Australia: Estate Management

Bankruptcy trustees play a crucial statutory role in managing insolvency cases, but their function extends beyond enforcement to collaborative assistance. Through a detailed case study, this article examines how an individual's reluctance to cooperate with trustees transformed a manageable $44,800 debt into a protracted three-year bankruptcy that ultimately cost him everything, including opportunities for annulment.

A New South Wales Court of Appeal decision examines whether an unpainted speed hump in a carpark constitutes an obvious risk when all other tripping hazards were marked with yellow paint. The case explores the duty to warn under section 5H of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) and establishes important principles for occupiers regarding consistency in hazard marking.

The strata reform is broadly intended to give owners in strata schemes across NSW greater trust and confidence in how strata is regulated.

There is a shared responsibility particularly on Strata Committee Members to address expenditure to better protect safety and structure.

This article addresses property that does not form part of an estate for distribution in accordance with the will.

Consultations open for the creation of a hub that will consolidate core information on NSW strata schemes in one database.

New duties to be imposed on WA strata council members with the aim of raising standards are outlined here.

A by-law which entirely bans pet ownership is "harsh, unconscionable and oppressive" for the purposes of the SSM Act 2015 (NSW).

The case highlights how property can be lost to a claim of adverse possession if it was over-looked in a deceased estate.