Renters: Too good

QUESTION: My problem isn’t that my flatmate is bad … she’s too good. She went through a tough time recently but she was helped by  a church group and now…

No control

Many strata owners complain that their neighbours have too much control over their lives … then you get someone who feels there’s way too little. QUESTION: My owners corporation is…

Falling down on safety

Are there really 8000 unstable balconies in Australia?  Could there be even more? After a wooden balcony packed with young people gave way during a party at a house in…

RENTERS – Insurance

Just because you rent your home doesn’t mean you don’t own nice things that are valuable and difficult to replace.  But what happens when something goes wrong? QUESTION: Please settle…

Contract con trick

A professional strata titles surveyor wrote to me last week saying he was checking a sales contract from a well-known developer when he noticed a clause that has a strong…

Renters – In a squeeze

We spoke a couple of weeks ago about proposed new tenancy laws that among other things, may allow sub-lets without owners’ approval* . One critic, manager of a major apartment…

Knocking their blocks off

The question of what to do about old, crumbling apartment blocks standing where new, larger and more efficient apartment blocks might be built is an increasingly urgent issue. Demand on…

Renters – Sticky beaks

QUESTION:  Our landlords are nice enough people but they live in the apartment above ours and they are always “popping down” for a chat or, even worse, peering over the…

Double trouble

A lot of strata owners just get on with living and trying to be good neighbours, regardless of what the by-laws say.  But then somebody wants to sell and the…

Rising Damp

There was a TV sitcom in the 70s, starring the comic genius Leonard Rossiter and Richard Beckinsale (actress Kate’s dad), called Rising Damp –  and that’s the only time you…