A sad end
QUESTION: An elderly owner in our building has no relatives, is grossly overweight (about 200 kg), drinks excessively and the whole building smells when he opens his door when his…
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Underfoot in bad company
In the days before strata, individual companies were formed to build apartment blocks and shares were sold, allowing purchasers to live in specific flats. There are still a few Company…
Ruling worries good landlords
QUESTION: In your story in last week about backpackers in flats, you said that landlords will be held responsible for tenants’ noise and disturbance. How can that ever work? Why…
Wild about neglected garden
It’s always a problem when the needs of a minority in a strata plan are going to cost the majority money. That’s even more true when there’s no appreciable benefit…
Party over for crash pad owners
The news that a Magistrate’s Court has ruled that the owners of an apartment are responsible for the noise created by the people they rented it to should send a…
Time of the sign doesn’t suit
NB: There is an update at the end of this column. QUESTION: Our lease expires at the end of this month. About 3 months ago our property manager sent us…
The trouble with finding problems
Be careful what you wish for … identifying problems in a strata building could leave you holding the baby when it comes to fixing them. That’s the underlying theme of…
Respect at inspection
We all understand why a landlord would want to inspect their property but nobody likes the idea of someone poking around your stuff, even if they do own the roof…
Old versus new
Everybody wants everything to be shiny and new – new car, new TV, new fridge – but should the lure of the new apply in apartments too? QUESTION: I am…
Smoke signals for Clean Strata
Our recent news feature about the strata block in Ashfield that banned smoking INSIDE people’s apartments certainly got people talking – all the commercial TV stations and many radio stations…
Slumlords squeezing tenants
This week’s Herald investigation into foreign students exploited by ruthless landlords has exposed some brutally ugly facts of rental life in Sydney, including sexual blackmail, massive fraud and illegal development.…
Developers who can’t let go
Imagine if you bought a car based on a test drive of the same model and maybe a picture in glossy brochure, but when it turned up, it had two…