Forced sales – a chance to have your say
The spectre of aged residents being hauled off to retirement homes, kicking and screaming, so that rapacious developers can turn their old apartment blocks into something shiny and new, has…
Featured
Sign up for some smart thinking
Baffled by by-laws? Confused by committees? Mystified by the multiplicity of managers in strata? Don’t worry – help is on the way. An abundance of experts are lining up to…
Sydney schedules strata skills sessions
The following is a press release from City of Sydney: With City of Sydney residents now five times more likely to be living in an apartment than the national average,…
Make yourself heard
If information is knowledge and knowledge is power, then the Owners Corporation network is certainly powering up, gathering as much information as they can about what strata residents want and…
Wild Birds: Pets or pests?
Is an animal regularly fed and cared for by a strata owner a pet? Or is it maybe, in fact, a pest? “My strata has a by-law (‘rule’ in Victoria)…
Tenants shut door on ‘open house’ inspections
A Melbourne couple’s objection to large numbers of prospective buyers coming through their rented home could curb ‘open house’ inspections in Victoria, especially, and even in NSW. According to a recent…
Things that go bonk in the night
You call an exorcist when you hear things that go bump in the night, but who do you call for things that go bonk during the day? “I am suffering…
Cop the rise or hit the road
Nobody likes rent increases – no renter, at any rate – but when are increases fair and what can you do if they aren’t? “I was just notified of another…
Day traders’ crossed lines
A complaint from tenants that their phone lines weren’t working has revealed that their rented flat was being used as an office and they had been promised there would be…
Owner incensed by holy smoke
Ah, the gentle tinkle of a tiny temple bell, the whispered chant of a Buddhist prayer, the barely visible thread of smoke from an incense stick. What could be more…
When renting a unit beats buying a house
The news last week that the Reserve Bank of Australia thinks young people might be better off renting rather than buying had a resonance in strata more than any other…
Long-term pain in short-term shame
An odd little coincidence occurred in the past few days. In the same week that we discovered, almost tragically, that students and young tourists were being housed in shipping containers…