Funny you should say that …
On the subject of the incredible and, let’s face it, stupid things people do in apartments, our old friend Stephen Raff has compiled a book of funny stories collected from…
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Cellar dwellers undermine strata laws
Just when we thought we had read everything, along come two owners who have illegally created cellars under their units. They have cut holes in their floors, removed soil and…
10 dumb reasons for refusing a dog
This column first appeared in Domain. You can read all the original posts and responses HERE. When the strata reforms come into force next year, instead of the rule that…
Return of the dodgy developer
Just when we started to believe property developers could be trusted, writes Jimmy Thomson, the grubbier, greedier figures lurking in the shadows of the industry have been exposed. When NSW…
Bylaw balks broadband bullies
See below for a link to the pro forma by-law As the roll-out of NBN superfast broadband continues to apartment blocks, a plan has been evolved to prevent “broadband bullies” from effectively locking…
Con artists scare owners over forced strata sales
This column first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Domain section. You can find a comprehensive explanation of the process involved in strata renewal here in Forced Sales Process Explained and you…
How the Left fluffed the forced sales laws
FLAT CHAT COMMENT by Jimmy Thomson Predictably, proposed strata law reforms have survived the NSW Parliament intact and the new world order will come into effect for the state’s 2…
Forced sales process explained
Recent reforms to NSW strata law, allowing forced sales of apartments for urban renewal, are not as simple as a developer turning up with a cheque book and carting Auntie…
Barbecue smoke ban just hot air
So smoke from barbecues on high-rise balconies is about to be banned under NSW’s proposed new strata laws? What a load of baloney! The law has long forbidden people from…
You move, you lose – at weekends
Can your owners corporation charge you for moving in and out at weekends? That’s the question asked recently by a Sydney apartment dweller – and the answer may surprise you.…
Short-term lets: ‘Sharing’ without caring
This article first appeared in Flat Chat in Domain. Click here for links to discussions on the Flat Chat Forum You may not have noticed, but a state parliament inquiry into…
Strata townhouses of horrors
If you read this originally in Domain in the SMH, you can read the original post HERE. We tend to think of the worst strata misery occurring in multi-unit high…