We have all seen the movie "The Castle", poking hilarious fun at the Government's powers of compulsory acquisition over your home.

But what if your own neighbour could also compulsory acquire your home?

The New South Wales Government has released an exposure draft of Strata termination legislation which empowers private citizens to forcibly acquire other people's homes.

So long as 75% of owners in the strata plan agree, (some of whom may be investors or developers), the entire site can be collectively sold or re-developed.

Sydney needs more housing and the Government's justification for this proposal is urban renewal and consolidation.

If an apartment building is nearing the end of its life then it might make "some sense" to force one or more reluctant owners to give in and sell their unit so as to enable re-development of the entire building. However, this is not a criteria in the draft legislation. There is no requirement that the building be run down. Indeed the building may be in first class condition however, because it is located in a great area, with potential for higher density redevelopment, then under the proposal a majority of 75% of owners could force the reluctant owners to sell. There is no proposed criteria which looks after the elderly or infirm owners who simply have no desire to sell their property, nor move to another home.

Nor is there any criteria that the proposed sale must yield a higher density development. In other words, an existing 8 apartment building could be sold by 6 out of 8 owners (forcing 2 reluctant owners to sell) with a resulting new development downsized to 4 apartments as an end product, thus defeating the supposed aim of increasing Sydney's housing availability.

Whilst the Government currently can only compulsory acquire properties for public purposes (eg. infrastructure, roads, train lines, etc) it is now being proposed that private citizens can compulsory acquire their neighbours for the single purpose of deriving profit, making no contribution to the public purse or needs of the community.

If you thought the script for The Castle was entertaining, wait for the next movie based on this proposed legislation.

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