Cat-nipped: Pet sitter caught with his pants down
This isn’t strictly speaking a Flat Chat story but it has everything else – pets, sex, apartments, a New Yorker in Australia, smartphones, technology … so we just had to…
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Dangers of buying in the worst block on the best street
When you imagine a badly run building where poor management is depressing property values, I bet you don’t think of some of our city’s more salubrious suburbs. But, reviewing a…
Roundup: now with added Apples (OK … iPhones)
I am having great difficulty writing this, mainly because I have my fingers crossed. I think I have finally fixed the problem with iPhones, ipads and smartphones that meant you…
Apps, chats and stats drive strata revolution
Just in time for the new laws allowing online meeting and votes, Jimmy Thomson learns about a strata management revolution promised in a $16 million joint effort. Smartphone apps that transmit…
Window of opportunity as safety laws loom
The big day, July 1, came and went with the proposed changes to the strata Act still in abeyance until November 30, as was announced this week. However, March 13,…
Strata law changes date set – catch up with the chat
The new strata laws are due to come in on November 30. Well, most of them – we won’t see the developers defects bond until next July at the earliest.…
Holding out for a hero: 5 bad strata chairs
As we go to the polls to choose our national leaders, it may be a good time to consider who we elect as strata chairs. We all need a hero. Someone who…
Roundup: Would you elect either of them as your EC chair?
In Britain they get to choose between being in and out of Europe, in America they get to choose between Trump and Clinton and we get … (drum roll) Malcolm…
Double trouble in disaster duplex
Ask any strata manager what the worst job in their world is and they will tell you it’s not the massive multi-block monster with investors, owner residents and tenants, at…
Roundup: The never-ending list of strata stupidities
The thing about writing lists is that no sooner have you finished it than you want to add something else. My Flat Chat column in the Herald and AFR about…
Unit niggles: Five little things that drive you nuts
We all know about the big issues in apartment living – pets, parties, parking, smoking and short-stay lets. But what about those little irritations – the ones that are no…
Roundup: Good Morning, Vietnam
What has Vietnam got to do with strata in NSW? Ummm … not a lot. No … wait … the first person to buy a unit in Saigon under the new…