Data detectives to hunt down dodgy developments
Dodgy developers and shonky certifiers face even tougher times ahead as NSW Fair Trading uses its massive databases to target serial miscreants and force them to fix their defects before…
Podcast: Horror of our $700 million defects hole
There’s a horror story, a happy ending and a bit of housekeeping in this week’s podcasts. The horror is the $714 million owed by Home Building Compensation for all the…
Forum: Back-scratching backsliders face big fines
There’s always likely to be a bit of mutual back-scratching on any strata committee, but when it runs to turning a blind eye to payments that should have been made…
How do you like our new look … or not?
We thought it was time to give the Flat Chat front page a bit of a tweak, mainly to bring links to your recent Forum questions and answers further up…
Food for thought as city expands scraps recycling
There’s a common misconception that apartment blocks must be more sustainable than stand-alone houses, due to the economies of shared space. They’re not. The energy consumed by indoor lighting in…
Bowling club battle ends with wins all round
There were broad smiles and few tears last week when spades cut the once-hallowed turf of Waverley Bowling Club in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. Not only did the ceremony mark the…
Forum: Reno plan panic, possums and barking dogs
Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether owners are up to something, or they simply don’t know the correct procedures or they have left things too late and are panicking. I…
Podcast: Another U-Turn as Airbnb history repeats
Apologies for subjecting you to another short-term letting vent, but after last week’s state government schemozzle when the new holiday rental regulations were announced, then shelved, we thought we’d better…
State OKs replacements for flammable cladding
The NSW government says it has taken a major step forward in dealing with the removal of flammable cladding from the state’s 214 high-risk high rises – by approving four…
Podcast: Airbnb update as holiday let regs put on ice
Sometimes you can be just too efficient. There we were with the NSW government’s proposed regulations on short-term letting hot off the printer, plus industry responses and reactions from apartment…
NSW should help Mascot owners … and why it won’t
It’s been almost two years since the residents of Mascot Towers were told their building was to dangerous to live in. Just last week they were advised to sell the…
Forum: “Can’t hear you” on pets just won’t work
There’s an unwritten rule in strata that committees are always less smart than they think they are. You can file that alongside “strata law is never just common sense” and…