Podcast: What a great year … for pets and renters
This week’s podcast may be the first of 2021 but 2020 doesn’t get away that easily. Last year will be remembered in global politics as the year of Brexit, Trump,…
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Closures mask possibilities of sharing facilities
We received a plaintive “please explain” on the Flat Chat website recently. A reader wanted to know why their swimming pool and spa remained resolutely closed when the rest of…
Forum: resident vents over neighbour’s scents
Sometimes the dumbest problems in strata are cause by the simplest, most innocent actions … usually allied to people not thinking things through. Take Flatchatter Wangdang whose small block has…
Building pressure as more developers cut and run
A story in the Sydney Morning Herald last week should have sent an unseasonal chill through the corridors of NSW Fair Trading and the whole of the state Government. In…
Podcast: Fun and games as the Wrap takes off
OK, stop, relax, breathe. We’re not taking a break these holidays so much as easing our collective foot off the gas We thought that, rather than drag someone out of…
Our stressful year of strategic strata living
Covid or no covid, it’s been a tempestuous year in strata in Australia. From a win for pet owners in NSW to dubious stats from Tasmania, there’s been plenty to…
Bathroom blues swept away by sea of greens
Bathroom Chronicles, Part 12 Enough of this whingeing – we love our new bathrooms. Why the complaints? Maybe we were too close to it and saw the sausages being made,…
Forum: Can I be sued over a climb and fall risk?
So, you’re living in a block where the powers that be don’t want to spend any money on anything. Trouble is, it has lovely old iron lace balustrades on which…
Block party planning and the vax of the matter
There’s an old saying: “if you want to make God laugh, tell him you have a plan.” When this column appeared in the Australian Financial Review last week, it opened…
Podcast: Want chips with that (plus radio spot)?
With Christmas rapidly approaching and Covid-19 closing in on us again, we thought about not doing a full podcast this week. A quick intro and replay of Jimmy’s most recent…
In strife but can’t even afford a lawyer’s letter?
We should never underestimate the power of a lawyer’s letter, especially in a strata dispute. At the very least, it lets the recipients know what the law is and, importantly,…
Forum: ‘No-pets’ by-laws dead so bans are bogus
While some strata schemes struggle to deal with the fact that their “no pets” by-laws have been rendered obsolete by the recent NSW Court of Appeal ruling, others seem to…