Short-term letting: The Flat Chat position
This is Flat Chat’s submission to the NSW government’s position paper on short-term holiday letting. It is concerned only with strata schemes – people in houses can look after themselves.…
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…
Should my strata committee speak for me?
We chat about the heated exchanges on the Flat Chat Forum regarding whether or not your committee should discuss anything except what’s going on in the building – and we…
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…
Roundup: After you’ve voted on same-sex marriage …
Cast your vote in the Flat Chat poll on whether or not our strata committees should speak on our behalf. It’s interesting watching the discussions over same sex marriage and…
Too late for medium-rise blocks with danger cladding
Last week the senate committee featured on the ABC TV Four Corners report on the spread of flammable cladding recommended that the potentially lethal aluminium composite panels, widely used on…
Airbnb survey exposes age and ownership divide
By Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson A widening divide between young renters and older owners in Sydney’s growing number of apartment buildings, has been exposed by a major survey into…
Flammable cladding report makes chilling viewing
Did you see Four Corners on the ABC this week? It was all about the dangers of inflammable cladding and how they’ve been around for two decades. You will be…
Five classic errors of unit block newbies
New to apartments or teetering on the brink of buying your first unit? Trusting that someone somewhere will make the right decisions for everyone? If only. You need to have…
Roundup: Lazy agent won’t hassle strata manager
Something too many landlords, rental agents, strata managers and strata committees don’t get is that something that seems too minor for them to bother with can be a huge deal…
Not in our block: Airbnb shock in Sydney city survey
It’s not exactly a U-turn but City of Sydney seem likely to make a significant shift in their thinking about short-term holiday letting in apartment buildings. And it’s all because…
Roundup: How to get rid of rusted-on office-bearers
One of the perennial problems discussed in the Flat Chat Forum is the issue of rusted-on office-bearers who aren’t performing all that well but won’t let anyone else’s hands anywhere…