How to lower high-rise risks of copping Covid
Governments are pressing ahead with home quarantine for returning travellers and people are isolating at home due to COVID-19. So now is a good time to think about what you…
Covid confusion as strata mask orders remain
Building managers are taking down signs requiring residents to wear masks, strata committees are telling tenants and owners that masks aren’t required on common property and everybody in strata land…
On brink of evacuation after defects warning
A perfect storm of disagreeing experts, extreme caution, genuine fears for safety and an earthquake, took an apartment block to the brink of being evacuated last week. Add in concerns…
Report reveals extent of unit block defects
For the past two years or more, a team of top academics based at UNSW’ s City Futures Research Centre has been investigating defective apartment construction in NSW. In a…
Forum: Committee coup breaks so many rules
There are some very dubious goings on in one of our Flatchatter’s schemes, where a coup by half of the committee has been conducted under cover of covid. Up until…
Podcast: Freedom for some but at what cost?
The Flat Chat Wrap podcast covers a lot of ground this week, from the state-wide easing of covid restrictions in NSW (but not in Victoria) to a little local difficulty…
Each-way bets pay when developers join the club
Every time Marilyn Eccles drives past the massive hole in the ground where her beloved Waverley Bowling Club once stood, she feels her heart miss a beat, writes Sue Williams…
How buddies in the block beat the isolation blues
Start talking about a sense of community to some property owners and strata residents and their eyes glaze over faster than an unsuspecting victim during a dinner party pyramid-selling sales…
Flat Chat website: Easier to find, simpler to use
We’ve been doing a bit of a renovation on the Flat Chat website, some of it obvious, some more subtle and none of it involving drilling or jack-hammering. For a…
Forum: Covid con trick as owners denied strata roll
Here’s a neat double standard straight out of the “Obstructive Strata Manager Handbook (Covid-19 edition).” Our Flatchatter’s partner has just been told by his strata manager that the scheme will…
TV’s Block buyers ‘could save millions on taxes’
The eventual buyers of the properties being renovated on the Nine network’s Block reality TV series could save millions of dollars in depreciation over the life of their investment. An…
Podcast: No-vax bans and climate denial warning
We cover a lot of ground in this week’s podcast, from local pandemic panics to global warming and the potential “scary” effect of political inaction on your mortgages. First up…