Recycle bikes – even if you’re breaking the law
A friend got a bike over Christmas. Nothing fancy – just a second-hand 12-speed rattler with sit-up handlebars and a basket on the front. When she approached her building manager…
NCAT: New name, same problems?
Way back in the early days of Flat Chat – about 11 years ago – I wrote a piece for the Sydney Morning Herald called “Send In The Clowns” which…
Time running out for balcony barbecues
The new NSW legislation due to come in mid-year doesn’t specifically ban balcony barbecues – or even barbecue smoke – but it does make it a lot easier for those…
How to register and log in
There seems to be a little confusion among some readers about how to get on to the Forum and post questions and comments, so I thought I would put together…
Owners balk at booting Auntie out of her flat
The Auntie Mabels of Strataland can sleep a little more soundly. For all the huffing and puffing about forced sales of apartments, the big bad wolves of property development won’t…
How to choose a new strata manager
That old saying of “better the devil you know” rarely applies more than in your choice of strata managers. But if, like one Flat Chat reader, your strata manager’s contract…
Why poor areas will miss out on urban renewal
Owners of units in crumbling apartment blocks in poorer areas of Sydney may be stuck with them indefinitely, according to a new report, while their better-off counterparts in in more…
High Rise: When fiction was a prediction
Imagine a 40-storey high-rise building beset by all the usual minor irritations – noisy parties, petty rules and restrictions, privileges for the rich on the upper floors, the occasional champagne…
Funny you should say that …
On the subject of the incredible and, let’s face it, stupid things people do in apartments, our old friend Stephen Raff has compiled a book of funny stories collected from…
Cellar dwellers undermine strata laws
Just when we thought we had read everything, along come two owners who have illegally created cellars under their units. They have cut holes in their floors, removed soil and…
10 dumb reasons for refusing a dog
This column first appeared in Domain. You can read all the original posts and responses HERE. When the strata reforms come into force next year, instead of the rule that…
Return of the dodgy developer
Just when we started to believe property developers could be trusted, writes Jimmy Thomson, the grubbier, greedier figures lurking in the shadows of the industry have been exposed. When NSW…