Short-term letting: may the Astroturfing wars begin
The key word in the coming months of argy-bargy over the various options in the holiday letting proposals is Astroturfing – meaning a fake grassroots campaign. In an Astroturfing campaign,…
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Big guns line up to shoot down holiday let legislation
New holiday letting law proposals have been caught in the crossfire from both online holiday letting agencies – Airbnb and Stayz – which have lined up to shoot down the…
Bans, charges and registration mooted for holiday lets
The State government will go back to the drawing board on holiday letting when it issues its options paper, which industry insiders say is likely to land tomorrow (Friday 21).…
Roundup: Car hits wall, insurer slugs tenant. Who pays?
There’s a post in the Forum this week that should warm the cockles of your heart – but I’m afraid it just has steam coming out of my ears. A…
Bridging the gap between building and contents insurance
The perennial argument over who covers the damage in a flat after a domestic disaster, is about to get a lot simpler for some apartment residents. For instance, if a…
OOPS! 10 classic errors strata living newbies make
For more than 10 years we have been answering questions and offering advice about apartment living. When we started, apartment residents were in a small minority and it was seen as…
Fair Trading claims Airbnb by-laws are invalid
Following the extended discussions on the validity of by-laws that set out to restrict short-stay letting by invoking the residential-only status of some apartment buildings, we contacted fair Trading to…
Roundup: A funny thing happened in my building …
The last time I was on the James Valentine radio show (and if you missed it you can listen here) he commented that even though he enjoyed our monthly segments,…
Airbnb by-laws: Strata lawyers state their cases
Six strata law experts give their take on whether we can create by-laws enforcing our residential-only zoning. My story in the Sydney Morning Herald at the weekend about Fair Trading…
Anti-Airbnb by-laws challenged by Fair Trading ruling
Fair Trading has pulled the rug from under by-laws designed to restrict Airbnb and other short-term letting agencies in residential-only apartment blocks – only your local council can enforce restrictions.…
Roundup: Rolling around in search of an answer
Some days you’re the Pinball Wizard, others you are just the ball. This week I find myself bouncing between a number of organisations on behalf of all you Flatchatters who…
Will we see a mass evacuation of flats here?
The recent scenes of thousands of people being evacuated from apartment blocks in London shocked Australian apartment residents – almost as much as the deadly Grenfell Tower fire that prompted…