Paper tigers
Flatchat paid a visit to the offices of the Consumer Trader and Tenancies Tribunal the other week and emerged mostly unscathed, despite our withering criticism of it in recent columns.…
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.
Pier Pressure
In this column’s tradition of no names, no pack drill, I won’t re-identify the converted wharf in Sydney where there’s been an almighty stoush over renovations and amalgamations. But it’s…
Short and not so sweet
This column has long been a staunch opponent of the blight of short-term rentals in permanent residential buildings – why would you let anyone use your home as a hotel?…
Voting rights and wrongs
The democratic principal of one person, one vote doesn’t always apply in strata – sometimes that’s good, often less so. QUESTION: The chairman of our Executive Committee owns three apartments…
Reasons to be cheerful
In this column’s relentless campaign to act as both problem solver and trouble-maker, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of why we live in apartments in the first place. The…
Send in the clowns
NB: There’s anothere reader’s horror story at the end of this column. eedback has been flooding in since we took a pop at the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal a…
C Triple T Twits
(NB: There are several readers letters at the end of this article) It seems a great pity that, when the Office of Fair Trading doing its best to provide a…
Pay back for strata slackers
(SEE UPDATE AT END OF COLUMN) There should be a special word for the selfish few who sponge off their neighbours by not paying their levies until the bailiffs come…
Another fine mesh
Here at Flatchat Mansions, we’re sure that if you counted up the number of times different subjects were raised, parking would be numero uno. We’re not going check those figures…
Safety first on OHS fees
It’s a grey area of strata living – is a strata plan a collection of homes or effectively a business? And if it is a business, do we have to…
Blowin’ in the wind
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. The report a few weeks ago in another newspaper that you could go to jail for drying your…
Intelligent life of Planet Strata?
There really should be some kind of test for people who want to be owners or tenants in a strata development. Just hook them up to a lie detector machine…