It never ceases to amaze us how frequently questions that we’ve never encountered before, in the 15 years-plus that we’ve been doing this, come up in the forum

This week an elderly reader wants to put a “key safe” on common property outside her front door so that family and friends can get access if she has a fall or some other emergency.

Her strata committee seem to think she really wants it so that she can run short-term holiday lets, and have said ‘no’.

Now, retirement villages allow these to be installed outside residents’ doors as a matter of course, in case of unfortunate events such as falls or medical emergencies. 

But how does the resident guarantee that she’s not going to have hordes of Airbnb party animals traipsing in and out of her flat? 

Make your brilliant suggestions for an elegant solution HERE please.

Elsewhere on the forum

The Flat Chatbot has been working overtime answering your questions. Sometimes the responses are scarily helpful.

Committee wants way too much information, way too soon, on reno proposal. That’s HERE.

How do I get my key back from the neighbour I swapped with?  That’s HERE.

Who can be elected to a strata committee and how? That’s HERE.

Who’s responsible for strata residents’ personal safety?  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.