State governments across the country are pushing high-density apartments as a solution to the housing crisis. But now a nation-wide ABC investigation has found many of those already in apartments say they can't trust the companies hired to help them manage their buildings.
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00:00Being part of a strata makes you feel like you're not in control of your finances.
00:07Earlier this year the ABC asked Australians to tell us their stories about high-density
00:12living and their experiences with the strata industry.
00:15Payments made for services not provided.
00:17More than 2,000 of you responded describing an industry riddled with conflicts of interest.
00:22It's almost as if the whole business model has been designed to frankly screw Australian
00:30apartment owners.
00:31This year Mark Swain was determined to find a good price on strata insurance for his apartment
00:35building on Sydney's North Shore.
00:37I asked for us to have three competitive quotes.
00:41I wanted to know that we're getting a fair deal.
00:43His building's broker, owned by multi-billion dollar insurance giant Steadfast Group, had
00:48told the owners only one company was willing to offer insurance.
00:52We found out that they were actually a sister company with the same owner.
00:56The broker's report had claimed a rival offer of insurance from a company called SCI had
01:01been withdrawn.
01:02SCI told Four Corners it did not ever withdraw its offer of a policy which was $3,000 cheaper.
01:11In other words, the Steadfast document was false.
01:15Steadfast Group's chief executive, Robert Kelly, denies his company had deliberately
01:19misled the owners into buying a Steadfast policy.
01:23Mr Kelly, Four Corners has confirmed that is a false statement.
01:26That's not true.
01:27And SCI did not ever withdraw its offer to insure that building.
01:31That's not true.
01:32SCI are telling a great lie.
01:34You're saying to me, you've got a document which will show SCI withdrawing its offer.
01:38Absolutely that.
01:39Robert Kelly never produced that document, but later insisted Steadfast Group had done
01:44nothing wrong.
01:45SCI was adamant it never withdrew its offer of insurance and never authorised Steadfast
01:51to do so.
01:52It's a conduct of concern, definitely.
01:55Over the past six years, Steadfast has spent more than $1.6 billion buying up smaller insurance
02:01companies.
02:02Now, ACCC boss Gina Cascott-Leave says the regulator needs new powers to stop companies
02:08like Steadfast acquiring too much dominance.
02:11We are not able to prevent those transactions which are anti-competitive because we don't
02:16see them.