Winners and losers in user-pays rentals
If proposed curbs on interest-only loans make life easier for people who want to buy where they live, at prices uninflated by speculators, what about tenants? Like it or not,…
Past Posts
These posts go all the way back to the raw versions of my Flat Chat columns for the Sydney Morning Herald’s Domain section over th e past 15 years. Some of the issues are specific to New South Wales, some are universal. There will almost certainly be differences in strata law between NSW and other states and countries and the laws have changed over that timespan too.
If you have a serious problem, contact the agencies (in Australia) listed in our contacts sections. Or contact a properly qualified and experienced strata lawyer. These columns should not be regarded as a substitute for professional legal advice.
Persons of interest pumping up prices
If we ever needed proof of a disconnect between the cost of building apartments and the prices at which they’re sold, it came a couple of years ago when a…
Do we need a no-tenant tax
Have Sydney’s rental vacancy rates turned the corner? With a rise in the availability of properties to 2 percent, while hardly easy, life could be getting less stressful for renters.…
Forced sales – a chance to have your say
The spectre of aged residents being hauled off to retirement homes, kicking and screaming, so that rapacious developers can turn their old apartment blocks into something shiny and new, has…
Sign up for some smart thinking
Baffled by by-laws? Confused by committees? Mystified by the multiplicity of managers in strata? Don’t worry – help is on the way. An abundance of experts are lining up to…
Sydney schedules strata skills sessions
The following is a press release from City of Sydney: With City of Sydney residents now five times more likely to be living in an apartment than the national average,…
Make yourself heard
If information is knowledge and knowledge is power, then the Owners Corporation network is certainly powering up, gathering as much information as they can about what strata residents want and…
Wild Birds: Pets or pests?
Is an animal regularly fed and cared for by a strata owner a pet? Or is it maybe, in fact, a pest? “My strata has a by-law (‘rule’ in Victoria)…
Tenants shut door on ‘open house’ inspections
A Melbourne couple’s objection to large numbers of prospective buyers coming through their rented home could curb ‘open house’ inspections in Victoria, especially, and even in NSW. According to a recent…
Things that go bonk in the night
You call an exorcist when you hear things that go bump in the night, but who do you call for things that go bonk during the day? “I am suffering…
Cop the rise or hit the road
Nobody likes rent increases – no renter, at any rate – but when are increases fair and what can you do if they aren’t? “I was just notified of another…
Day traders’ crossed lines
A complaint from tenants that their phone lines weren’t working has revealed that their rented flat was being used as an office and they had been promised there would be…