ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the underlying values of property law. It considers whether those values are incorporated into strata legislation, in contrast to the common law. The chapter identifies real problems that residents and owners of legislatively based strata buildings face as a result of an absence of the traditional values of property law in modern strata title Acts. Property theorists typically agree on several foundational aspects of property that inform the content of law. The prohibitions on obligations on freehold land ensure that fees simple can be exploited, socially and economically, subject only to government regulation, but free from predecessor and non-possessor control. The legislation relies heavily on the concept of ‘disclosure’ to legitimate this practice. Readers might be surprised to see the law of the US held up as an example for condominium governance. The rules of physics are the same the world over, and as a result, property developments are physically globally consistent.
