From the Forum – timber floor trials and tribulations
We’ve always been staunch advocates of taking rogue flooring installers all the way to the Tribunal when they flout by-laws and common decency just so they can lay down their…
Jimmy-T
PODCAST 60 – Retirees rule, Airbnb lose and flooring fights
This week on the Flat Chat Wrap we ask whether retired business people are the best or the worst committee members you can have. Based on this column, Jimmy and…
Why former business bosses aren’t always the best office-bearers
You’d be forgiven for assuming former business people were the perfect strata committee office-bearers – especially if they have taken early retirement and still have a lot of energy to…
Airbnb an answer to bushfire home losses, says expert
One of Australia’s highest-profile property investment experts says that Airbnb hosts might hold the answer to the loss of houses in the recent bushfires … by returning holiday homes to…
Burning issue – OCN seminar on new fire regs
There are few phrases that send more of a chill thorough the hearts of strata owners than the words “fire safety”. Whether you’re in an old building badly in need…
PODCAST 59 – Fire and rain, gym hijackers and paying for repairs
In this week’s podcast, with the East Coast states of Australia only just having survived the bushfires, we are now dealing with torrential rain and floods. Sue has contacted the…
Steamed up about new hot water meters
Are your hot water bills individual or collective? Do you pay depending on how often you shower or your unit’s size and number of rooms? Could you, for instance, be…
Loan or levies – why can’t we use both when finances are forced?
While 2020 is likely to snare yet more strata owners in the must-pay trap of defects rectifications, there is a giant hole in most states’ strata laws that make it…
From the Forum: Are gym trainers profiting from your assets
Apartment block gyms are great assets for residents – especially if they are well equipped and maintained. But they are common property – there for everyone’s use. So what do…
PODCAST 58 – Dogs in pools and nutty neighbours
This week’s podcast topics have come straight off our front page and our Forum. For instance, how would you feel if an owner started allowing – maybe even encouraging –…
‘Forced sale’ laws breathe new life into old blocks
Last year’s slump in apartment sales may have saved some of Sydney’s older apartment blocks from demolition and replacement by something shiny and new … and apartment owners are looking…
The strange case of the dog in the pool
The war between pet lovers and pet haters in Australia’s strata schemes has a new battleground – the communal swimming pool. Actually, as a Flatchatter has written to tell us,…