The downside of extending up
Extending into to roof space of your unit block, as featured in Domain recently, seems like a good idea. But is it too good to be true? QUESTION: I am…
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In a jam over jammies
QUESTION: I work from home and I like to wander down to collect my mail in my pyjamas – snuggly jim-jams that cover me from slippers to chin and have…
Shock, horror – Half of us are happy!
Forget the headlines about defects, pets, parking and underpants drying on balconies, the biggest news to come out of the new study into strata living is … drum roll ……
Parking ‘visitor’ problem won’t go away
Visitors come and go but parking is a strata problem that just won’t go away. QUESTION: Can you please define what a ‘visitor’ is? We have someone living in one…
Creepy Landlord: The Sequel
Our Rental Rant a couple of weeks ago about changing locks to keep out a ‘creepy’ landlord stirred up a lot of comments on the online version of the Herald.…
Owner making all the wrong noises
QUESTION: My neighbour plays loud music late at night and when I complained he said I’m a tenant, he’s an owner so that’s tough on me. I asked the secretary…
Can we handle the truth about strata?
Executive committees are a bunch of self-serving control freaks who wouldn’t know strata law from the soccer offside rule and just want to interfere in other people’s lives … or…
Locking out my creepy landlord
QUESTION: I’m a young single female, and my landlord creeps me out. He ogles me a lot and I’ve been getting a feeling that he’s been in my flat while…
Wrinklies too much to bear
QUESTION: A couple on the far side of 70 renting on our ground level don’t use the blinds in their common-property-facing kitchen at all … ever … night or day.…
Renovation rules there for a reason
Reading some of the mail we get here, you’d think all by-laws are stupid, all Executive Committee members are interfering busybodies, and all owners who want to do their own…
Lawyer bashing a free kick for cowboys
Yay! Let’s go lawyer bashing. Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts says he plans to curb strata lawyers who get rich by pursuing defect claims against developers. They will have…
Steamed up over grubby rug
QUESTION: We recently moved into a rental property and it was only after we had signed that we realised that carpet hadn’t been properly cleaned. We had it professionally cleaned…