Podcast: The link between holiday lets and high rise cladding fires
It used to be that when anyone talked about problems in strata, the perennial topics were the four Ps – pets, parking, parties (the noisy kind) and puffing (the smoke…
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NSW Labor promises strata commissioner to tackle defects
EXCLUSIVE: By Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson A dedicated Strata Commissioner to protect apartment owners and residents and restore confidence in the strata sector will be introduced by the Labor…
Smoker who accidentally started Lacrosse fire cost builders $377,000
Building surveyors, architects and fire engineers will all have to compensate builders LU Simon up to $12.5 million for the cost of repairing and replacing flammable cladding on Melbourne’s Lacrosse…
Opal Tower owners don’t know how lucky they are
The owners of apartments in the now notorious Opal Tower probably don’t realise it, but they are lucky. Obviously, it was bad luck that supporting walls in their building in…
Flat Chat Wrap #14 – Three rants and why we’ll never get a Royal Commission
JimmyT rants about Airbnb, defects (and the Opal Tower report) and cladding … and explains why we’ll never get a Royal Commission into the apartment building industry.
Roundup: A quick health check on the Forum
Does your pulse race at the thought of someone stealing your parking space? Are you having sleepless nights, worrying about the flat next door going on Airbnb? Have you developed…
Podcast: Why we’ll never get a Royal Commission into building defects
I was intrigued this week by the announcement by the Federal Labor leadership that they plan to pour some of the money from their proposed “honesty tax” on banks into…
Seminar: Don’t get burnt by flammable cladding
Should you be worried if you have flammable cladding on your building? The simple answer is yes, of course – but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. While the dangers…
The day Airbnb came round to complain
About two years ago, I got a phone call from two of my editors at the Sydney Morning Herald. I should say “former editors” – none of us work there…
On TV pouring cold water on the flammable cladding controversy
The fire earlier this month (February 2019) on the outside of the Neo200 building in Melbourne conveniently coincided with a meeting of state and federal government ministers at which it…
‘Perfect storm’ of flaws caused cracks in Opal Tower, says report
A combination of flaws in design, faulty pre-fabrication and inadequate installation of the pre-fabricated walls, plus damage to critical building elements by work done during construction, led to the cracking…
Flat Chat Wrap #13 – On air with James Valentine and more from Alex Greenwich
Talking off-the-plan purchases and defects – plus your calls – with James Valentine. And why Sydney MP Alex Greenwich thinks Airbnb is bad for Sydney renters, and Mark Latham will…