Podcast: Anti-anti-vaxxers and 20,000 listens
Forgive us for patting ourselves on the back this week but, having surpassed 20,000 downloads and listens to the podcast, I reckon we’ve earned a little self-indulgence. Suffice it…
Covid-19 in strata
Strata blocks have been likened to vertical cruise ships when it comes to their potential for speading the disease. Here are stories that represent our coverage of the issues. NB: Some of the Covid-19 references are in subsidiary parts of the story and some facts and figures may have been overtaken by more recent events.
Strata owners wrestle with vax-passes for gyms
Should strata facilities like gyms and swimming pools be restricted to vaccinated residents? Would “vax-passes” for apartment block communal areas be reasonable, especially if state and federal Governments ever introduce…
Blockdown blitz as Govt targets high-risk high-rises
The NSW Government is preparing for a blitz on apartment blocks with new rules for residents of and visitors to units in the event that even a single home in…
Rent relief extended for landlords and tenants
The NSW Government has announced an increase to the Residential Tenancy Support Package to up to $4,500 per tenancy and an extension to the eviction moratorium until 11 November 2021,…
Chant calls for roll updates and strata gym closures
A letter from Chief Medical Officer Kerry Chant has called on NSW strata managers to update strata rolls in case they are needed to alert apartment block residents about infections…
Podcast: Defects detected and pets rejected
In this week’s podcast we chat about a report which reveals that one-third of 500 unit blocks inspected in a survey had serious defects, from leaking bathrooms, to fire safety…
Cupcakes, wine and poems beat lockdown blues
It seems some people are never happier than when they are making other people miserable. Listeners to last week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast may remember JimmyT hopping into a troll…
Lockdown renos – it’s worse than we thought
The impact on people forced to stay in their apartments while building work goes on around them could be a lot more severe than originally thought. If the apartments undergoing…
Podcast: Pet regs, kid noise, renos and rants
There’s a lot to get through in this week’s podcast, not least the new regulations on pets in strata which replace the now defunct blanket bans on pets. Even so,…
Queensland to confront ‘toxic’ strata culture
Thinking of investing in a unit in Covid-free Queensland? Be careful. It seems those familiar helicopter shots of glittering high-rise apartment blocks marching up the sands of Gold Coast beaches…
Virus rages unchecked – and so does anger at renos
“Just stay home … don’t go out … work from home if you possibly can,” say the Premier, the Health Minister and anybody else tasked with enforcing our lockdown. And…
You can’t be too clean with Covid-19 lurking
I have never been crash-hot on domestic cleaning. My natural indolence was once reinforced by a country farming woman who told me that she kept her house spotlessly clean, which…