Five false economies holding back your block
It’s a real estate sign you rarely see around Sydney these days: “Luxury flats – resort facilities – low levies” Those too-good-to-be-true promises disappeared when new laws in NSW allowed…
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Cladding and Airbnb crises halt strata event
The Owners Corporation Network has postponed its Savvy Strata seminar planned for Saturday week (Oct 14), citing a series of major challenges to strata owners as the reason for the late change of…
Roundup: 20,000 reasons anonymity is the best policy
While we have all been off worrying about short-term letting and inflammable cladding, something quite remarkable has happened – the Flat Chat Forum has just quickly ticked over its 20,000th…
Woman who made $13,000 on Airbnb gets by-law overturned
Hold on to your sun-hats! The NSW strata tribunal has overturned a by-law that attempted to ban Airbnb-style holiday lets in a Sydney Eastern Suburbs apartment block. In what’s thought…
Roundup: The power of doing absolutely nothing
Sometimes in my idle moments – not that there are many of them – I think about writing a book on the power of doing nothing. I’m sure it would…
Owners left to pick up tab in flammable cladding crisis
The convenor of last month’s Strata Fire Safety Forum says government failure to deal with problems associated with non-complying aluminium cladding has left strata owners to pick up the tab…
Savvy strata seminar to answer burning questions
This event has now been cancelled – tickets will be refunded. Good news for those of you who have been hanging out for Flat Chat Live, it’s not exactly the…
Tall tales but true: High-rise horror and hilarity
Over the years, the Flat Chat column and website has told some high-rise horror stories. Some are hilarious, others are horrendous. Here’s a selection of the best of the worst…
Roundup: $130k legal bill for a lawless committee
It was back in April that Whoopi wrote to us about her legal battles with her committee which at that stage had cost her $30,000 and she expected to go…
Poor hosts scared by ‘hurtful’ comments, says Airbnb
Well, I finaly got round to writing my response to the Short Term Holiday Letting Positions paper. However, my intended short and pithy one-pager turned out to be six pages…
Business skills that can spell strife in strata
You might think that all those skills you acquired climbing the business ladder and studying for your MBA make you the perfect candidate for your strata committee. But while some…
Threats as bully builder is balked
It’s nice to bring a happy conclusion to a story, albeit one that we thought was over and done with ages ago. Regular readers may remember the story of the…