Hidden dangers lurking in shonky strata records
This weekend, the Flat Chat column in the Financial Review will be about how to avoid buying an apartment in a dodgy building. In it, I discuss the importance of…
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Race is on for states’ rental law reforms
Rental laws are a big issue in strata, with more than half of apartments being occupied by tenants, meaning half of apartments are owned by investors. That’s a lot of…
Flat Chat Wrap #30 – Three kinds of insurance and a few facts that will shock you
Jimmy Thomson investigates four different kinds of insurance (including Airbnb) and why telling one little white lie about whether or not you were allowed to have short-term letting in your…
From the Forum: Confronting unfinancial committee candidates
Finances and, specifically, who’s behind in their levies are always sensitive topics at AGMs. You don’t want to embarrass your neighbours if they are doing it tough or maybe just…
Podcast: Everything you never knew about strata insurance
One of the big questions around the recent Mascot Tower problems was why didn’t the building insurance kick in, rather than the state government having to bail the owners corporation…
Murder and mayhem as Melbourne residents flee holiday rentals
It seems Airbnb (and other short-term holiday rental) stories are like buses – you don’t see any for a while then three come along at the same time. In their…
Crumbling blocks and cladding – it’s time for payback
The news that the NSW government is offering an open-ended, low-interest loan to the Mascot Towers owners corporation (body corporate), to allow them to pay for evacuated residents’ emergency accommodation,…
Mascot Tower fund no help for sofa-surfers or Airbnb hosts
NSW Fair Trading have released the details of their emergency accommodation package for residents evacuated from Mascot Tower and it includes a few interesting exclusions. For instance, people staying with…
Airbnb insurance alert lists five main dangers
The arrival of online short-term rental sites such as Airbnb and others, created a whole new landlord-tenant relationship: one where owners, or ‘hosts’, are encouraged to provide all sorts of…
Flat Chat Wrap #29 – the great Mascot Tower giveaway … and what it means about cladding
Confronted by images of residents of Mascot Tower evacuating the building, the NSW government has moved relatively swiftlly to plug the accommodation gap with a loan to the Owners Corporation…
From the Forum: Washing woes as perfumes pollute upstairs pad
There are periodically so many discussions and debates about laundry on balconies that the issue has it’s own section in the Flat Chat Forum. But it’s not the sight of…
PODCAST: Mascot Tower sinking but residents kept afloat by loans
This week in the Podcast we look at the Mascot Tower story and the apparently generous offer by Fair Trading to bankroll emergency accommodation for residents. They are saying it’s…