The Court held that the Secretary's function under ss 209 and 209A of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) does not require precise or conclusive findings as to the existence of defects or cost of rectification; the Secretary may rationally determine an amount representing a reasonable upper bound or the owners corporation's prima facie case based on the final report and a commissioned QS report, without weighing competing expert evidence from the developer. The internal reviewer under s 213 exercises the same limited function and is not obliged to conduct a merits review of the final report or accept competing expert reports, but must give active intellectual consideration to the developer's submissions about the QS report before determining the amount to be released. The decision was quashed on the narrow ground that the reviewer failed to consider whether the developer's specific criticisms of the QS report warranted a lesser amount, while the developer's broader contentions about the nature of the review function were rejected.
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