his mates say Docklands is an ShowFX director Allan Speigel agrees, ideal location. adding that waterborne fireworks were far Continued page 15. 2 DOCKLANDS NEWS ISSUE 150 A storm of pain is looming Accommodation) Bill 2016 formalises and But strata living will soon overtake detached Suite 108, 198 Harbour Esplanade legitimises short-stay letting in residential housing as the default situation in Victoria. buildings; PO Box 23008 Docklands 8012 Comment And, in our part of the world, owner- Tel: 8689 7990 ■ The state’s failure to outlaw proxy occupiers are a vulnerable minority easily www.docklandsnews.com.au Shane farming. In investor-majority buildings, swept aside by proxy farmers determined to Advertising Scanlan it is ridiculously simple for any individual take over OC committees. to harvest a majority of votes to control an Hyper-local print works for advertisers Take a look at Melbourne’s skyline. Pretty OC; and in our digital world because local much all of these recent residential people are interested in local news. ■ Protection offered to short-stay operators skyscrapers are owned by investors (either The threat of short-stay To sell to the Docklands community, under the Residential Tenancies Act. off-shore or domestic) who are motivated by speak with Shane Scanlan: operators taking over They are running a business, but the law financial return. protects them as if they are vulnerable M: 0419 542 625 Tel: 8689 7980 Why wouldn’t they give their proxy vote to residential towers stems renters. Some commercial operators are [email protected] someone promising to increase their profits? from a failure of government taking unreasonable advantage of this, Reader contributions are welcome. effectively disenfranchising landlords. These proxy farmers don’t need an actual Send letters, articles and images to: regulation. connection with a particular building to end [email protected] The Victorian Civil and Administrative up in control. Unintended consequences are flowing from Tribunal (VCAT) is being clogged with The deadline for the April edition is And they don’t need many proxies in ill-considered decisions as well as a general cases brought by real estate agents pursuing March 28. investor-majority buildings to achieve this. failure to recognise emerging patterns in unpaid rents by some short-stay operators. The “cat and mouse” games being played out Low attendance at annual general meetings Publisher: Hyperlocal News Pty Ltd inner-city living. are costing landlords thousands of dollars in creates the opportunity. ABN: 57 623 558 725 The result is a looming perfect storm legal costs. They only need a relatively easily-acquired which will likely result in residents being Editor: Shane Scanlan list of investor-owners with their addresses displaced and wholesale profiteering by an In a current case, a landlord who succeeded to get started. Once acquired, they either Journalist: Meg Hill unscrupulous and determined small cohort in evicting a short-stay operator after months convince owners to grant proxies or simply of opportunists. of unpaid rent is being sued for $40,000. fake their signatures on proxy forms. Follow us on Twitter The three major regulatory problems are: @Docklands_News Owners’ corporation law is in serious need Currently, there are few documented ■ The state’s deliberate backing of the of an overhaul to reflect the realities of the examples that this has happened. But Like us on Facebook short-stay industry by failing to grant 21st century. It appears legislators think that’s no reason to be complacent. A Docklands News owners’ corporations (OCs) adequate they are dealing with how a small number of storm is looming and, unless the Victorian control of their buildings. The just- people living in blocks of flats in the suburbs Government takes urgent steps to prevent it, Opinions expressed by contributors are enacted OC Amendment (Short-stay interact. the damage will be catastrophic. not necessarily shared by the publisher. MOVE YOUR PROPERTY INTO THE HANDS CONTACT LINA D’AMBROSIO [email protected] OF PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO M: 0430 929 851 CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SATISFACTION W: 9001 1333 Please support our advertisers because without them we would have no Docklands News ISSUE 150 DOCKLANDS NEWS 3 Towers targeted for takeovers By Shane Scanlan Apartment towers are facing takeovers by short-stay apartment operators able to turn them into quasi-hotels. Operators are successfully harvesting The lawyer then suggested assignment of Strata lawyer Tom Bacon said proxy farming owners’ corporation (OC) proxy votes in proxy voting rights to the short-stay operator was rife in Victoria because the law was majority-investor-owned towers – and it’s all as a solution to the problem and asked that inadequate. perfectly legal. irrevocable proxy rights be inserted into the “There is little to curb this practice under lease. Suggested amended lease wording Unlike NSW, there is no limit to the number, the current OC legislation in Victoria. included: or total proportion, of proxy votes that Proxy farming is rife in the industry, and individuals can harvest in Victoria – and it “The landlord may not revoke this this has allowed the rot to set in over many looks like the flood gates are about to open. appointment during the term of the lease, years as sophisticated short-stay operators, including any further term/s, except in managers, real estate agents and building In the past, stories have emerged about instances where the tenant refuses to pay caretakers have exploited the situation,” Mr OCs being taken over by utility and other rent.” Bacon said. contractor-type vested interests. But organised short-stay operators appear to be “The landlord acknowledges that the tenant “In NSW, the state government introduced emboldened by the lack of regulation and has entered into the renewal of the lease at sweeping legislative reforms in 2016 to end oversight. the specific rate in reliance upon the powers proxy farming by permitting a person to Professional facilities manager and former conferred upon it by the preceding clause only hold one proxy vote at a time, made it Residents 3000 president John Dall’Amico and that the tenant will suffer damages and unlawful for leases and other agreements is involved in a draining struggle where an loss in the event it is prevented or attempts to include an ‘irrevocable proxy’ clause, OC is being swamped by representatives of are made by the landlord to prevent the and disqualified persons and proxies from a property company, which has a short-stay tenant from exercising its proxy in the voting on certain matters when they had apartment division and informal ties to a manner set out above.” a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the motion.” strata management company. Three days later, on November 30, the lawyer He said owner-occupier OC members were again wrote to the landlord saying: Mr Bacon said the Victorian Government had been reviewing OC law since 2016 but questioning the possible motive behind “In not taking action, after our clients secrecy surrounded its intentions. having members on the committee with no have raised their concerns that the OC actual obvious connection with the building. management is not allowing them to have “The rumour is that the legislation is being “They’re neither owners, renters or quiet enjoyment of their property, our client re-written secretly because it’s already out investors,” Mr Dall’Amico said.