Medium and high density living is becoming increasingly popular, to the extent that more than one in four Victorians now own or occupy a unit in a strata development. One of the rarely considered side-effects of strata living is the complex requirement for managing waste in owners corporations.
Local and regional councils now ensure that owners corporations, particularly residential strata developments are increasingly compelled to provide a private waste collection service. It is a fact that the cost of private waste collection companies is expensive; sometimes up to double the cost of a council-provided service. In addition, most private waste companies charge a fixed monthly fee whether they collect 1 bin or 100.
There are a number of reasons why local councils are causing Owners Corporations to contract with private contractors. The fact is that many larger developments are designed in such a way that bin collection can be very difficult. As a result of this, council planning departments place a Section 173 Agreement on every Title Deed which makes every single owner responsible for arranging their own waste collection.
Understanding how inconvenient this arrangement would be, MBCM Ballarat works closely with developers in the Central Highlands region of Victoria to ensure that waste management is taken into consideration at the earliest stages of their developments. Under Section 12 of the Owners Corporations Act, MBCM Ballarat takes responsibility in providing a service to ensure collective waste management for the entire owners corporation.
MBCM Ballarat has also worked to confirm an arrangement in partnership with a national commercial waste company where only the bins actually emptied are charged for. In many smaller residential owners corporations, owners have arranged between themselves to share their bins to reduce cost. In many cases this has resulted in the cost of private waste collection being reduced dramatically. For investors, this means that rental cost does not need to be increased unnecessarily, meaning they can remain competitive in the rental market. The outcome for owners corporations within the MBCM Ballarat portfolio is that wherever possible, waste management and the OH&S issues involved are better considered during the development period, better
