It’s been a bumper week on the Flat Chat Forum with all sorts of questions coming in. As an experiment, I plugged your questions into our new Flat Chatbot and let the little blue chap do his thing (as well as allowing the usual suspects among you, the readers, to offer your advice and opinions).

In fact, one reader did exactly that and then reported the result. It was about a strata scheme where a burst pipe had flooded a flat and the owner wanted the scheme to put the cost of replacing the carpet towards his plan to install timber flooring, rather than just pay for a new carpet.

The strata manager said no, that would create a ‘dangerous precedent’. The Flat Chatbot’s response to that was just a shade short of contemptuous. You can read the whole story HERE.

So we ran all your questions through the chatbot to see what it came up with. It’s interesting to get an objective, if slightly cold assessment of the issue we get worked up about. But the heart of this is, as it always has been, your predicaments and puzzles in the real world of strata living.

Elsewhere in the Forum

They want to put a mobile phone tower on our building – what are our options?  That’s HERE.

One owner is blocking a balcony refurb for the whole block.  That’s HERE.

Do we really need to pay a professional to reattach a fire door frame tag?  That’s HERE.

Chairman’s ‘privacy’ hedge will block our limited view of the outside world.  That’s HERE.

If you could run your building to suit your personal preferences, what would you change? That’s HERE.

Our gardens are managed to suit the committee and no one else.  That’s HERE.

How do we calculate the cost of lift replacement?  That’s HERE.

So easy to ask and answer questions

Anyone can read our posts at any time, and now you can also ask and answer questions in the Forum anonymously too.

As part of our continuing efforts to make the Forum more accessible, it’s also now possible for anyone to click on “reply” and respond to published posts.

The first time you do it you will have to provide an email address (which won’t be visible on the Forum) and a nickname (which will).

The responses will still be moderated, so we can filter out the minority of internet nasties.

However, since this website is self-filtering – it’s only read by intelligent and engaged people like you – the moderation will only require a light touch.

So let’s give it a go. Just click “reply” at the top of the post you want to respond to. Or go to this link if you want to ask a question.

Subscribing to a topic means you will be alerted every time someone responds to the post and replies. However, you must be registered with an active email address for that option to be offered. If you are, make sure the automatic replies alert box below left of the reply window, is ticked .

That way you’ll get an alert whenever the discussion moves forward, and you can also chip in with your own comments and questions. See you in the Forum soon.